It is kind of a tough one, but some of these are better on Alive.
StrutterDueceCold Gin100000 Years “It must have been a bitch while I was gone”Black Diamond
One of these days it might be fun to do a classic Gene best of poll. It would be nice be the heaviest play list.
― The Artist formerly known as Earlnash, Sunday, 28 April 2024 16:13 (one month ago) link
I know most of them from teenage memories of Alive 100,000 years ago. "Deuce" or "Strutter."
― clemenza, Sunday, 28 April 2024 19:57 (one month ago) link
Cold Gin forever x 1000that intro with the great riff + then the cymbals coming in. is so satisying to me, i fucking love it
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 28 April 2024 21:42 (one month ago) link
yeah it's Black Diamond. any good musical ideas they had are on this album.
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 28 April 2024 21:46 (one month ago) link
Voted for 100,000 Years. Love Ace’s solo on that one.
― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Sunday, 28 April 2024 23:36 (one month ago) link
Two of their only good songs are on this album.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 28 April 2024 23:37 (one month ago) link
Cold Gin
That had the best intro when I saw them live
― Never fight uphill 'o me, boys! (President Keyes), Monday, 29 April 2024 01:06 (one month ago) link
Cold Gin, all the way. Ace's riff, Gene's sleazy vocals, it's everything that's great about 74-75 Kiss. You can't go wrong with this album, though. It and Hotter Than Hell are top-tier, always flip-flopping as my 1 and 2 picks for nest album.
I have a big soft spot for all the Wicked Lester leftovers like 100,000 Years, Deuce, etc. That was one weird band that wrote some really weird, greasy songs.
― A. Begrand, Monday, 29 April 2024 01:18 (one month ago) link
I think all you "Cold Gin" people have been talking to somebody backstage.
― clemenza, Monday, 29 April 2024 01:26 (one month ago) link
“love theme” is so weirdly pointless. Those guitar harmonies are kinda nice though?
― brimstead, Monday, 29 April 2024 01:32 (one month ago) link
My brother talks about staying up late to watch The Midnight Special with his friend, because they weren't sure if the band actually wore the make-up onstage instead of just on the LP cover.
some of these are better on Alive.
"Cold Gin" is. "Strutter", "Deuce" and "100,000 Years" are equally valid in both places, especially after I edited the latter's drum solo down to three seconds in length.
I swear the hammer-on thing he does over the descending bass line literally activates some omnipotent brain-pleasure chemical in me. Also, kudos to Mr. Frehley for first flying the asexual flag so many years ago.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 29 April 2024 02:29 (one month ago) link
...though I guess the Late Great Johnny beat him to it.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 29 April 2024 02:32 (one month ago) link
Black Diamond for the Mats.
― Psychocandy Apple Grey (Pyschocandles), Monday, 29 April 2024 06:14 (one month ago) link
obligatory mention that I love Kiss, the most lonely such affection on ILx. and on this record, I love "Kissin Time" the most: it is a bobby Rydell cover that Neil Bogart made them record four months after the album had produced no hits… the band doesn't like it and will only play it as a goof at informal no makeup shows on their Kiss Kruises, but I think its delightful…
― veronica moser, Monday, 29 April 2024 11:13 (one month ago) link
There are quite a few of us on here.
I'd have to go with "Strutter," anyway. It's one of their signature songs.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 29 April 2024 13:20 (one month ago) link
I love Kiss too :)
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 29 April 2024 14:41 (one month ago) link
My intro to KISS was "Alive," which I bought in . . . 1975? It was a shock to go back and hear the album versions of the same songs. They sounded anemic in comparison.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 29 April 2024 14:46 (one month ago) link
I'm surprised Frehley (and Stanley!) considers "Shock Me" his best song. Generic as they come:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iauaDVVPGW8
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 29 April 2024 14:56 (one month ago) link
I was always partial to "New York Groove," which tbh was the only thing salvageable from the debacle of the solo albums.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 29 April 2024 14:58 (one month ago) link
"Shock Me" is a fan favorite too and I was surprised when I bought Love Gun how bland the song is.
― ain't nothin but a brie thing, baby (Neanderthal), Monday, 29 April 2024 15:02 (one month ago) link
It was ranked #50 in Guitar World magazine's "100 Greatest Guitar Solos Ever".
Well, then.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 29 April 2024 15:04 (one month ago) link
scott bringing the otm from the Eagles listening thread re KISS:
they are soooooo deadly slow and plodding. and not in a cool doom metal slow and plodding way. and they weren't heavy enough! some good talented heavy band should do an album of kiss songs where everything is faster and heavier. i know people have covered a million kiss songs, but one actual good Kiss album with Kiss nowhere near the place would be cool. i always wished that someone would do that with guided by voices too. have a really good rock band with a good singer cover their best and catchiest songs. and i still want willie nelson to do an album of Dead covers. there is still time. would be his biggest album ever. and he could really do them great. i have a lot of ideas...
― scott seward, Friday, September 20, 2013
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 29 April 2024 15:06 (one month ago) link
god, give me a gig like this
Ace Frehley and Criss' contribution was used sparingly in the production of the album, with Criss playing drums only on "Into the Void". Criss stated in his book Makeup to Breakup: My Life in and Out of Kiss that Paul Stanley was so determined not to work with him and Frehley in the studio that they were paid $850,000 each not to participate in the recording.
― ain't nothin but a brie thing, baby (Neanderthal), Monday, 29 April 2024 15:07 (one month ago) link
The concept of KISS was always cooler than the execution.
I still get a huge rush out of stuff like "Detroit Rock City," though.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 29 April 2024 15:08 (one month ago) link
And Gene is a funny mf.
voting for Strutter
― ain't nothin but a brie thing, baby (Neanderthal), Monday, 29 April 2024 15:14 (one month ago) link
I always wished they sounded more like Montrose. Although they'd have needed a Ronnie Montrose for that, and they had Ace Frehley. Ditto Denny Carmassi/Peter Criss.
