Poll

What is the Best KISS Album of All Time with the original lineup?

Wicked Lester (1972 - Pre-KISS)
0 (0%)
KISS (1974)
0 (0%)
Hotter Than Hell (1974)
0 (0%)
Dressed To Kill (1975)
0 (0%)
KISS Alive! (1975)
1 (50%)
Destroyer (1976)
1 (50%)
Rock And Roll Over (1976)
0 (0%)
Love Gun (1977)
0 (0%)
KISS Alive II (1977)
0 (0%)
Ace Frehley (1978)
0 (0%)
Gene Simmons (1978)
0 (0%)
Paul Stanley (1978)
0 (0%)
Peter Criss (1978)
0 (0%)
Dynasty (1979)
0 (0%)
Unmasked (1980)
0 (0%)
Psycho Circus (1998)
0 (0%)
Other
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 2

Author Topic: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography  (Read 10786 times)

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Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #15 on: September 10, 2011, 08:54:44 pm »
KISS (Ace Frehley) 1978




Ace Frehley Poster Insert




Of the 4 solos albums, I had absolutely no expectations for Ace Frehley's effort. Zero. Nada. Zilch. And that's only because up to this point he had only had lead vocals on 2, count 'em, 2 songs!!! Those songs of course being Shock Me and Rocket Ride.

Imagine my shock (pun intended) when I first played this. From day 1 and all the way up to today, it was/is heads and shoulders above the rest. I'll even go one step further and say that if the entire band of KISS had played on this one with the same results, THIS would get the honor for Best KISS Album Of All Time. They didn't, so it will have to settle for Best Solo Album honors instead.

Straight up this album f*cking rocks! From the opening song of Rip It Out to the closing notes of Fractured Mirror, it's a winner. The biggest hit of course was New York Groove which still kicks mucho ass to my ear, which was a cover version from the band Hello. Me love song long time.

It's just mind blowing that Ace had stage freight about singing for the longest time. This totally wiped it all away (pun intended). Even Gene Simmons (the one with the monumental ego and full of himself attitude about any and all things related to his namesake) has gone on record saying "Ace Frehley's solo album is the best of the bunch". If Gene can admit to THAT, there's something to be said about the quality of Ace's songwriting here.  This coming from Gene, who would be the first to tell you HE is the greatest songwriter of all time.

Fave Songs: All of 'em. But like before, I gotta give them all a shout out here (pun intended)  Rip It Out, Speedin' Back To My Baby, Snow Blind, Ozone, What's On Your Mind, New York Groove, I'm In Need Of Love, Wiped-Out and Fractured Mirror.

Fun fact: The reason for these solo albums was that during the filming of KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park, both Ace and Peter had made their intentions known they were qutting the band to pursue their own personal music career. They compromised and decided on these 4 solo disc. It didn't help as much as just prolong the inevitable.

Freebie trend continues with a Poster insert that is 1/4th of a larger poster that connects with the other 3 solo album posters ala a jigsaw puzzle. This was by far the best looking poster of the 4.

Album Cover kicks ass!!


Ace Frehley Music Videos





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Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #16 on: September 10, 2011, 10:09:02 pm »
KISS (The Best Of Solo Albums) 1979


Collector's Item





Back in the day, long before there was even a hint of Amazon, Internet, etc...I had to go to a local Record shop that specialized in Vinyl Imports and whatnot. This is where I manage to pick this one up along with a couple others. This is very rare as it was only released in Europe. I originally thought I scored a misprint on this when I saw the "f*cked up" KISS logo on the cover. Once I bought it I discovered that for obvious reasons the Double SS was changed to backward ZZ due to the connotation of what it meant to European countries.

As for the album, any song by Ace Frehley included here is a winner. But any with Peter Criss nulifies this. On top of that, they left off the best songs from Gene and Paul's solo albums. Go figure.
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Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #17 on: September 10, 2011, 10:11:30 pm »
KISS (Double Platinum) 1978





Double Platinum is a double LP Greatest Hits package that took all their hits and then....remixed the sh*t out of them. By remix I don't mean cleaning them up either. They added beats and all the bells and whistles that personified what "music" was back in the day...i.e....disco.

They even re-recorded Strutter as a disco song and renamed it Strutter '78. Sheesh. 

Some of the songs were drastically edited for whatever reason. Having said all the negative sh*t about this collection, it was the album where I heard of Rock And Roll All Nite first. To me I played the hell out of this one, so much so, that when I eventually picked up Dressed To Kill, I didn't like the original version of the song. It was only over time that I grew distatefull of these remixes compared to the original songs.

