KISS ALIVE! The Greatest Live Album EVER

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And this is coming from a guy with loads of official Zappa concert discs and boots. SO YOU KNOW IT MEANS SOMETHING WHEN I SAY THAT KISS ALIVE! IS THE GREATEST EVER!

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Tuesday, 26 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Side 2 (vinyl ed.) - "Nothin' to Lose", "C'mon & Love Me", "Parasite", then Ace's-gtr-solo!-oh-well - spits blood and glitter over everything, 15 minutes of intensity rivalling 'Fun House', 'cept w/ 'Raw Power'-type 'songs'! The rest is also good even if it doesn't quite match this astonishing peak, and yes "100,000" years was probably 'period' even in 1975, but the gravity is a bit different to my planet so...

― dave q, Tuesday, 26 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

KISS are NO GOOD.

Do you reckon Gene Simmons gets annoyed if interviewers say "So, Gene, you've shagged 4,600 women. You must have picked up a fair few sexually transmissable diseases in your time - maybe you'd like to tell us about them?"

― DV, Tuesday, 26 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Nah, that album has its place. Though it's mostly thanks to Paul Stanley's utter insanity as a rabble-rouser. "ALL RIGHT!!!"

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 26 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

God, I loved that band in third grade... I had the lunchbox, drew pictures of them, dressed up like Peter Kriss for Halloween.... now I have no opinion about them whatsoever, they're like Helen Reddy to me.

― Andy, Tuesday, 26 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

How can there be a greatest KISS album, when KISS isn't worth a damn?

― SP Morrissey, Tuesday, 26 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Y'all better watch out -- some people say the same thing about the Smiths and/or Morrissey. Not me, I should note. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 26 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Well thanks a bunch. I just order that Fushitsusha live record. ;-)

― helenfordsdale, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Three Words:

Live At Leeds.

― Dave225, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Well, like the man says "You wanted the best and you got it!", so who am I to argue?

I've always liked that back cover shot of the two kids with the proud goofy grins and homemade banner (in Cobo Hall, Detroit iirc?. There's something really nice about it. Picturing them asking one of their moms for an old sheet and getting glitter and fabric paint at the craft store. "You do it, you're an excellent draw-er," one probably said to the other as they copied pictures from a Hit Parader magazine onto the sheet. Daydreaming about high-fiving after Ace sees their decorated bedsheet and flashes them a thumb's up. But then, beyond their wildest imaginings they end up on the back cover of KISS Alive - recognized by KISS themselves as The Number One Kiss Fans in The World. I wonder how much it changed their lives.

― fritz, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

As the guru Chuck Eddy once said, "For all we know the burnouts on the back turned into Motley Crue."

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Is it Alive or Alive II that has the great opening banter leading up to "Cold Gin"? "I was talking to a guy backstage and he said some of you like to drink tequila!!" That is so fucking retarded that it's brilliant.

― Andy, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

That's Alive, Andy. Alive II isn't quite so good in the "rap" dept., but it has the most amazingly tuneless gospel boogie wailing from Paul. Testify, Star Child!

― Arthur, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Actually, it's not even the greatest live KISS record--that honor goes to the indie 45 "Having Fun With Stanley On Stage," which I've only heard once but is imbedded upon my brain forever. Ten minutes of nothing . . . nothing . . . but Paul Stanley's stage rap. It's fucking brilliant. I lost control of my bladder. It's timeless genius.

― J, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Which is the one with 'Rock'n'roll all night' on it, where the opening chord promises the apocalypse, but what you get is 'RnRAN' by Kiss. Which is still pretty good. 'It's Alive' is the best live album ever tho', and quite possibly the best album ever. Whatever happened to double live albums anyways?

― Snotty Moore, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

If KISS Alive is the greatest live album of all time then every live album ever made sucks. And I don't think that is the case.

― Pump Wellington, Saturday, 2 March 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

3 years pass...

I really like Kiss, but this album makes them sound like the sloppiest band ALIVE playing with no monitors in a small club. I thought Peter Criss was a pisspoor drummer before I heard this, but I'm not sure who was to blame. Either he kept throwing the band off or he kept on top of a band that couldn't keep time. His hihat action on this album sucks, but that could be Kramer's fault for recording the drums like a jackass. The artificial crowd noise was probably a stroke of marketing genius (like the Beatles being greeted by an artificial mob of screaming girls started the frenzy), but it is really over the top. There are better live kiss shows for download on dimeadozen.

