OT: The Music Thread Part 7

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The 80s were arguably the best decade of music for KISS. It has some of their most catchy songwriting, has some of the best musicianship they ever had, and the band didn't need to resort to the face paint or burying Ace and Peter to stay relevant. Just good music, albeit with a smidge of drama. Shame the good times couldn't last with the Kulick, Carr, Stanley, and Simmons line up. *sigh*


I was around for 70s KISS.

Not my thing, but credit where due.

They made a lot of money.

Again, agree to disagree, but Simmons is an obnoxious fool and Stanley isn't far behind.

Two cents.
 
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I was around for 70s KISS.

Not my thing, but credit where due.

They made a lot of money.

Again, agree to disagree, but Simmons is an obnoxious fool and Stanley isn't far behind.

Two cents.

There were two freshmen in my dorm at UCONN (1973) that were big KISS fans.

They were roommates. Didn't have many visitors coming to their room to listen.

Van Halen

Runnin' With The Devil


Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love


And The Cradle Will Rock


First KISS and now this?
 
I was around for 70s KISS.

Not my thing, but credit where due.

They made a lot of money.

Again, agree to disagree, but Simmons is an obnoxious fool and Stanley isn't far behind.

Two cents.

I'd argue that Stanley is worse than Simmons. Man continues to attack all his band mates, even Gene at this point, and never wants to take a look in the mirror to see what the real problem with the band is.
 
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I have a strange relationship with that kind of 70s/80s rock/hair metal, because when I was like 13 and old enough to start buying my own CDs and figured out how to use Limewire and Kazaa, I went through a phase where I listened to a lot of that stuff, then my tastes moved on to other things and I couldn't help but consider KISS, Motley Crue, Poison, etc. as cringy and cheesy. Only in recent years can I go back and hear those songs again and appreciate that some of them are decent in terms of pop-oriented music masquerading as rock. Like when Eddie Van Halen died I went back and listened to most of their albums again after not having really listened to them in any depth about 15-20 years, and I was impressed at how it all held up and was getting into it again.

In the end, I think it's a genre that I'm kind of past and wouldn't really seek out, but if it comes on the radio I can appreciate the tunes without feeling the cringe factor I had for a while.

Music tastes are interesting, because you'd think it would be an objective kind of thing like "X sounds good to my ear, Y sounds bad", but there's way more social trappings around it - especially when you're an impressionable teenager. It's as much a social construction as a hard-wired auditory thing. You shy away from some bands or genres because there's a stigma against it in your social group (let's admit it, nsync and backstreet boys put out some tremendous pop jams but you couldn't say that on the schoolyard in the late 90s or they'd question your masculinity and sexual preferences), and attach yourself to other ones for clout even if you don't actually like them. I bought Led Zeppelin albums when I was 15 because you're supposed to because they're the most respected band in the whole hard rock community and such. I like a few of their songs, but overall, I don't really care for them and more of it was just unpleasant droning blues rock with convoluted Tolkien references in the lyrics and I didn't really like listening to them. Same with Rush, I get they're all geniuses trained in advanced music theory but aside from a couple songs it doesn't appeal to me. But you're expected to like those kinds of bands if you're a "real" rock fan, etc.

All I know in this stage in life is that my music tastes shift every 4-5 years or so. Like I'll devour some subgenre in full and move on to the next thing, while occasionally going back to them for spells and generally falling back on 80s/90s pop as a default that I always like. And I don't speak in absolutes. For example, I've never been a country fan, but that doesn't mean there aren't some country songs that I think are catchy, etc.
 
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I'd argue that Stanley is worse than Simmons. Man continues to attack all his band mates, even Gene at this point, and never wants to take a look in the mirror to see what the real problem with the band is.

What's the real problem with the band? That those two are flaming assholes?

Now, I realize you dig the music and I don't mean to be a jerk (the ship has sailed on that), but you have to admit...