The interior of the album used the Solo album images all in sliver with an embossed FX, which was cool.
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Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #18 on: September 10, 2011, 10:18:56 pm »
KISS (Dynasty) 1979




Dynasty Poster Insert




Dynasty by all accounts should suck, especially after the opening song I Was Made For Lovin' You, a clear attempt at cashing in on the Disco craze to win over new fans. Um....it didn't work and in the process they lost a ton of members from the KISS Army. The song now is a huge hit during the set list, but I personally just can't listen to it anymore. They need to put that one to bed once and for all IMO.

What follows after this song is pretty damn good. Starting with Ace Frehley's cover version of The Rolling Stones song 2,000 Man, which gets the MVP award for the album.

Now it's time to explain why this album is included in the poll when I said that Love Gun was the last with the original members. By the time the band got around to recording Dynasty, a certain person was happily self medicating themself. I'm speaking of course about Peter Criss. He was so f*cked up which drastically affected his drumming that he was excused from the process. The only song he was allowed to play on was his own called Dirty Livin', which absolutely sucks btw.

His replacement would be Anton Fig. He would later go on to be a part of Paul Shaffer's band on The David Letterman Show, as well as eventually working with Ace Frehley on his post-KISS solo albums. But getting back to Anton. He was never given credit for his playing on the album and once again, KISS felt the need to pull a fast one on us by saying this was a "KISS" record when in fact it was not.  At the time, this is what I believe to be true. Such a little kid.

Also of note, Ace, after his monster success with his solo album, now got to sing 3 songs on the same KISS album. Unheard of at the time.

Fave Songs: 2,000 Man, Charisma, Magic Touch, Hard Times, X-Ray Eyes and Save Your Love

Freebie insert trend continues with a full size Dynasty wall poster. And the album cover still kicks ass IMO.

Dynasty Music Videos





« Last Edit: October 19, 2011, 11:14:42 am by Chiprocks1 »
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Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #19 on: September 10, 2011, 11:31:00 pm »
KISS (Unmasked) 1980




Unmasked Poster Insert




Oh dear God. This album is a total mess. Even Ace Frehley can't save this one. Their big "hit" Shandi from Unmasked just makes me cringe. Ugh. This album is included in the Poll for the same reason as Dynasty. Unlike that one, Peter Criss had no involvement with this one even though he is depicted on the album cover. He had already quit the band by the time the album came out. He did agree to do the music video to sell the idea the band was still intact.

Lies!!!!!!!!!!

Once again the band enlisted Anton Fig to do the drums. Uncredited of course. Peter Criss appears in the Shandi video, his last association with the band for the next 16 years. In Talk To Me and She's So European videos, Eric Carr takes over for drums as the newest member, even though he didn't play on the album.

I can't even bring myself to give this a 2 star rating again like I did with my original review. It just a horrible, horrible album.

Fave Songs: Talk To Me and Torpedo Girl

Freebie insert continues with the full size Unmasked wall poster.

Cool cover. It would have made more sense to use the title of Unmasked for when they actually dropped the make-up for Lick It Up. Oh well.....

Unmasked Music Videos







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Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #20 on: September 10, 2011, 11:42:08 pm »
KISS (Psycho Circus) 1998




Non-lenticular cover




After the monstrous 1996 - 1997 Reunion Tour, many fans were wondering if KISS would actually step inside a recording studio and give us a new album of all new material with everyone involved for the first time since Love Gun. What we got was Psycho Circus. Our prayers were finally answered....or were they? Once again, this album is included in the Poll for the same reason as Dynasty and Unmasked. It was billed as the first album with the original lineup.

Lies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You see a pattern developing here? Once again, it was another album pieced together using studio musicians. Only one song, Into the Void featured the original band when it came to the music. This was also the only track that Peter Criss had any involvement with on drums. Ace Frehley would contribute to 3 other songs. The rest of the album went to hired guns.

The single You Wanted The Best does feature lead vocals from Gene, Ace, Peter and Paul though. Peter does gets lead vocals on I Finally Found My Way, a clear knockoff of Beth.

In spite of this, I do think it's a good album. It took awhile for me to really be objective about it given the fact that I was f*cking p*ssed at being duped once again. Granted, I suspected something wasn't on the up and up when I first heard it because of the style of playing that was incorporated within. But once it was confirmed....P*SSED!!!

