The KISS thread

General music discussion.
matedog
User avatar
Purveyor of Hoyistic Thought
Posts: 25804
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 4:07pm
Location: 1995

Re: The KISS thread

Post by matedog »

God damn, I listen to so much KISS on Fridays. It kinda brings down my day.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

Dr. Medulla
User avatar
Atheistic Epileptic
Posts: 115992
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
Location: Straight Banana, Idaho

Re: The KISS thread

Post by Dr. Medulla »

matedog wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:16pm
God damn, I listen to so much KISS on Fridays. It kinda brings down my day.
Given that Heston realized that after, like, four songs, he couldn't do a KISS Song of the Day, your efforts have been admirable, especially taking into account the psychological damage.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

matedog
User avatar
Purveyor of Hoyistic Thought
Posts: 25804
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 4:07pm
Location: 1995

Re: The KISS thread

Post by matedog »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:30pm
matedog wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:16pm
God damn, I listen to so much KISS on Fridays. It kinda brings down my day.
Given that Heston realized that after, like, four songs, he couldn't do a KISS Song of the Day, your efforts have been admirable, especially taking into account the psychological damage.
I'm mostly proud you and I have refocused this thread on their 80s and 90s output. :cool:
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

Dr. Medulla
User avatar
Atheistic Epileptic
Posts: 115992
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
Location: Straight Banana, Idaho

Re: The KISS thread

Post by Dr. Medulla »

matedog wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:44pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:30pm
matedog wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:16pm
God damn, I listen to so much KISS on Fridays. It kinda brings down my day.
Given that Heston realized that after, like, four songs, he couldn't do a KISS Song of the Day, your efforts have been admirable, especially taking into account the psychological damage.
I'm mostly proud you and I have refocused this thread on their 80s and 90s output. :cool:
Heston should be especially appreciative because it makes the 70s stuff seem less like runny dogshit in comparison.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

matedog
User avatar
Purveyor of Hoyistic Thought
Posts: 25804
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 4:07pm
Location: 1995

Re: The KISS thread

Post by matedog »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:46pm
matedog wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:44pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:30pm
matedog wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:16pm
God damn, I listen to so much KISS on Fridays. It kinda brings down my day.
Given that Heston realized that after, like, four songs, he couldn't do a KISS Song of the Day, your efforts have been admirable, especially taking into account the psychological damage.
I'm mostly proud you and I have refocused this thread on their 80s and 90s output. :cool:
Heston should be especially appreciative because it makes the 70s stuff seem less like runny dogshit in comparison.
True. I would not have appreciated Shandi if not for lowered expectations and standards.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

Dr. Medulla
User avatar
Atheistic Epileptic
Posts: 115992
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
Location: Straight Banana, Idaho

Re: The KISS thread

Post by Dr. Medulla »

matedog wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 2:41pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:46pm
matedog wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:44pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:30pm
matedog wrote:
17 Dec 2021, 1:16pm
God damn, I listen to so much KISS on Fridays. It kinda brings down my day.
Given that Heston realized that after, like, four songs, he couldn't do a KISS Song of the Day, your efforts have been admirable, especially taking into account the psychological damage.
I'm mostly proud you and I have refocused this thread on their 80s and 90s output. :cool:
Heston should be especially appreciative because it makes the 70s stuff seem less like runny dogshit in comparison.
True. I would not have appreciated Shandi if not for lowered expectations and standards.
Why … why … why …? :ohboy:
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

matedog
User avatar
Purveyor of Hoyistic Thought
Posts: 25804
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 4:07pm
Location: 1995

Re: The KISS thread

Post by matedog »


Let's Put the X in Sex

This was the lead single from their 1988 comp "Smashes, Thrashes, & Hits." I already covered the lyrically subtle "You Make Me Rock Hard" and this one is in a similar vein.

Lyrics: Paul gets a letter from a secret admirer with a surely sexy photo but it reminds him of someone else - an ex? It's not clear. He goes straight into the chorus where he is propositioning...someone? Either the secret admirer or the ex/other that looks like the secret admirer. "Love's like a muscle and you make me wanna flex" - I think he's talking about getting a boner. Second verse is more of the same. There's a sweet resolution when you find out the secret admirer was in fact the ex/other he was thinking about. Quite the plot twist from Mr. Stanley! And "Let's put the X in sex" is really dumb, but I can't help but like it. It doesn't make any sense but it totally makes sense.

Music: I paused my analysis/review for a solid two hours where I tried to figure out where the verse riff came from. Unfortunately, I can't give Paul grief since ACDC's "Moneytalks" came out two years later. Shame on you Angus, though I'd rank AC/DC's song higher. Minor neat trick is the song/riff starts on the second beat of the measure, not the first and whenever it is featured, it cuts out to just drums and the riff. There's a horn section very reminiscent of the also Desmond Child penned "Dude Looks Like a Lady" so I think that's the hit they were trying to mimic. The chorus isn't that catchy though, so the song doesn't really go anywhere.

