Ratings: I'm A Legend Tonight 5/10 Down On Your Knees 3/10 Nowhere To Run 7/10 Partners In Crime 7/10
Yeah, I'm always jazzed to start a new album. CotN is an interesting album as to its personnel (or lack thereof) and heavier direction. I believe it was around that time that Eddie Van Halen made overtures to Gene about wanting to join the band. I think I remember reading that.
I don't hate it or anything but I have a feeling it's going to be 9 days of you guys slobbering and me posting over and over.
Oh right, this is when I rank the tracks: Nowhere to Run-7.5/10 Down On Your Knees-4/10 Partners On Crime-3/10 I'm a Legend Tonight-1/10
From me...yes....you are going to get sick of it. Chuck Klosterman has a great line about that: "This was also the period when Eddie Van Halen allegedly asked Gene Simmons if he could join Kiss, an anecdote Gene has told approximately 4,000 times and Eddie has told approximately never."
NOWHERE TO RUN To bad there isn't after hearing this pos song. PARTNERS IN CRIME Spare me...my ears are ringing.
Yeah, that story makes little sense in regards to Eddie's career. Van Halen is arguably at the height of their power (or close to it) and he wants to join the sinking ship that is KISS? Sounds like Gene spin to me.
These Killers tracks are starting to make me think Paul fell asleep around this time with For Those About To Rock on repeat. In this case I find that Partners in Crime is giving me a serious Spellbound vibe. I feel like there's something I want to like about PIC but it's just not quite getting there. The lyrics are a so lazy that Gene thinks they need more work. It really does sound like the lead guitar coloring is right up Vinnie Vincent's alley. But Vinnie is such a bizarre, unique and crazy individual that his strangeness would have immediately made this more interesting. Although given the AC/DC style, this song didn't need an Yngwie type it needed an Angus Young type. Like, uh, oh I don't know, Ace Frehley maybe? I don't love this song by any means but I seem to like it more than most here. I like those kinda greasy riffed AC/DC songs like Spellbound and Badlands. Partners In Crime is hardly as good as those two songs but there you go.
Or said in mock desperation/jest because Eddie found DLR difficult and that was the real point of the comment. Gene: "We need a new guitarist." Eddie: "I'll do it! Anything to get away from Roth..." I never took this seriously and, even if it were, it sounds like a bad match to me...
Sounds like a drunk and/or stoned Eddie shooting his mouth off. I don't doubt Eddie was feeling sorry for himself and said certain things but I doubt he has any memory of it.
One thing about all of the Killers songs is they are all different from what came before. It was the beginning of 80's Kiss with these songs however you feel about that.
It's so odd to put out another compilation album when we just had Double Platinum 3ish years before. Besides these "Fantastic Four" songs, Killers only had IWMFLY, Sure Know Something and in some countries Shandi, Talk to Me & Escape From the Island. Why was this thing necessary? Maybe it's just because I don't like these songs, but I can't see Paul and Gene pushing to see Down on Your Knees released into the wild. I guess the only reason to release another compilation is that Dynasty > Unmasked > Elder were such flops that they had to remind the public that KISS was still Cold Gin/Love Gun/Shout It/DRC/God of Thunder/RARAN. Just so, so weird. I am excited for Creatures and especially tomorrow's song. Yeehaw!
The good thing about Unmasked and Elder is that they've gotten better with time, as well as gain a bigger following from Kiss fans the last 30 + years. IMHO
PARTNERS IN CRIME After reading everyone's opinions on this song, I was expecting to like this about as much as "I'm A Legend Tonight", which is to say, a "meh"-level of enthusiasm. Though this is no masterpiece, it's pleasant enough while it's on. It struck me while listening to it that this really feels like the first true "80's KISS/MTV tune". Which could either be a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective. Just finished listening to the remix. Wow! I could never wrap my head around this song being on CREATURES, but I certainly can now! This would have totally fit on that album in this incarnation. Speaking of... someone here said that this song wasn't remixed until '89, and even though I don't have anything definitive, I would assume that is incorrect, since there is an early/rough track listing for potential inclusions for CREATURES, and this song is on it. [SEE BELOW] And there's no way that I can see that the KILLERS version would have fit on CREATURES in any way, shape or form. So this remix (or one similar to it) has to have been from around '82. Anyway, I like this song more than most here. It's not an upper-tier KISS song by any stretch, but neither is it the garbage tune that some here have suggested. Then again, I'm sure many of you here think I'm too easy on KISS, and grade their songs much too generously. Maybe I do. 7.5/10 I am looking forward to revisiting the makeup-free period. My memories are that ANIMALIZE is not all that good, ASYLUM is so-so, CRAZY NIGHTS is terrible, and HOT IN THE SHADE is fairly strong. So it will be fun to see if my current views of those albums match my memories. I'm hoping to find some random Gene and Paul tunes that were a lot better than I had remembered them. For that matter, it will be interesting to see if the next two albums (CREATURES and LIU) are as good as I remember them!
This is truly odd. Paul, Gene and Ace aren't even pictured with the same look as the cover of the album! But they do use a more recent pic of Eric!?! Do you know how many pages this booklet had? And sources for images of the other pages?
I always pictured that alleged occurence as Eddie and Gene hanging out one day while KISS was recording, and an unhappy Eddie thinking out loud that it would be fun to be onstage in KISS. Basically daydreaming about something different, that sounded like fun. But was he really serious? It seems highly doubtful. More just like daydreaming/fantasizing, and then Gene holding onto the memory of that day and later trying to suggest that Eddie was serious. That's my hunch, anyway...
Thanks. I'd never seen this before. At first, I thought the 4 shots were all on one page, so that's why I thought there might be more. Thanks for sharing!
