Kiss - Love Gun

Greetings, music lovers! Spader Ess here again.
The third installment in my series, to ease the workload of Stones And Thetania for short while, so they can concentrate on making the rock roll, is upon us. So brace yourselves.

The subtitle to the series might be “Kill your darlings” as it focuses on bands that I have had strong bonds to throughout the years, but that have been fading from my devotion over time or in some cases, ceased to exist altogether. But as in life in general, things are almost never as simple, so off course there are exceptions. Which brings me to the band up for measurement today.  
Kiss.
Which also gives me the opportunity to write about Stones himself. More on that further on.

Kiss has been, and to some extent, always will be a huge part of my rock n roll heart. No doubt about that. But there is no denial that the journey has met some bumps along the road. But, let us begin at the beginning.
Kiss started out as one of the main reasons to why I started my “Rocket Ride” down hard rock.road. From the first time I heard “Rock N Roll All Night” it was instant love, some would even say it was bordering to fanaticism. I literally wallpapered my room with posters of the band. I listened to their music constantly, and as a huge part of my friends was in the same state as me, we more or less lived in Kiss-mania.

I will spare you of listing all the Kiss albums that I like, because there is more of them than the ones I don’t like.
From the first record, "Kiss" from 1974 until "Lick It Up" from 1983, they more or less lived up to my “Great Expectations”. Ten years, with fifteen studio albums and two classic live albums and one amazing compilation (yes, I’m only counting "Double Platinum" as you only need one compilation).
Actually within this time frame there were only a few quirks in our relationship.

• "Creatures Of The Night" might not have been as solid as many of the earlier albums.
• "The Elder" took some time to accept, both the music and the look. Even if still don´t love the record, I don’t hate it either.
• The unmasking. The act, not the album. Of course I understand why, but some of the magic went away. (the uncertainty factor might be a part of why I nowadays love Ghost)
• Vinnie Vincent! Nough said!

Other than that, smooth sailing so far. And after that we enter a longer time frame which is a very much less impressive, both when it comes to making albums and what is actually put on them. Mostly crap, with some exceptions of a good song here and there. This time of darkness lasted until 2009, when "Sonic Boom" came and reinstalled my faith in the band. The faith even deepened with their latest album "Monster" hit the record stores. They were back!
There is a few things though that makes it impossible for them to regain the fandom of earlier days.

• The band itself. Are they an original or should they be seen as a tribute band of themselves?
• The Greed. As they have gone from the masters of Merch to the Monsters of tacky merch… Hello Kitty Kiss? Not all Lotto commercials in the world can justify that one.
• Gene Simmons. Once the coolest reptile on earth. But sometimes he gets a little too fond of himself. And I know it is physical hard, but sometimes he should try to hold his tongue.

Other from that, I still love the band, or at least the parts that I used to love, just not as unconditional.
The observant reader asks himself at this point
-Where does Stones fit into all this? Simple as this. The first time I meet Stones in real life, was at a Kiss concert at Friends Arena. Last time they visited us here in Sweden he helped me and my kids, with attending the concert. So, now he is a part of (whether he likes it or not) another of my fond memories of Kiss.
Thanx Stones!

Kiss - Love Gun from Friends Arena.



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Official Kiss Web
Official Spader Ess Blog

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