Sorry I should've said "as posted". "Funky Cold Medina" contains samples from the following songs: "Honky Tonk Women" by The Rolling Stones, "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner, "Christine Sixteen" by Kiss, "All Right Now" by Free, '"You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" by Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and the introduction to "Get Off Your Ass and Jam" by Funkadelic and multiple Run DMC songs
Yeah, it's bad. I've read comparisons of it to "Goin' Blind" but this is way more offensive. If you think about it, Gene was 27 or 28 when he wrote this and the lyrical content is about a 16 year old? Yeesh.
yeah, Goin' Blind's saving grace is that the guy is 93 which casts the song in a whole other light - kind of a mix between creepy, grim, sad, almost surreal different mojo than a dude in his late 20s seeing a 16 year old and saying , I have to hit that.
We all know the lyrics. If you're listening to KISS (particularly Gene's songs) for the lyrics, you may have issues. lol. Lyrics to me are an added bonus. If I like and/or agree with them, it makes the song that much better. If I don't like them, whatever. As a 16 year old, listening to a song about 16 year old girls, I have no problem with it. Now as a 50 year old, if I'm thinking of the song as me at this present time that I am lusting after a 16 year old, then yeah, it's not healthy. But to me, as a 16 year old, it was a great love song. Keep in mind that when they wrote the Love Gun album, their audience was getting younger and there were conflicts about which direction to go.
The worst is that they still play this song live on occasion which makes it even creepier. In the case of Goin' Blind my interpretation is of a young girl who has fallen for a much older man who's more than aware that getting involved would be wrong, the 93 is an allegory, it might as well be 33-43-53-63-73 whatever, there comes a time in every man's life when women of a certain age are pretty much off limits. This song is basically the opposite of Christeen imo.
Some tidbits from the Behind The Mask book: Gene: Christine Sixteen was written on keyboards. I've always been a fan of the original doo-wop records. Instead of having a solo, the guys would talk. Even Elvis did that. The talking part of in the song sounds to me like a dirty old man. Sounds like a guy on the telephone. Ace hated it when he first heard it. He said "That's not rock 'n roll." And I'm going "Well guess what? It's gonna be on the record." Paul: I was writing a song called "Christine Sixteen" and Gene liked the title, so he stole it. Which isn't unusual, because I stole the title of "Black Diamond" from him. Eddie Kramer: I played piano on it. Gene was standing next to me, but he didn't play it. I played it. He actually coached me on how to play like a Neanderthal person.
More: Gene: KISS found itself in a very strange position of appealing to a wide range of ages, where most heavy bands appeal to a teen male audience. We found that girls liked us as much as guys. All of a sudden we started to get really young fans
"Christine Sixteen" - back in the bubblegum hard-rock mode (which you'll recall I like a lot), only this time, they're a bit more specific as this is basically a bubblegum hard-rock version of an early 60s, pre-British Invasion pop-rock tune, a la Little Eva, the Crystals, the 4 Seasons, the Shirelles, Dion etc. That's surely one reason for the prominent use of eighth-note pounding piano in the arrangement--it helps bring the early rock & roll era to mind. It's an unusual tune in KISS oeuvre in that you get the sense of them largely subordinating their individual musical personalities in service of fine-crafting a pop hit--which again, I don't personally see as a bad thing at all--and the effort definitely paid off. Peter's drum sound is quirky with respect to this, though, as the timbres and some of the fills are more on the raucous side, contrasting with the restrained polish they're going for elsewhere, but this aspect might also be part of the homage to early rock & roll, since drums were typically not close-miked in those days, they were typically recording in much boomier-sounding environments, etc. Also in the "yay for quirkiness" department, the timing on the "Whoa-No" break is subtly weird. I've always wondered if it was intended to be that way or if that was an artifact of recording--edits, punching in and out, etc. But they've at least sometimes reproduced the subtle weirdness of the timing of that part live. Love all of the little percussion ornamentation like usual, too--the shaker, etc. At any rate, I do love this tune, and unsurprisingly, I like this studio version the best. By the way, the version we linked to sounds like it must be from a remaster to me.
Christine Sixteen is classic KISS. Gene is great on it, and definitely creepy too! The guy just can't help it..... Gene crosses some lines sometimes and we know it. Love the bass and the drums, the piano was a nice addition too! Background vocals are very cool, melodic solo etc. The chorus does get a little repetitious at the end, though.
Re "Christine Sixteen", not that I care much about lyrics, but I don't find the lyrics offensive at all. Of course, I don't really find anything offensive, but I'm far more bothered by the fact that people find lyrics like these offensive--and especially when someone would completely dismiss the tune just because of the lyrics. I don't want to draw us into a debate aout that, but I think it's worth noting that not everyone has the same opinion.
Give me a break , my opinion is just that mine, I have my reasons as to why I consider this song over the line. Lyrics are part of the song are they not?? then they are subject to being judged same as a great solo, vocal, melody etc...
Christine Sixteen - Pure power pop perfection from the Demon. It sounds like Kiss (or at least Gene) spent more time on this recording than any other song on the album. Hell, the song even has a bridge - how many 70's Kiss songs have such a thing? There are sweet little guitarmony lines, shakers, piano, and great vocal harmonies. Paul's voice, in particular, stands out in the chorus - in a very good way. Gene is in fine voice, and Peter lays down a solid yet raucous groove. As the father of a 15 year old girl, I find the lyrics to be alarming. That said, there's no reason to bring out the pitchforks. Gene is just playing a character - a creepy stalker guy - but still a character nonetheless. It's not as bad as Room Service (where the narrator acts out his fantasies). Many guys in their late 20s (like Gene in 1977) do gawk at teenage girls. It's a fact of life. Uncomfortable, sure, but a reality and I don't consider it offensive.
