LOVE THEME FROM KISS (Stanley/Simmons/Frehley/Criss) 2:24 This instrumental arose from a song called "Acrobat" that the band performed in clubs in 1973. It is the only KISS song to feature songwriting credits by all four members. According to Wikipedia, it was used in the Sofia Coppola movie "Somewhere" (2010) which I've never seen. The instrumental was shortened considerably for the album and it fades out with Gene doing some funky runs on the bass. In some ways, this song reminds me of a song you'd hear on one of those "Blaxploitation" films that were popular in the 70's like "Superfly", "Sweetback's Baadassss Song", or "Foxy Brown" (to name a few). You know, like the character is walking down the street and talking to some women (or something else is happening). "The Love Theme From KISS" is probably one of the funkier tunes the band has ever done. Simmons does a lot of octave runs on his bass and has two brief solos during the song's two and a half minutes. It also features very subtle twin guitar work between Stanley and Frehley with one of them (probably Stanley) lightly hitting harmonics during one of the interludes. Criss keeps things on an even keel with almost Ziggy Modeliste type swing beat. I think probably shortening it was a good idea as the song doesn't seem to do much but repeat the patterns over and over. Still, it's an interesting oddity for a band that has never been known for their instrumentals.
Good stuff, bartels76. Love the videos, and appreciate the comments on Ace's soloing and and overall guitar presence during the Reunion Tour. Was lucky enough to see them in Boston in 1996, 4th row, and I still remember the heat given off by the flashpots!
He's doing kind of a staccato like chording a long with some trills for effect. I'm pretty sure he did that on Alive too. Ace is a guy who plays stuff almost exactly the same in concert as in the studio. He's not much of a guy that likes to improvise but, instead, plays what was laid down on wax. There's nothing wrong with that as most KISS fans expect faithful versions of the classics and, for the most part, that's what they get. I can't speak to what Thayer does as I've really never paid attention. My guess is he apes Ace's leads as closely as possible.
The Love Theme From KISS...eh...take it or leave it. Still has a great Gene bassline, but with all the great songs they had ready to go (Watchin' You, She, etc.) I don't see the point of it.
Love Theme From Kiss...I actually kinda like this (probably because I'm just used to hearing it), although in hindsight it seems like a bad Producer's decision. They probably should have kept the other part (Much Too Young) and worked on finishing that....and shortening this. But whatever....it is what it is. It just makes it seem that the band is short on material and doing whatever they can to fill an album.
Maybe the idea was that a lot of bands were doing instrumentals on albums at the time and they felt including something like that would give the album some diversity? I don't know but it seems Bogart maybe wanted to cover all the bases on this debut. That could be totally off though.
I need to find out what the producers were thinking on "Love Theme From KISS". I didn't know until the box set came out in 2001 that this was only a segment of a longer tune that they would jam on in concert, "Acrobat". (Or maybe I had read that somewhere along the way and just forgotten). "Acrobat" is a really cool tune, and it certainly has the feel of one of those songs that a band would perform early in their career when they don't necessarily have tons of tunes in their repertoire yet. Something that developed out of jams during rehearsals. I really like it, but I could understand the decision to not include it on an album, as it is different from the other material they were writing at that point, and obviously kind of long. But I need to find out whose idea it was to not scrap it altogether, but shorten it to just this part of the song? I do like it in this form, but it's certainly a head-scratcher. It almost has the feel of being recorded simply because they needed an extra few minutes of material on the album. Come to think of it, since "Kissin' Time" wasn't originally on the album, they should have just recorded "Acrobat" as it was (only tightened up a little) since side 2 didn't have much material on it, anyway. I'm guessing this was a Kerner/Wise decision to shorten it, but I'd love to hear their reasoning behind it.
I'd say it was awesome for his whole initial run with the band. I know some folks like Bob Ezrin have ragged on him about his timekeeping, but I find it hard to believe the complaints, because he certainly had no problems with that live. Of course, I wasn't in the studio with them. Maybe he had problems in the studio that he didn't have live for some reason, but that seems dubious to me.
Yeah, it would be interesting to know the story behind that, but I do love "Love Theme from KISS" as it is.
Peter had that swing. Even later day Peter like a song like Christine Sixteen, he rocks and swings. Great stuff. Tone Loc didn't sample his drumming for no reason!
I read somewhere that it was Neil Bogart who pushed for that song. At the time in the 70s there were a lot of love themes (Barry Whites Love Unlimited Orchestra etc.) and Neil wanted to jump on the band wagon and possibly get them on the radio. "Love theme from KISS" was also the B-side of the First single.
Love Theme From Kiss. IIRC a lot of movies had a Love Theme at the time so Kiss stole the title for their Acrobat instrumental. I wish they tacked on Much Too Young as part of the song like they did live. I don't mind it but not a favorite. I'd rather hear this than any mid 80's Gene song!
Peter is one of those "loose" drummers that probably never played the same thing twice. Bill Ward and Keith Moon were the same. For a live show, no problem but when you're laying down tracks for an album it can be problematic. Early Criss was pretty tight and focused, but the more time went on and drugs and partying became the order of the day, his playing slipped badly even live.