― a fatal dose of irony (Matt #2), Monday, 29 April 2024 15:16 (one month ago) link
Parasite is probably the best Ace-penned KISS song after Cold Gin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE57_s0acvI
― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Monday, 29 April 2024 16:01 (one month ago) link
does Ace own a pen
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 29 April 2024 16:05 (one month ago) link
I'm starting to get the feeling you don't like Kiss!
― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Monday, 29 April 2024 16:06 (one month ago) link
they weren't heavy enough!
They're not Black Sabbath, they're painted Raspberries.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 29 April 2024 16:07 (one month ago) link
Agree that they're basically power-pop at their best. And on my favourite, "King of the Night Time World," they add jangle.
― clemenza, Monday, 29 April 2024 16:09 (one month ago) link
When they say that cold gin is the only thing that keeps us together, who is us?
- the band?- the informal collective of gin drinkers/alcoholics?- the members of a romantic relationship?- all of the above?
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 29 April 2024 16:11 (one month ago) link
It's all explained in the long intro patter on Alive.
― clemenza, Monday, 29 April 2024 16:12 (one month ago) link
To truly understand the interconnection of the listener and protagonist of Cold Gin one must ask themselves if they understand the pleasures of vodka and aaaaange juice.
― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Monday, 29 April 2024 16:15 (one month ago) link
Obvious poll: "Cold Gin" vs. "Gin and Juice." (Sorry, Army--"Gin and Juice" by a mile.)
― clemenza, Monday, 29 April 2024 16:30 (one month ago) link
Ace otm
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 29 April 2024 17:22 (one month ago) link
the long intro patter on Alive
It's touching that Paul Stanley had the humility to set the scene at such length before a song he neither wrote nor sang.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 29 April 2024 17:36 (one month ago) link
agree with Darin re Parasite so good!!
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 29 April 2024 17:38 (one month ago) link
The Alive stage patter, every last word, is really and truly one of the holy grails of the '70s. As is the photo of the two guys on the back cover.
― clemenza, Monday, 29 April 2024 18:03 (one month ago) link
the “messages” from each member inside the gatefold are disturbing
― brimstead, Monday, 29 April 2024 18:05 (one month ago) link
That's all of the original line-up of the Moody Blues dead now.
scott bringing the otm from the Eagles listening thread re KISS:they are soooooo deadly slow and plodding. and not in a cool doom metal slow and plodding way. and they weren't heavy enough! some good talented heavy band should do an album of kiss songs where everything is faster and heavier. i know people have covered a million kiss songs, but one actual good Kiss album with Kiss nowhere near the place would be cool. i always wished that someone would do that with guided by voices too. have a really good rock band with a good singer cover their best and catchiest songs. and i still want willie nelson to do an album of Dead covers. there is still time. would be his biggest album ever. and he could really do them great. i have a lot of ideas...― scott seward, Friday, September 20, 2013
― brimstead, Tuesday, 30 April 2024 00:18 (one month ago) link
"Game of Pricks" is so epic it transcends any arrangement, but yeah the others are seriously diminished.
― assert (matttkkkk), Tuesday, 30 April 2024 01:19 (one month ago) link
one of the things I love about the first Kiss record is how cool it is despite the sonics being so borderline unpleasant. Like this is NOT a “close-listening big headphones” record. This is a “play indoors on a hifi with a window open while you wash your car outside.” Like at times it seriously sounds like it was recorded in the empty studio down the hall from the ACTUAL studio where the band is playing lol But then I guess Misfits & heaps of other stuff is like that too.
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 30 April 2024 01:26 (one month ago) link
I heard "New York Groove" for the first time a year ago and I thought it was terrible!!
― c u (crüt), Tuesday, 30 April 2024 02:00 (one month ago) link
:(
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 30 April 2024 02:07 (one month ago) link
see I think this from hotter than hell is a nice stoned cruising in Camaro thing, weirdass guitar tonehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4TumWX0UxI
― brimstead, Tuesday, 30 April 2024 03:09 (one month ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 6 May 2024 00:01 (one month ago) link
AWRITE!(In strict terms the phrasing should always be “AWRITE now LISSEN.”
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 6 May 2024 01:27 (one month ago) link
Was all prepped to vote "Kissin' Time" :(
― Hongro Hongro Hippies (Myonga Vön Bontee), Monday, 6 May 2024 01:30 (one month ago) link
The discogs page I was using didn't include Kissin' Time because it wasn't on the first pressing. It's an OK song but it doesn't fit in on the album.
IMO, the only song that feels stiff compared to the live versions is Cold Gin.
― adam t. (abanana), Monday, 6 May 2024 15:42 (one month ago) link
I still have no idea what "He's worth a deuce" means. I assume it refers to some sexual act, but what?
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 6 May 2024 18:37 (one month ago) link
Apparently Gene Simmons didn’t know either, he’s said something to that effect. “Deuce” gets my vote here, it’s just a fun riff.
― Josefa, Monday, 6 May 2024 18:47 (one month ago) link
xpost I think you know what it means
― RICH BRIAN (Neanderthal), Monday, 6 May 2024 18:51 (one month ago) link
The meaning is not as clear as that of, say, "Nothin' to Lose."
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 6 May 2024 18:52 (one month ago) link
out on the streets for a livin!
― the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Monday, 6 May 2024 19:02 (one month ago) link
If you’re ever feeling really shitty it sort of “helps” to watch several live “black diamond” videos on YouTube in a row
― brimstead, Monday, 6 May 2024 19:39 (one month ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 7 May 2024 00:01 (one month ago) link