KISS - KISS (first album) POLL

I left out "Kissin' Time" by mistake.

Black Diamond forever

It is kind of a tough one, but some of these are better on Alive.

Strutter
Duece
Cold Gin
100000 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.

I know most of them from teenage memories of Alive 100,000 years ago. "Deuce" or "Strutter."

Cold Gin forever x 1000

that intro with the great riff + then the cymbals coming in. is so satisying to me, i fucking love it

yeah it's Black Diamond. any good musical ideas they had are on this album.

Voted for 100,000 Years. Love Ace’s solo on that one.

Two of their only good songs are on this album.

Cold Gin

That had the best intro when I saw them live

Cold Gin

That had the best intro when I saw them live

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.

I think all you "Cold Gin" people have been talking to somebody backstage.

“love theme” is so weirdly pointless. Those guitar harmonies are kinda nice though?

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.

Voted for 100,000 Years. Love Ace’s solo on that one.

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.

...though I guess the Late Great Johnny beat him to it.

Black Diamond for the Mats.

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…

There are quite a few of us on here.

I'd have to go with "Strutter," anyway. It's one of their signature songs.

I love Kiss too :)

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.

I'm surprised Frehley (and Stanley!) considers "Shock Me" his best song. Generic as they come:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iauaDVVPGW8

I was always partial to "New York Groove," which tbh was the only thing salvageable from the debacle of the solo albums.

"Shock Me" is a fan favorite too and I was surprised when I bought Love Gun how bland the song is.

It was ranked #50 in Guitar World magazine's "100 Greatest Guitar Solos Ever".

Well, then.

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

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.

The concept of KISS was always cooler than the execution.

I still get a huge rush out of stuff like "Detroit Rock City," though.

And Gene is a funny mf.

voting for Strutter

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.

Parasite is probably the best Ace-penned KISS song after Cold Gin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE57_s0acvI

does Ace own a pen

I'm starting to get the feeling you don't like Kiss!

they weren't heavy enough!

They're not Black Sabbath, they're painted Raspberries.

Agree that they're basically power-pop at their best. And on my favourite, "King of the Night Time World," they add jangle.

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?

It's all explained in the long intro patter on Alive.

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.

Obvious poll: "Cold Gin" vs. "Gin and Juice." (Sorry, Army--"Gin and Juice" by a mile.)

Ace otm

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.

agree with Darin re Parasite
so good!!

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.

the “messages” from each member inside the gatefold are disturbing

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

"Game of Pricks" is so epic it transcends any arrangement, but yeah the others are seriously diminished.

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.

I heard "New York Groove" for the first time a year ago and I thought it was terrible!!

:(

see I think this from hotter than hell is a nice stoned cruising in Camaro thing, weirdass guitar tone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4TumWX0UxI

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

AWRITE!

(In strict terms the phrasing should always be “AWRITE now LISSEN.”

Was all prepped to vote "Kissin' Time" :(

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.

I still have no idea what "He's worth a deuce" means. I assume it refers to some sexual act, but what?

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.

xpost I think you know what it means

The meaning is not as clear as that of, say, "Nothin' to Lose."

out on the streets for a livin!

If you’re ever feeling really shitty it sort of “helps” to watch several live “black diamond” videos on YouTube in a row

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.