It's all a matter of taste. To me, his drumming starts getting inconsistent in the 76-77 time frame. I am by no means a completist when it comes to KISS collecting, not even close, but I've heard many live shows from this era where he sounds great, and many where his timekeeping is off. There's no doubt that on the DYNASTY tour in 79 his playing deteriorated badly. Even he has admitted to playing poorly. I guess we can talk more about it when we get to the DYNASTY period, but his demeanor, behavior and attitude regarding the band at this time was pretty inexcusable (when you take into account the adoration of your fans, the money he was making being in the band, and how lucky he was to have attained the success he had always dreamed about). Getting back to the topic, I think you can find shows on the Destroyer - Rock & Roll Over - Love Gun - Alive II tours where his playing is inconsistent. I haven't charted it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it gets progressively worse as the tours move forward. And again, there are plenty of shows from this period where he is excellent, so if you only hear certain shows you might never even know there was an issue. The studio is another matter, and I'm sure his playing varied depending on the material, the producer, and his mood on that given day.
Could the inclusion of an instrumental on the debut have anything to do with Dark Side of the Moon being released a year earlier? As in, what can it hurt to check off the 'instrumental' box and see what sticks? The KISS debut is basically a re-write of Dark Side anyway. Anywhoo, back on my meds, I like Love Theme From KISS. Simple meat and potatoes, some nice playing from everybody, particularly Gene. This is what drives me so crazy about Gene's dismissive attitude about 'who cares who played what' on KISS albums. Gene was a great player, and had an interesting style that wasn't just root note based. A generic KISS song in the 1980's wasn't going to suddenly become I Stole Your Love with Gene playing the bass part but it would have been more KISS just by his presence.
His drums also got bigger and bigger each tour. He was essentially a jazz/soul drummer. I wonder if that changed his style. I think the Japan RNRO show he was great and also Houston 77. Largo 79...yikes.
Being such a huge KISS fan for much of my life, I have read more than my fair share of interviews with the band, and analysis of them. I feel I can give you a fairly accurate picture of Peter and his place in the band. As you noted, he came from a different background than the other 3 guys. His passions were big band, lounge and latin jazz. I have little doubt that his preferred method of "making it" in the music biz would have been playing that kind of music. He liked rock (he was into the Beatles and the Stones), but was nowhere near as passionate about it as the other guys, who all adored Hendrix, Jeff Beck, The Yardbirds, Zeppelin, Slade, Humble Pie, The Move, The Who, and on and on. He couldn't really talk music with the other guys as they didn't share a lot of common ground. What they did share, and why he was in the band, was a fiercely-determined commitment to making it, to being famous. And that is why the early years were so glorious; it was them against the world, and they had the hunger and the work ethic to keep pushing through despite all the resistance they faced. Unfortunately, once you make it, and achieve the success you've always dreamed of, that lack of common ground can become a real issue. Peter has admitted to getting bored in KISS, as the music they were playing was never his passion. So you combine an ever-so-gradual increased boredom with the band, and couple it with cocaine abuse, and you have the makings of a slowly-deteriorating talent. The gradual rift that developed between Peter and the band is not something that lends itself to brief interview soundbites, and is of course somewhat complex. For that reason, it rarely has gotten the careful explanation that it deserves.
Oh man ..... I missed Deuce ! I'll make it brief ..... it's killer ! I've always loved Gene as a vocalist, which maybe shows that I know nothing about good singers, but he's got this thing that's pretty righteous. There's nothing I can be critical of, except maybe my own understanding of the song. For years I always thought the opening line was something about "grammar" which is ironic because I don't understand the lyrics. But it all added to the mystery ! deuces ..... grammars ..... DO IT !
Maybe so, but he certainly didn't sound like some renewed soul on say, Out Of Control, where he was free to do what he wanted. And let's leave One For All out of it, please.
Well, Gene was an school teacher before he became a rock star. It's very likely he said to a student, "GET UP AND GET YOUR GRAMMAR OUT OF HERE!!"
Hopefully this thread will be going for at least a few months, and likely much longer. So don't sweat it about being "late". There's going to be times where each of us here will be commenting on a song that may have first been brought up a week (or more) earlier. This is GodShifter's thread, so I don't want to speak for him, but I would think discussion about all of KISS' songs, even if you're late to the party, is welcome.
Absolutely. It's not *my* thread but our thread. I'm just the goof keeping it going. I intend to keep doing so for a long while.
I like 'Love Theme'. Way before I knew anything about Acrobat and all that I used to wonder about what the deal was, why was this thing even there. It has a cool and different sound and it's sort of mysterious. It never sounded like filler to me just a cool little thing that offered a peak at a possible different side of the band. As far as what the producers were thing, I don't know why they didn't put 'Watchin' You or something else in there instead of Love Theme. I can see the argument for doing that. But if they were going to use it at all I think they made the right call by shortening it. Listening to the full-length Acrobat makes that pretty clear, to me anyway. The Love Theme part is the best and most listenable part. The whole thing all together is a little long and not really that good.