Video: The video opens with a shot of a non-descript high rise office building. Those were all the rage in the 80s! I'm talking Die Hard and Wall Street. Then we see a bunch of pretty 80s ladies that I'm sure are going to get respect in...oh Paul is bending one of them over. Then there's a posse of them walking in sync, hopefully to demand better treatment. Nah, the posse isn't really seen for the rest of the video, though portions of them are. Paul forgot his damn guitar again. He seemed to want to be a pure front man from like 1988-1990. There's a very industrial/urban feel to the video, like something David Fincher was doing much more successfully at the time. Also Gene looks bored as shit throughout the entire video. I think he was just waiting for the filming to end so he could proposition the various extras. Seriously, this isn't a freeze frame mid blink, this is an extended shot:
Image

Song grade: C+ There are some good ideas in there, but it just never really comes together to be a memorable or "good" song.
Video grade: C- Drab and aimless. Give me the energy of Rise To It over "sexy girls" any day.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

Dr. Medulla
User avatar
Atheistic Epileptic
Posts: 115992
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
Location: Straight Banana, Idaho

Re: The KISS thread

Post by Dr. Medulla »

This stuff makes 70s KISS seem … not as shitty.

A speculation: If Nirvana doesn't go big, does KISS leap headfirst into the nostalgia circuit? It's conventional wisdom that grunge/alt killed hair metal, and KISS did seem to be winding shit up in the early 90s, playing more KISS conventions and the like than being a proper band. If hair metal were still viable, would they keep at a formula that worked, which was always paramount to Paul and Gene's corporate strategy?
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

matedog
User avatar
Purveyor of Hoyistic Thought
Posts: 25804
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 4:07pm
Location: 1995

Re: The KISS thread

Post by matedog »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
27 Dec 2021, 5:22pm
This stuff makes 70s KISS seem … not as shitty.

A speculation: If Nirvana doesn't go big, does KISS leap headfirst into the nostalgia circuit? It's conventional wisdom that grunge/alt killed hair metal, and KISS did seem to be winding shit up in the early 90s, playing more KISS conventions and the like than being a proper band. If hair metal were still viable, would they keep at a formula that worked, which was always paramount to Paul and Gene's corporate strategy?
Yeah, I ventured into Revenge just slightly and it's very much what like Warrant did around the time to try to toughen up their sound/image. Gene gets back in the mix too. It's bad, but not in a pop fun way like the 80s stuff. Gene seems like a better singer though.


By the late 90s, the 70s were cool again and makeup KISS had a respect that their post-makeup career never had even if it wasn't that much better. I doubt they planned it, but having the makeup nostalgia to fall back on was a great career move even if "Psycho Circus" wasn't anything different artistically.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

Dr. Medulla
User avatar
Atheistic Epileptic
Posts: 115992
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
Location: Straight Banana, Idaho

Re: The KISS thread

Post by Dr. Medulla »

matedog wrote:
27 Dec 2021, 5:33pm
By the late 90s, the 70s were cool again and makeup KISS had a respect that their post-makeup career never had even if it wasn't that much better. I doubt they planned it, but having the makeup nostalgia to fall back on was a great career move even if "Psycho Circus" wasn't anything different artistically.
Market analysis would have shown that their original fanbase were now solidly in their 40s, an age where seeking out new music is often completely abandoned (especially when new music seemed to be mopey kids screaming about how much life sucks, or that crazy hip hop stuff about bitches and drugs and shooting cops). The age when you want classic rock, but your own kind of classic rock, from when you were young. Not for nothing that KISS and the Pistols did their big reunion tours in the same year—the old fans were mostly out of the game but had money to spend on memories of being young and relevant.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

matedog
User avatar
Purveyor of Hoyistic Thought
Posts: 25804
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 4:07pm
Location: 1995

Re: The KISS thread

Post by matedog »

Forgot to mention, this Friday's selection will be "Turn on The Night." Sounds sexy.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

Dr. Medulla
User avatar
Atheistic Epileptic
Posts: 115992
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
Location: Straight Banana, Idaho

Re: The KISS thread

Post by Dr. Medulla »

matedog wrote:
28 Dec 2021, 1:21pm
Forgot to mention, this Friday's selection will be "Turn on The Night." Sounds sexy.
Oozy, too.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Heston
User avatar
God of Thunder...and Rock 'n Roll
Posts: 38356
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 4:07pm
Location: North of Watford Junction

Re: The KISS thread

Post by Heston »

What is going on here?
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

Olaf
User avatar
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 7229
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:23pm
Location: Germanien

Re: The KISS thread

Post by Olaf »

Heston wrote:
30 Dec 2021, 11:01pm
What is going on here?
This is how Odysseus must have felt when he returned to Ithaca.
Who pfaffed the pfaff? Who got pfaffed tonight?

Dr. Medulla
User avatar
Atheistic Epileptic
Posts: 115992
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
Location: Straight Banana, Idaho

Re: The KISS thread

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Heston wrote:
30 Dec 2021, 11:01pm
What is going on here?
It's a KISS thread, started by a lunatic and modified into something less insane.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Post Reply