646 Kiss - Kiss Alive (1975)

Live Album - Heavy Rock

About the Act:

Kiss are an American glam/shock/heavy rock/metal band from New York. They have been in existence since 1973 and are responsible for 20 or more studio albums (depending on how you count them). They have had a pretty stable line-up. They are best known for wearing bizarre black-and-white face paint, and glam metal costumes, and for the length of the lead singer, Gene Simmons' tongue. Oh and they have had several hit singles, quite a few hit albums and have sold lots and lots of records. They are generally thought of as being a shock rock band, as the sort of band that you listened to if you were a bit of a rebel.

About the Album:

This was their fourth album overall, and their breakthrough, the first three having sold poorly. There was a perception that the previous studio albums had not captured the intensity that Kiss brought to the stage, so there was the thought that a live album might sell better. They seem to have been right. Reviews have been mixed, some hated it (mostly at the time) and some loved it (mostly later).

My History with this Album:

None.

Review:

Many years ago, when I was at Uni, my friend Andy got me thinking about the question of "How do you define Art?" He proposed that "Man's Violence on Nature" was a workable definition. I have thought about this many times, especially about the difference between a painting and "art", between a family photo and an artistic photo, and where do things like "Unmade Bed" and Duchamp's urinals fit into this picture. There will always be a subjective element to this, but it is plain that there are artistic endeavours that are widely considered to be good, because of some way in which it speaks to a lot of people. For quite a while, I considered that this element of "saying something" was an important part of the idea of art. A while back I heard a definition that art is "A Lie That Tells A Truth", and this has stuck as the best pithy definition I have heard. The essence is that art is a manufactured thing (A Lie) that helps us realise something about reality (A Truth).

That's a long introduction to a Kiss album. Why bother? Well there has been some controversy about this album, about whether they used studio overdubs to make it sound better. At first they claimed that it was not dubbed at all. After a while they admitted it was "touched up". Eventually it came out that it was heavily dubbed and edited, even the crowd sounds, and that the only thing untouched was the drums. However, all the way through they have claimed that it is still an accurate depiction of Kiss Live. So this is the question, is this effectively a Lie that Tells A Truth, in the same way that a film biopic might alter the facts of somebody's life to get a fuller depiction of them in a shorter time. Is it an honest lie? Well, never having been to a Kiss concert, I cannot judge. So, in terms of this review, I guess these last two paragraphs have been pretty pointless. Still, it fills some page and maybe even amused you a bit.

The music is pretty raw rock, the sort of thing that at the time was referred to as "Rock and Roll" or even "Heavy Metal" and now fits the description "Hard Rock" or "Heavy Rock". In some ways this was the forerunner of Stadium Rock of the 80s, Bon Jovi and Scorpion and others. There's a lot of guitar riffing and soloing, and gutsy energy. I guess the question is whether it is good rock, and I think the answer has to be "Yes". It is not complex, but it has a primal appeal. The playing is good, I would especially draw attention to the drum solo in 10,000 Years, which is my favourite part of the album. It is easy to believe that this would be a great live show, and then add in the pyrotechnics and stage shenanigans that they were famous for, and this would be quite an experience.

The singing is strong, with good delivery and some fairly nice harmonies at times. The lyrics are standard facile rock fare, generally fantasies about strange ladies, and macho stuff about a rock and roll lifestyle. In context this feels OK, to me, today. Some days I would feel stronger about this, but the focus here is on a rock atmosphere, and I would say it delivers that. It doesn't have that extra added edge that you might get from some other hard rock bands of that era: Led Zep, Rush, Queen, Meatloaf, but is still pretty decent.

7.3/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6TRmLIsPKSPS71Cnq8FiMc

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOQ14fYhRNq0CblpsIg2CN5ADafmQHAaW

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alive!_(Kiss_album)