Oh my indeed. Who is going to show up to such a thing other than those weird dudes who do the whole "Vinnie Saved KISS" gimmick.
Depends on what '80's songs - Creatures Of the Night, Exciter, I've Had Enough (Into the Fire) - would be cool to hear.
Kissology is the last good thing they have done in regards to home video. Symphany and Rock the Nation are plagued with awful editing and way, way too many shots of the crowd. Kissology for all its strengths still has its obvious weak points biggest of which is that some of the shows weren't full 100% complete shows. I think YouTube has made such sets redundant now so I doubt there will ever be a Vol.4 in the near future. I will say historically though they have usually had a strong presence in the home video realm. Exposed, Xtreme Close Up, Konfidential, Kiss My A** and Second Coming were all big favorites of mine during my early years of KISS fandom.
I'd seriously think about it if a venue was named...I can't stand for an hour let alone two or three... But Vinnie did save KISS.
You've probably talked about that in this thread but can you say again why you feel that way? I don't have an opinion on this but to me if someone is saying Vinnie saved KISS, that puts me in mind of someone who stayed around for longer than Vinnie did. For someone who stayed for a short period, how did he save them? Was it more than just bridging a gap of time that got them to Kulick and a stable lineup? I'm sure songwriting is part of it but he didn't necessarily bring them back into the higher end of the charts. Their stock rose, it seems to me and correct me if there is more to it, because of the novelty of taking off the makeup and anyone could've been in the band at that point for their stock to rise at that point. I'm not slamming Vinnie in any way. I'm just putting out there how I see it at this point and welcome some info to add or change that viewpoint.
Taking off the face paint was a point of interest but it was not the reason for the KISS resurgence, it was the music. Lick It Up is a fantastic album and that is what brought the fans back.
Also wasn't the unmasking special on MTV burried in the early hours of the morning as well. But yes Lick it Up is a great album I think their move into Heavy Metal between 82-85 was the big reason they clawed their way back from the bottom.
It was a MTV special, not sure about the time slot. Yeah, KISS going heavy with Creatures and Lick It Up was a major part of the KISS resurgence. The video of Lick It Up on heavy rotation at MTV also played a major part.
MTV in general was a big thing for them. While they may not have gotten the radio play they might of deserved or the chart success in regards to the singles they certainly made up for it with rotation on MTV.
True, MTV played the heck out of KISS - Lick It Up, All Hell's Breaking Loose, Heaven's On Fire, Tears Are Falling - played ALL the time on MTV.
Short answer: Vinnie gave KISS the tools they needed to survive in the 80's. Without a song like Lick It Up would Paul have written a Heaven's On Fire? He (and Eric Carr) also upped their musicianship to a level where they were taken more seriously.
I've never thought about the lasting effects of what Vincent brought to them. It always seemed like after he was out he had no lasting influence which is why I asked.
Being naturally cynical about KISS, I doubt that Stanley or Simmons did any of the heavy lifting when it came to writing KISS songs especially from Dynasty forward. Desmond Child probably wrote a huge chunk of HoF in much the same way that Vinnie co-wrote Lick it Up and 7 other songs on the album.
Without the MTV factor they would of been much worse off in the 80s. With MTV they were able to become a 2nd tier Hard Rock/Metal band who could shift around 1,000,000 units of an album and draw enough people to still play arenas across the US. Its obviously a step down from what they were doing between 75-79 but it was better than 81-83 when they could barely draw a crowd in the US.
I think this can be said for Gene once the makeup came off and he tried to make it in Hollywood and KISS was a secondary thing to him. Least Paul put his name to some classic songs most of which probably have a Desomnd Child co-write.
so, it was a year ago this month that I finally bought my first copy of Creatures of the Night and started listening in earnest... basically, because of @GodShifter, @Curveboy and all the assorted KISS-aholics in this thread... I'd ignored the band since '79 when I deserted the KISS Army but this thread brought me back into the band and the last year has been a blast, not only revisiting beloved albums of my youth, but turning onto the albums I'd missed in the meantime, especially Creatures, The Elder and Carnival of Souls... to celebrate my one year reenlistment in the KISS Army, I took an evening walk here in beautiful, sweltering Helsinki and had CoTN blaring in my headphones... what a great record... and thanks to those of you who pulled me back into the vortex!
