i shall continue on the kiss thread for a while, if i may (and indeed i may); after all,_both_ of this blog's regular readers (at least to the degree that regular readership is assessed via comments posted) seemed amenable to this topic.
my first question is why was ace frehley the only one of the original kiss members who did not participate in the kiss 'collaboration' with the melbourne symphony orchestra a few years back? ('rock and roll over, beethoven') he was replaced by tommy thayer whom i believe was foremrly involved with the band in some managerial capacity. heck, the band even got peter criss back, as chubby & greying as he was, for this event. methinks there must have been some substantial falling out between ace and 'the band' (or paul & gene, at least).
indeed, i read again the sleeve notes on my 'double platinum' cd and these mention that by 1978 both ace & peter were very disillusioned with the direction in which the band was then heading and the associated frenzy of touring, publicity, etc. this despite no less than three kiss albums surpassing the million-sales mark over the previous year. in fact, according to the sleeve, the concept of the solo albums was some form of managerial suggestion/compromise to give ace and/or peter a bit of creative license in their own right & thus convince them to stick with kiss.
frehley's rather funky 'new york groove' single from his own solo album was quite a departure from the more - ermm - 'straightforward', driving (and at times explosive) rock sound which kiss were perpetuating at the time. indeed if you look at songwriting credits across the 20 or so track on 'double platinum', ace is credited only with 'cold gin' (from the band's self-titled debut album: 'it's time to leave and get another quart / around the corner at the liquor store / haha, the cheapest stuff is all I need / to get me back on my feet again') and with the instrumental 'rock bottom intro', of which only 52 seconds was included on 'double platinum'.
on this compilation, criss is credited only as co-writer of the soppy ballad 'beth' ('me and the boys will be playin all night' - cue melancholic refrain). otherwise all tracks on 'double platinum' were written/co-written by stnaley and/or simmons. this factor probably provides a strong clue as to one primary reason behind frehley's and criss' disillusionment with the kiss phenomenon by 1978...
one correction to my last post - double platinum contains tracks from kiss' first six (not five) studio albums, the sixth being 'love gun' from which a line from the title track was quoted. i don't need to tell kiss afficianados that the others, in chronological order, were: kiss, hotter than hell, dressed to kill, destroyer, rock and roll over.
~
my first question is why was ace frehley the only one of the original kiss members who did not participate in the kiss 'collaboration' with the melbourne symphony orchestra a few years back? ('rock and roll over, beethoven') he was replaced by tommy thayer whom i believe was foremrly involved with the band in some managerial capacity. heck, the band even got peter criss back, as chubby & greying as he was, for this event. methinks there must have been some substantial falling out between ace and 'the band' (or paul & gene, at least).
indeed, i read again the sleeve notes on my 'double platinum' cd and these mention that by 1978 both ace & peter were very disillusioned with the direction in which the band was then heading and the associated frenzy of touring, publicity, etc. this despite no less than three kiss albums surpassing the million-sales mark over the previous year. in fact, according to the sleeve, the concept of the solo albums was some form of managerial suggestion/compromise to give ace and/or peter a bit of creative license in their own right & thus convince them to stick with kiss.
frehley's rather funky 'new york groove' single from his own solo album was quite a departure from the more - ermm - 'straightforward', driving (and at times explosive) rock sound which kiss were perpetuating at the time. indeed if you look at songwriting credits across the 20 or so track on 'double platinum', ace is credited only with 'cold gin' (from the band's self-titled debut album: 'it's time to leave and get another quart / around the corner at the liquor store / haha, the cheapest stuff is all I need / to get me back on my feet again') and with the instrumental 'rock bottom intro', of which only 52 seconds was included on 'double platinum'.
on this compilation, criss is credited only as co-writer of the soppy ballad 'beth' ('me and the boys will be playin all night' - cue melancholic refrain). otherwise all tracks on 'double platinum' were written/co-written by stnaley and/or simmons. this factor probably provides a strong clue as to one primary reason behind frehley's and criss' disillusionment with the kiss phenomenon by 1978...
one correction to my last post - double platinum contains tracks from kiss' first six (not five) studio albums, the sixth being 'love gun' from which a line from the title track was quoted. i don't need to tell kiss afficianados that the others, in chronological order, were: kiss, hotter than hell, dressed to kill, destroyer, rock and roll over.
~
posted by fergal at 3:52 PM
1 Comments:
you go, son.
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