Fave Songs: Psycho Circus, Into The Void, We Are One, You Wanted The Best and Raise Your Glasses

The Album cover was cool with the lenticular FX. You know those baseball cards that you move to make whatever image inside it move? That's what the CD cover was. The music video was shot with 3D in mind. Even though this is the non-3D Version, you can see where they were going with this one.

Psycho Circus Music Videos



« Last Edit: September 10, 2011, 11:45:02 pm by ChipRawks »
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Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #21 on: October 12, 2011, 03:24:30 pm »
To be continued here...



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Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #22 on: October 19, 2011, 10:57:23 am »
KISS Pinball Machine





I forgot to mention a little game that I use to play and once tried to get my friends to help me carry it out of the arcade in broad daylight. We never really were going to steal it because we knew it was physically impossible. But boy, did we ever like to talk about doing just that. ;D Currently reading KISSTORY II which highltes all the promotional stuff the band has released over the years. If and when I ever come across a KISS Pinball Machine, I will gladly buy it.

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Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #23 on: October 29, 2011, 07:36:17 pm »
KISS (Hotter Than Hell Commercial)



I do believe this to be the first commercial/promo spot on a nationwide scale for KISS.

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Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #24 on: November 03, 2011, 04:01:18 pm »
Ace Frehley Falls Off Stage (Oct. 26, 2011)



Ouch.

Ace Frehley Tumbles From the Stage in New York City

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Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #25 on: November 08, 2011, 10:53:53 am »
Added DVD Review Banners here.
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Mac

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #26 on: December 18, 2011, 08:34:46 pm »


eBay

A 1979 Kiss record case sold for $4,000 during an eBay auction that ended on Dec. 4. This black wood case is a coveted piece of memorabilia and features the cover art from each of the original band members’ 1978 solo albums.

Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss all get their own side of the box, and the copyright of ‘Aucoin Management, Inc. 1979 by agreement with Kiss, a partnership’ is printed in small text on the outside.

The most intriguing thing about this item is the chance in a million factor that it included the original J.C. Penny Catalog shipping box that it came in. Most kids would’ve ripped that carton to shreds upon its arrival but like the band, even the box had star-power, with the iconic Kiss logo printed on the cardboard casing.

The seller, a longtime Kiss fan and the original owner of this record case, admitted to not wanting to part with this item but due to the financial crisis, made the decision to let it go. More of this seller‘s items are expected to go up for auction in the coming weeks.

(P.S., we’ve got a photocopier, a table saw and a hammer — we can make you one just like this for half the price!)
« Last Edit: December 18, 2011, 08:51:03 pm by Mac »
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Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #27 on: December 18, 2011, 08:38:59 pm »

(P.S., we’ve got a photocopier, a table saw and a hammer — we can make you one just like this for half the price!)

Question: Does this photocopier, table saw and hammer of the KISS Logo on it?

That's pretty cool find with the JC Penny Case. I for one would not have torn it up as a little kid. I savored anything and everything with the KISS Logo on it and this would have been mine had I known about it. Great find Mac!!
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boyinblack80

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #28 on: February 16, 2012, 04:41:18 pm »
Hotter than Hell

the first thing I noticed as I put on the vinyl was the mix on this record...Not even comparing it to today's standard but a general quality of audio you'd hear on any 70's rock album and this mix is muddy.


I won't place the blame on the band itself, things can go wrong even after a final mix has been done and the finished product is sent to the record plant (ala Metallica's album Death Magnetic that some how got over-driven and has actually top end distortion issues) so **** happens.  Back when this record was made KISS was speeding through 3 records a year so someone might have dropped the ball besides them.  That said the mix is kind of muddy when the record kicks in and chances are you'll notice it.

track 1 Got to Choose...this really never felt like a great opener to a record for me...if the first song is setting the tone for the entire record this is for sure not the track I'd have pegged to kick off the record.  Moderate tempo, and overall pretty forgettable I've always felt.

Track 2. Parasite...now this is a party jam and I feel a real genuine classic track that has stood the test of time...great vocals by Gene, great riff....basically a perfect rock song.

Track 3 Goin Blind.   Really great track.  I vaguely remember this one as a kid...and it was almost too progressive for me to wrap my little kid brain around...there's a fairly complex melody (ala Jason Becker and Martin Friedman some 20 years before they came onto the scene using such odd melodic scales from Asian music)  The lyrics on this song as well...were a lot for an 11 year old to really grasp.  As an adult..I love this track and think it's one of the best (and earliest attempts) at something really out of the box for KISS.  I believe this song was written during the Wicked Lester period and that may be why.  I am pretty sure one member of that band co-wrote this with Gene which may explain it's advanced melodies.  Either way.  Great Song.