― Neuromancer, Saturday, 24 December 2005 09:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

As the guru Chuck Eddy once said, "For all we know the burnouts on the back turned into Motley Crue."

They look like very young girls. The blond is wearing a frilly low-cut peasant top. The brunette might be a dude with skinny wrists (looks like it). But, they look a little too young and innocent to be burnouts.

― Neuromancer, Saturday, 24 December 2005 09:41 (7 years ago) Permalink

VH1 covered this album in their "Classic Albums" series, and it's pretty darn informative. Fascinating, even.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Saturday, 24 December 2005 10:05 (7 years ago) Permalink

"Hey, 'The Greatest Live Album EVER' isn't actually live".

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Sunday, 25 December 2005 03:49 (7 years ago) Permalink

it's good but i prefer kiss alive two or three.

― retrokid, Sunday, 25 December 2005 13:24 (7 years ago) Permalink

I think both Kramer and Gene exaggerate how much work was done to Alive! Judging by the live bootlegs, they could certainly play at least that well. They probably unnecessarily overdubbed a few things they didn't like, which is pretty common on "live" albums (even today), but I do not believe, as Kramer suggests, that the drums are the only truly live part. It sounds too much like the Alive II Lost Recordings bootleg, which sounds like Alive II, which was supposedly even more "fixed" than the first Alive!

― Neuromancer, Sunday, 25 December 2005 15:14 (7 years ago) Permalink

I agree with Dave. Live at Leeds blows away Kiss Alive. I bet Gene Simmons (big Who fan) would agree too.

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Monday, 26 December 2005 16:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

I haven't even heard Live at Leeds yet, but I'm sure it does. I think every live album I've ever heard blows away Alive.

― Neuromancer, Monday, 26 December 2005 17:47 (7 years ago) Permalink

Paul Stanley: So, tell me a little bit about the people who're gonna be out there tonight.

Guy Backstage: Well, some of them like to drink tequila.

Paul Stanley: Really? That's interesting. I'll have to ask them about that.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Monday, 26 December 2005 17:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

Thirding and Fourthing Live At Leeds, but I do have to point out another four words:

No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 26 December 2005 18:09 (7 years ago) Permalink

The greatness of 'It's alive' and 'Live and Dangerous' should also be noted at this point, but this really requires a full-scale comparison study involving many crates of beer.

― Soukesian, Monday, 26 December 2005 19:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

i'd forgotten that i'd created this thread. hmmm.

anyway, my vote for greatest live album would go to either ozzy's tribute or gary numan's living ornaments '81. nyehh.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 04:13 (7 years ago) Permalink

What fascinates me is that Kramer & co. felt the need to not only correct the instrumental mistakes but also bolster the incidental crowd noises! Presumably, the album photos of the band PLAYING LIVE were also airbrushed to perfection.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 04:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

cheap trick live at budokan is bettre.
sorry all live albums have overdubs.

― retrogurl, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 08:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

sorry all live albums have overdubs
Most do, but not all (ie. Dick's Picks, Live Phish).

― Informer, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 14:10 (7 years ago) Permalink

Actually, I just listened to it and he says:

"I got a little question for all you. I wanna know... How many of you like to take a taste of alcohol?! Alright! I know, you know it's getting so hot outside there's gotta be something to cool you off, there's gotta be some of you drink tequila. I was talking to some people backstage before, they were telling me a lot of you people like to drink vodka and orange juice. Yeah. I'll tell you something, a lot of times when you're down in the dumps there's only one thing that's going to bring you up the way you want it. What's that? What? I can't hear you! COLD GIN!"

― Neuromancer, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 14:19 (7 years ago) Permalink

What the fuck? Not even in the top ten.

― js (honestengine), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 14:34 (7 years ago) Permalink

6 years pass...

"got to choose" just totally rules on this.

― Johnny Hotcox, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 16:36 (7 months ago) Permalink

speaking of kiss the new peter chriss autobiography looks hilarious. lotsa stories like this:

― dell (del), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 16:53 (7 months ago) Permalink

I can only picture that happening with everyone in full makeup.

― 5-Hour Enmity (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 16:56 (7 months ago) Permalink

hahaha

― dell (del), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 16:57 (7 months ago) Permalink

lol

― tylerw, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 17:06 (7 months ago) Permalink

StarChild/ElephantBalls

― 50 Shades of Greil (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 17:09 (7 months ago) Permalink

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