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Rating: Kiss: Alive II (1977)
You want the best you got the best, the hottest band in the world... Kiss
AND LET'S GIVE THEM THE BIG CAT to the career of Kiss, in this famous live album.
Born in 1973 in the aftermath of glam, Kiss exaggerated at random or by design the kabuki theater and the grand guignol of the rock masks of Alice Cooper, the N.Y. Dolls, Bolan, Glitter, Bowie, and especially Slade, throwing themselves into a myriad of concerts in New York until the much-desired first contract... and thus an unstoppable rise in the charts began. All the critical ingredients of the most clichéd Americanism are there: bubble-gum rock for 13-year-olds, sexist lyrics, a commitment of a working-class hero gone astray, power chords galore. It's only rock 'n' roll...but I like it.
And let's tell the American truth: in the USA, those who listened to Dylan at that time or certain committed rock regarded Kiss as akin to our Cugini di Campagna, that is, as phenomena of decadent bad taste. That's how it is, we must try at least once in our life to know where we come from, who we are, etc... disengagement is not an unworthy act in popular music, on the contrary, it is sometimes SO LIBERATING.
With Kiss, rock stops at the age of 13 that each of us holds in our hearts: the problem with these Christmas-tree-concert groups is that a lot of people are still under it, as they would say at the bar of Sergio's under my house. Kiss is a band that is both loved and denigrated at the same time, demolished by certain critics (the usual pontifex Scaruffi who finds the ancient and boorish-gringo-ordinary rock of Springsteen fundamental or considers the monochord N.Y. Dolls innovators: of course he despises and devalues Bowie and worse, Kiss; I also point out that Scaruffi was in favor of the Iraq war, see his website to understand the character. Kiss would hit it big in Europe in '79 with 'Dinasty', and the two memorable dance party and jukebox hits of the time were I Was Made for Lovin' You, and Sure Know Something - do you remember Gene's axe-shaped bass in the video? Nothing will go unpunished! - I will say personally, the songs on that album were impressive, they had a drive...
I chose 'Alive II' because Kiss are at the top of their career, before the disco turn, more bewigged, made-up, and platformed than ever, and from the archival videos, they had an incredible live stage for those times. The songs are often skeletal, elementary, and we are a bit far from the poetic ambitions of Anglo-Saxon and Italian bands, but the strength of Kiss is precisely in this simplicity of rock 'n' roll grooves: the powerful and refined drumming of Peter Criss-school -simm'e napule paisà!- and the rhythms of Stanley and Simmons create a wall of sound mixing Stones, Black Sabbath, MC5, and finally Ace Freehley, a truly spacey soloist, completes the band. Freehley deserves a separate note, he is the less predictable and more lunar soul of Kiss.
It takes off with Detroit Rock City and King Of The Night Time World, and then a barrage of unforgettable anthems, of which I remember Christine Sixteen, Ladies Room, the delightful rodstewart style Hard Luck Woman, then the romantic Beth, and I Stole Your Love, with that deadly riff, the feminist anthem Love Gun, Shock Me garnished with T.Rex flavor riff with Freehley's orgasmic solo, and the glittery Shout It Out Loud that closes the live show.
The fourth side is all studio, but if it's a live album, it's unclear pourquoi: I highlight the ignorant All American Man, the little tribute by Gene Simmons to the Beatles of Back in the USSR with Rockin' in the USA, and finally the choral Anyway You Want It, an old 50s hit.
Valerio Rivoli
Tracklist and Lyrics
05 Love Gun (03:40)
I really love you baby
I love what you've got
Let's get together, we can
Get hot
No more tomorrow, baby
Time is today
Girl, I can make you feel
Okay
No place for hidin' baby
No place to run
You pull the trigger of my
Love gun, (love gun), love gun
Love gun, (love gun), love gun
You can't forget me baby
Don't try to lie
You'll never leave me, mama
So don't try
I'll be a gambler, baby
Lay down the bet
We get together, mama
You'll sweat
No place for hidin' baby
No place to run
You pull the trigger of my
Love gun, (love gun), love gun
Love gun, (love gun), love gun
Love gun, love gun
Love gun, (love gun), love gun
Love gun, (love gun)
Love gun, (love gun), love gun
Love gun, (love gun), love gun
Love gun, (love gun)
Love gun, (love gun)
Love gun, (love gun)
Love gun, (love)
07 Christine Sixteen (02:45)
She's got me dizzy, she sees me through to the end
She's got me in her hands and there's no use in pretending
Christine sixteen, Christine sixteen
She drives me crazy, I want to give her all I've got
And she's hot every day and night, there is no doubt about it
Christine sixteen, Christine sixteen
"I don't usually say things like this to girls your age, but when I saw you
coming out of the school that day, that day I knew, I knew, I've got to have
you, I've got to have you."