The only thing I'd say about the lyrics is why does the "I" in this song have to be literally Gene? We can accept that he's not really 'lord of the wasteland' or 'almost human', but somehow this one has to be really Gene really singing about his intentions with real teenagers? It's just a song. As far as Ace goes, I hate to disagree with the man from Jendell, but he's wrong. This is very much rock n' roll. KISS was always more than hard rock, arena rock, riff rock...whatever. This is just another side. Plus, if anything, this is more rock n' roll than something like Shock Me or whatever. Anyway, I love this song, always have. It's catchy as hell. Hope we finally get to here the VH demos one of these days.
Not to get into a huge imbroglio over the lyrics, but Gene did admit he saw himself as the guy in the song. Anyway, as much as I loved the song as a teenager, now I don't care for it. It's not just the lyrics (which I normally don't care about anyway) but the piano bugs me and I find the whole song a tad bit clunky. Gene was good at writing quirky tunes and this one certainly qualifies but it's not in my wheelhouse as a 50 year old.
Christine Sixteen If you look back to the origins of rock and roll in the 50's, many songs were written from a teenagers point of view. This is the approach I like to take with "Christine Sixteen" except that when you get to the spoken lyric part, that theory doesn't hold water: "I don't usually say things like this to girls your age" Yea, cover blown. That being said I'm not particularly bothered by the lyrics. It's a song, an artist expressing himself, it was the 70's and let's be honest, most of these rock stars in the 70's had liaisons with ...ahem..younger groupies... Does anyone have an issue with "Stray Cat Blues"? Especially the live version where the girl's age is changed from 15 to 13? Back to the music...This is one of all-time favorite Gene songs and if Ace didn't like it I would say that has more to do with him being told exactly what to play on it, following the demo. For some reason to me this song sounds better than many of the other LG cuts, it's got a nice chunky sound to it. A great song, one of my KISS favorites.
Lyrics are not part of the music in my opinion. Music is just sound. "Lyrics" has a semantic connotation, and sound doesn't cover meaning. As sound, lyrics are just phonemes.
Christine Sixteen, a cool 50s rock'n'roll-style tune, love the little thumping piano, I enjoy this one.
Count me as one of the people who isn't bothered by the lyrics to Christine Sixteen. I get a kick out of them, Gene being such a troll and all. Probably a few of those asses us middle aged guys are checking out at the mall might be a day or two under 18, that's all I'm going to say. Now, if you're doing that at the local high school.... Let's go easy on labelling each other by what we feel about Gene Simmons lyrics. The girl is younger in Stray Cat Blues by the Stones and in All In The Name Of by Motley Crue. Does that make it right? Nope! But neither of those songs bother me either. I always liked the song, Love Gun wouldn't be the same without it. It's really nothing special, guitar solo is kinda just there. But I dig it just the same.
Christine Sixteen- it's a good song, but not great. I remember listening to this when I was younger and I didn't take the lyrics seriously then and I still don't. This cut is in a similar plane as Sweet Pain, Ladies Room, ladies in waiting.... a decent and listenable album cut. I like the quality of Genes singing voice and the energy of Peter's snare work.
CHRISTINE SIXTEEN There really isn't a right or wrong way to react to these lyrics. I can see both sides of the argument. As a kid I didn't think anything of them, and as others have pointed out, there were lots of rock & roll tunes going back to the 50's that dealt with girls of this age. Obviously where it gets objectionable is when it's seen through the eyes of an older man. I respect those who reject the song on its face for this reason, but in the end, they are lyrics to a song, not a call to action or a declaration on how someone should live their life. It's interesting to hear that the lyrics caused a bit of an uproar at the time, as I was oblivious to that. There were so many things about KISS that people objected to, most famously KISS standing for "Knights [or Kings or Kids] In Satan's Service". I was aware of all of these controversies and rumors, but not the issue with the lyrics to this song. As I mentioned previously, this is one of only a small handful of songs you would hear on San Francisco Bay Area radio back in KISS' heyday, and even then it wasn't played in proportion to how popular they were at that time. ("Beth", "New York Groove" and "I Was Made For Lovin You" all got heavy airplay, and "Calling Dr. Love" and "Christine Sixteen" were a presence on radio back then, but not heard as frequently as the other 3). The song gets props from me for harking back to early rock & roll tunes, in its structure and use of piano. This is probably one of the few times I would disagree with Ace on a musical matter related to early KISS. It may not be typical for KISS but that's what makes it memorable. As @Exile On My Street stated, his objections were probably largely due to not being allowed to come up with a solo of his own. I imagine he would have crafted something memorable, as he always did, but you can't blame Gene for wanting the song to be structured as he envisioned it. @Terrapin Station made some good observations in his breakdown of the song, and the point about them subjugating their individual personalities in service to the song is a good one. I'm also not sure who Little Eva is, so I'll have to do a little homework! (EDIT: I guess I just wasn't consciously aware of her as an artist, which is highly surprising, since I'm certainly familiar with her material!)