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You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

Strutter

1 votes

Detroit Rock City

2 votes

Rock n Roll All Nite

4 votes

Deuce

2 votes

Shout It Out Loud

2 votes

Beth

1 votes

Love Gun

0 votes

Hard Luck Woman

1 votes

Do You Love Me

0 votes

Hotter Than Hell

0 votes

Christine Sixteen

1 votes

God of Thunder

0 votes

Other (specify)

1 votes

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 20 2010 10:31 AM

Sorry. But today the Desert Island Mix Tape requires you to select a single song from those fire-breathing gods of thunder for inclusion on the soundtrack of your eternity of solitude. These selections (and your too, if you please) are exclusively from KISS's pre-unmasked era and cut with the original four. Please use this opportunity to contemplate what if any merits this group had as songwriters, as well as the rest of it. Strutter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbiFkS4XwG8 Detroit Rock City http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZq3i94mSsQ Rock n Roll All Nite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=896qY01zCUU Deuce http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFaLrQbcZbk Shout It Out Loud http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16cEJ-CBejA Beth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KASC5GG3pYA Love Gun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frGmf3hx8CE Hard Luck Woman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOtK_PiCesA Do You Love Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo2BsqTvxEM Hotter Than Hell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub04RvbvOIM I Stole Your Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXvXbvIZgcw Christine Sixteen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMlVZ6RDets God of Thunder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb7ZzDhJY10

Edgy DC Aug 20 2010 11:23 AM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

"Black Diamond," I think. But I'll chew some more on it.

TransMonk Aug 20 2010 11:36 AM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

I would agree with DC on Black Diamond, but I prefer The Replacements' version. Rock 'N' Roll All Nite is my final choice.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Aug 20 2010 11:42 AM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

Em. I dunno. It's decent enough candy. I never really find myself annoyed by a Kiss song, but I never find myself craving one especially. Even the stuff of theirs I dig seems like well-developed demo versions of stuff that was done better (whether before them or after them) by others: T. Rex perfected the glam cool of "Strutter," Sweet and its ilk nailed "Rock and Roll All Night" and the like, and Van Halen, Metallica and Motorhead mined much more muscular but similarly hooky turf a few years on. In my mind, they're like great utility players with fantastic marketing, I suppose. I can go for "Detroit Rock City," I guess.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 20 2010 11:52 AM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

That's a good description: OK players, great gimmick. I went with Strutter because it was the first song on their first album and they still had to introduce themselves to the world, so you know they were trying: I don't think even by 'Love Gun' that they were anymore. The vocals come off as very CAHNfident for a first effort. They were trying to sound like loud city kids doing the Beatles.

Fman99 Aug 20 2010 01:02 PM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

Went with "Deuce," as much as any other Kiss song, I especially liked the Lenny Kravitz (with Stevie Wonder on harmonica!) cover that's on an early 90's Kiss tribute album. For the ugly Kiss, post-makeup, I'd go with their cover of the Argent 1973 classic "God Gave Rock n Roll to You." I love that song.

seawolf17 Aug 20 2010 01:09 PM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

Fman99 wrote: For the ugly Kiss, post-makeup, I'd go with their cover of the Argent 1973 classic "God Gave Rock n Roll to You." I love that song. That was a cover? That was released at the perfect time for it to become one of my favorite songs. Still love it.

metirish Aug 20 2010 04:13 PM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

Voted for Detroit Rock City, great guitar hooks, the opening bars especially , the the singing comes and it all falls asunder. I hated his singing.

G-Fafif Aug 20 2010 04:18 PM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

Gotta be "Shout It Out Loud" if just to get an overhead sea plane to hear you.

cooby Aug 20 2010 06:55 PM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

I liked Christine Sixteen best.

metsguyinmichigan Aug 20 2010 08:08 PM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

I confess that I love Kiss. I know they're goofy and all. My first concert was the Dynasty Tour at Madison Square Garden, and I saw the opener of the reunion tour at Tiger Stadium. The best was when they did a convention tour, a full day of Kiss with a touring museum, a Q&A with the band and an acoustic set. Great stuff! It's neat that the Tigers take the field to "Detroit Rock City."

MFS62 Aug 20 2010 08:28 PM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

Beth - its my daughter's name. Other than that, I wouldn't even let Gene Simmons lick my cat's litter box clean. Later

Edgy DC Aug 20 2010 09:39 PM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

You don't have to let him. He can do it from the outside. Stick his tongue through the mail slot or something. Let me ask those of you with more hard rock stripes than myself, have those records been successfully remastered? I mean you try and blame the sound on those records to them being 30-35 years old, but you hear other hard rock from the seventies, and it still sounds vital. Then you put on a Kiss record --- get my Kiss records out! --- and it's like it's been engineered by a guy reading the manual to the board as he goes. The playing isn't much, but they hit their marks, the hooks are there, the arrangements are clever, but the resonance is just... it sounds filtered out. As was said above, some of these positively sound like demos. Compared to something produced by Glyn Johns or Todd Rundgren or Jimmy Page, it's just not in the same city, let alone the same ballpark. And if those were the hard rock records whose rotations they were trying to crack, well, no wonder they were more successful as a live act than as a radio act. But there's at least two testimonials above as to liking these songs as covers more than the originals. Clearly there's some good stupid in there. So I ask again, has anybody tried to remaster those albums? And how did they come out?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 20 2010 09:53 PM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

I know they re-recorded Strutter for the "Double Platinum" compilation, calling it "Strutter '78" but I didn't know either version well enough to say they made a difference then. Plus, we (rather, my brother) played it on one of those plastic Disney record players for kids, it's not like sound quality mattered so much to us back then, or probnably to KISS's main audience, who were mostly, like 12 years old. But it's a great point, ALIVE! really did provide better sounding versions of almost all of their early 3 records and DESTROYER is noted for their having a strong producer at the helm for the first time and the difference is palpable. They were signed to a disco label, Casablanca, maybe that made a difference. I also stand by my point that they more or less stopped trying after Destoyer, at least to make good music, everything was very calculated and extremely artificial in their post-phenomenon career.

Willets Point Aug 20 2010 10:07 PM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

I remember KISS vaguely from my childhood as their funny makeup made there image somewhat ubiquitous, but I honestly don't know any of their music.

The Second Spitter Aug 20 2010 10:47 PM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

I wouldn't take it to a desert island, but "Hard Luck Women" is a very underrated song. When I was younger (pre-internet) I always believed the lyric "Rags" was actually "Beth". Don't ask me why. Currently a four-way tie at the top.

Edgy DC Aug 20 2010 10:50 PM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

Five-way, as we have two write-ins for "Black Diamond."

metsguyinmichigan Aug 21 2010 11:36 AM Re: You wanted the best, you got stranded on a desert island

Most of the catalog was remastered around 1997 after the reunion tour. There were new liner notes Robert Conte, and the sound was a little better. They also restored the intended song order on "The Elder." Guess I didn't notice much of a sound difference. I liked those old versions. The new CD, "Sonic Boom," comes with a disc of classic songs re-recorded. Good stuff.