She's' been around, but she's young and clean
I've got to have her, can't live without her, whoo no
Christine sixteen, Christine sixteen
Christine, Christine, sixteen, sixteen
Christine, yeah, yeah
So clean, Christine, sixteen, sixteen
Christine, yeah, Christine, yeah, yeah
Christine, Christine, sixteen, sixteen
Christine, yeah, Christine, yeah, yeah
Christine, Christine, sixteen, sixteen
Christine, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Christine, Christine, sixteen, sixteen
Christine, yeah, yeah, yeah
Christine, Christine, sixteen, sixteen
Christine, yeah, yeah, yeah
Christine, Christine, sixteen, sixteen, Christine, yeah, yeah
Christine, Christine, sixteen, sixteen
Christine, yeah, yeah, yeah
08 Shock Me (05:51)
Your lightnin's all I need
My satisfaction grows
You make me feel at ease
You even make me glow
Don't cut the power on me
I'm feelin' low, so get me high
Shock me, make me feel better
Shock me, put on your black leather
Shock me, we can come together
And baby, if you do what you've been told
My insulation's gone, girl you make me overload
Don't pull the plug on me, no, no
Keep it in and keep me high
Shock me, make me feel better
Shock me, put on your black leather
Shock me, we can come together
Come on
Shock me, baby, shock me, oh yeah
Shock me, baby, shock me, oh yeah
Shock me, make me feel better, oh yeah
Come on and shock me, put on your black leather
Baby, I'm down to the bare wire
Shock me, we can come together
Oh yeah, I wanna feel your power
Shock me, make me feel better
Baby, I'm down to the bare wire
Shock me, put on your black leather
Baby, come on, come on, shock me
09 Hard Luck Woman (03:06)
If never I met you
I'd never have seen you cry
If not for our first "Hello"
We'd never have to say goodbye
If never I held you
My feelin's would never show
It's time I start walkin'
But there's so much you'll never know
I keep telling you hard luck woman
You ain't a hard luck woman
Rags, the sailor's only daughter
A child of the water
Too proud to be a queen
Rags, I really love you
I can't forget about you
You'll be a hard luck woman
Baby, till you find your man
Before I go let me kiss you
And wipe the tears from your eyes
I don't wanna hurt you, girl
You know I could never lie
I keep telling you hard luck woman
You ain't a hard luck woman
You'll be a hard luck woman
Baby, till you find your man
Rags, the sailor's only daughter
A child of the water
Too proud to be a queen
Rags, I really love you
I can't forget about you
You'll be a hard luck woman
Baby, till you find your man
You'll be a hard luck woman
Baby, till you find your man
Oh yeah, bye bye, so long, don't cry
I'm just packin' my bags, whoo, leavin' you
Bye bye, bye bye, bye bye, baby, don't cry
I gotta keep on movin', yeah movin'
Bye, bye my baby
Ooh, don't cry, lady, oh
10 Tomorrow and Tonight (03:26)
Ow
Everybody's high when the week is through
Every night they wish they could
Listenin' to the teacher, bosses and the preachers
Ain't never done nobody good
Are you happy, baby, I've been waitin'
Are you ready, it's quarter to ten
Are you comin', don't be hesitatin'
'Cause we're headed for the city again
Tomorrow and tonight, tomorrow and tonight
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Tomorrow and tonight, tomorrow and tonight
Oh yeah, aha, alright
Workin' like a dog, baby all day long
Tell you what I'm gonna do
Take it in the cellar, let me be your fella
I'm gonna teach you somethin' new
Are you happy, baby, I've been waitin'
Are you ready, to do it again
Are you comin', now don't be hesitatin'
'Cause you know the night is never gonna end
Tomorrow and tonight, tomorrow and tonight
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Tomorrow and tonight, tomorrow and tonight
Oh yeah, aha, alright, whoo
I love it
Tomorrow and tonight, tomorrow and tonight
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Mmm, tomorrow and tonight, tomorrow and tonight
Oh yeah, aha, alright
Tomorrow and tonight, tomorrow and tonight
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Tomorrow and tonight, tomorrow and tonight
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Tomorrow, tomorrow, whoo, tonight
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Tomorrow, (tonight), tomorrow, tonight
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Tomorrow, (come on), tomorrow, tonight, whoo
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Tomorrow, (come on), tomorrow, tonight, whoo
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Tomorrow and tonight, tomorrow and tonight
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Tomorrow and tonight, tomorrow and tonight
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Tomorrow, whoo, tomorrow, tonight, yeah
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Tomorrow, tomorrow, yeah, tonight, yeah
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tonight, aha
We can rock all day, we can roll all night
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Other reviews
By Rainbow Rising
Love them or hate them, the Kiss have embodied a way of understanding rock, especially overseas, characterized by packed arenas, special effects, and songs as simple as they are effective.
"Alive II" would nonetheless have put the word "end" on the golden period of the four.