Ace gets his revenge,





 
What's the real problem with the band? That those two are flaming assholes?

Now, I realize you dig the music and I don't mean to be a jerk (the ship has sailed on that), but you have to admit...

Ace gets his revenge,






I watched the first half of that interview, Ace is incredibly charming and lively while Gene is sitting there with a scowl on his face the whole time.

Ace got a good deal though. If I remember correctly he got kicked out of the band but contractually remained a 25% partner in KISS so he received a quarter share of profits from their albums and merchandise sales through the 80s anyway.

It really seems like Gene and Paul were sour over the fact that Ace's album was by far the best received and best selling of their 4 solo album experiment.
 
I watched the first half of that interview, Ace is incredibly charming and lively while Gene is sitting there with a scowl on his face the whole time.

Ace got a good deal though. If I remember correctly he got kicked out of the band but contractually remained a 25% partner in KISS so he received a quarter share of profits from their albums and merchandise sales through the 80s anyway.

It really seems like Gene and Paul were sour over the fact that Ace's album was by far the best received and best selling of their 4 solo album experiment.
Was that the case?

I remember those albums, I never listen to any of them, but the song Beth, which I thought was Peter Criss was a radio hit, no?
 
Incidently, I'm not a Kiss fan. However, I did run into Ace in a punk rock shop down in St. Marks Place in NYC in the late 80s. While waiting for the cashier, he spotted a Kiss belt buckle in the display case. I was behind him and he turned to me and said "Oh look. Do you think I should buy it?", then chuckled. He seemed like a pretty chill guy.
 
What's the real problem with the band? That those two are flaming assholes?

Now, I realize you dig the music and I don't mean to be a jerk (the ship has sailed on that), but you have to admit...

Ace gets his revenge,







I do admit that Ace was talented and that Gene isn't someone that's innocent in the problems of the band. It's why I can never call myself a KISS fan.
 
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Incidently, I'm not a Kiss fan. However, I did run into Ace in a punk rock shop down in St. Marks Place in NYC in the late 80s. While waiting for the cashier, he spotted a Kiss belt buckle in the display case. I was behind him and he turned to me and said "Oh look. Do you think I should buy it?", then chuckled. He seemed like a pretty chill guy.

Ace is a cool dude. Always chill and never seemed to have an ego problem. He just wanted to go on stage and make money doing what he loved.
 
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It really seems like Gene and Paul were sour over the fact that Ace's album was by far the best received and best selling of their 4 solo album experiment.

That was a biiiiig part of it. Especially for Paul. Gene felt the same way, but Paul clearly was irked that Ace stole the spotlight from him as the more popular guitarist in the band. You want to know how much of a bitter and insecure person Paul is, look at how he treated Ace's replacement Vinnie Vincent.
 
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That was a biiiiig part of it. Especially for Paul. Gene felt the same way, but Paul clearly was irked that Ace stole the spotlight from him as the more popular guitarist in the band. You want to know how much of a bitter and insecure person Paul is, look at how he treated Ace's replacement Vinnie Vincent.

Once Ace was out of the act it stopped being a democratic 4-man band and was just the Simmons-Stanley partnership where they treated the other members as session players.

Everything I've ever read portrays Eric Carr as the nicest guy on the planet who didn't want to rock the boat in any way, but when they got new guitarists who had their own ideas for songs or the way they should play or perform, Paul and Gene pulled rank and shut them down. It drove out Vinnie Vincent and Mark St. John very quick. I feel bad for Bruce Kulick too because he played the good soldier and contributed for over a decade, then when the band put on the makeup and went on the reunion tour with Ace and Peter, he got sidelined, but when Ace eventually left again, instead of inviting him back they go and hire a different guitarist. Though according to wikipedia Kiss was still paying Kulick and Singer a salary to stay home while they toured with Ace and Peter.

It's funny, I'm not even that big a fan of Kiss, but something about their story and all the backstage drama is really compelling.
 
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