Track 4.
Hotter than Hell.  I've never been a huge fan of this song.  I like it and it has had its moments for me where I will find myself walking around my house for no apparent reason chanting..."hot hot hotter than heeeLLL" overall it's a good song, not a great one.

track 5.
Let Me Go Rock N Roll.  Fun song again I'd say it's good not great, maybe the pressure to do a second album just months after releasing KISS did affect the song writing quality on a lot of these tracks....it's a fun song for sure and catchy....so I'll let it slide and say...fun outweighs any flaws the overall level of re-playability might have for this song...although sometimes a little cotton candy is nice and basically it's good ender to side one.

Side two track 1: All The Way.  I like this song quite a bit...it almost reminds me a little of Goin' Blind in that the riff seems a little more complex than maybe something Gene or Paul would have written on their own.  It's got a great, great chorus...listening now I am liking this song a lot...and this is a GREAT way to start side two...although it might not have been a bad way to kick off side 1 now that I think about it/

track 2 side two. Watchin You.  WOW!  This just reminds you of how in the pocket KISS was with a sound that embraced, captured, and celebrated the 70's.  This track could just as easily have been a Rush song, UFO, or Bad Company track.  It rocks plain and simple and again Gene slays the vocals.  I honestly don't feel he always get's his just due as a great lead singer...the guy can wail and is one of the most consistent live rock singers out there.  Starting to think side 2 of this record should have been side 1.  :)

track 3 side two.  Mainline.  The main riff is whatever...just a standard chug along blues riff...but Peters vocals are so rich and honest, and I mean besides Rod Stewart I really can't think of another rock singer (maybe Bob Seger) who has more of a distinct and soulful voice....although this song might not be the best thing KISS ever did...Peter easily makes up for it and really pushes this to being an excellent song.  I wonder why the criticism for him being "tone deaf" and not being able to carry a tune where again I can point to an endless amount of LIVE clips where Peter does this or Beth, Nothin to Lose and sounds flawless....hyper critical maybe?  not sure...but his vocals make the song.

track4 side two.
  Coming Home....song never really did much for me.  I don't dislike it.  But it's nothing I'd loop.

track 5.  Strange Ways.  Again Peter's voice on the main verses is just ridiculously good...it's so soulful and just a distinct sound.  I love it...the song has a swagger and attitude that is classic KISS...Gene doubling the vocals for the chorus works great too and really nails down the iconic-ness of the track...and Ace's solo on this one completely rocks.
.

Overall all it's a good record.  I'll be a little stricter on my grading of the records over  the books only because I think there's a larger catalog of material to review and I have to make room for all the records (as opposed to the books) in terms of where they all fall.   I'd give this record a 3 out of 5.  A must have record...but I am not sure for the reason you might think.  I think what is happening on this record is growth...and sometimes growing ain't pretty.  Peter and Ace might have been criticized a lot....and Peter in Gene's book is basically refereed to as being thrown a bone doing even a song or two.  But you know what...his tracks stand out.  Gene did some amazing stuff on this record as well....it's strange to me Paul really isn't as much of a presence...or at least one that I am focused on when listening to this record.

and lets not forget the cover...what an amazing and iconic image.  Just great packaging, cool art design, and they really DO look like they could be an Asian band....so the mystery at this time really did deepen with the release of Hotter than Hell. 

(Fantastic title for the album by the way...it really works well)

3 out of 5.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2012, 07:32:06 pm by boyinblack80 »

Chiprocks1

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Re: KISS (The Original Lineup) - Discography
« Reply #29 on: February 16, 2012, 05:00:05 pm »
Hey! KISS IS an Asian band! Ace is Asian!! Another steller review and I agree with almost all of it. But there are a couple of songs that I think are just so f ucking good that they deserve another listen or two. I know you said Hotter Than Hell doesn't do much for you, but for me it's not only the best song on the album, but one of their best ever, and has always been the song that I felt should have been the opener on this one. Its got that classic KISS vibe that defines a lot of their eariler hits. The other song that I totally love is Coming Home for sure.

What you said about Goin Blind is spot-on. It use to be one of my faves from the earlier years, but then I started playing the album less and less to the point that I had completely forgotten all about this one and Coming Home. It wasn't until KISS MTV Unplugged did I rediscover them. Once again, sick review. You're making me look bad, f ucker!!
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