No way...you are the MAN in charge. Greatest thread ever despite being knee deep in the mid 80's muck.
LOVE's A DEADLY WEAPON Time to play "spot the riff" again. It all sounds familiar and derivative. At least Gene sounds like he's having fun for the 28 whole minutes he spent in the studio that particular week. Bruce's solo almost sounds like a cross between Vinnie Vincent and Mark St. John, showing that in '85 everyone still was in "shred" mode, for better or for worse.
LOVE'S A DEADLY WEAPON This song is not the greatest, but I have to give Gene props for seamlessly integrating the scrap pieces of the "Deadly Weapons" demo, his vocal range demonstration, and his bass playing. The runs during the solo are pretty great, actually some of his best bass work on an Eighties KISS song because the tone is unmistakably him. It's kind of sad that "Trial By Fire" is his best song on the album so far, but here we are. On the topic of the first album cover, Peter's make-up is distracting in a bad way. It looks like Emmet Kelly after a bender. Ace looks awesome. I never liked Gene's "mk I" make-up. Paul is just kind of there, stealth sass. It says "whoo" politely, in lower case letters. Welcome back, @GodShifter!
This is a fair point, but HITS and CoS aren't exactly memorable albums as a whole And to some, neither are Asylum or CN ... sooooooo, perhaps he was just being a proper musician and playing exactly what the material called for?
When I hear people say that Bruce didn't produce memorable solos, I have to wonder what the benchmark is. If it's Rhoads, EVH, Page, then fair enough. But compare him to the contemporary competitors of KISS in the Eighties. Did Scorpions, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Crue, Ratt, et al, have THAT many "memorable" solos? Personally, I don't think so - maybe a handful each, about the same as Bruce. Like him, you'll hear ones that you think "oh, not bad - nicely composed." But only the true musos are going to be humming their solos vs their riffs or choruses days later. Bruce filled in space well. His strength was (generally) suiting the song and adding bits that weren't necessarily the main solo. Think of the outro run on "Turn On The Night." Then think of how VV or MSJ would handle it. I don't think anyone is saying he's a virtuoso, but he's not as bad as some suggest. And after the high maintenance predecessors, his cost-controlled work ethic and chill demeanor was just what the doctor of love ordered. Ace was the expensive divorce, VV and MSJ were the intense rebound flings, Bruce was the steady, comfortable second marriage. As it were.
Oh, I know. I didn't go there because that's a hopeless overmatch in KISStory. Would even 5% of KISS fans prefer any of their other lead guitarists' solos over the Spaceman's?
TEARS ARE FALLING 1985 (Stanley) (3:55) According to Paul Stanley this song was inspired by Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight” (though listening to that song, “Tears Are Falling" sounds nothing like it - maybe the central riff, maybe). KISS’s “Tears Are Falling” was the only single released from Asylum but did very poorly on the charts only reaching # 51 on the Billboard charts though it did reach # 20 on the US Mainstream Rock Charts. “Tears Are Falling” was also one of three videos shot for Asylum along with “Who Wants to Be Lonely” and “Uh! All Night”. Paul Stanley plays bass on this track and drummer, Alan Schwartzberg, adds some drum fills for the song. "Tears are Falling" is the only song written solely by Paul Stanley on Asylum and is actually one of the few in the 80's that he did write completely by himself. Rolling off a simmering riff that sounds like almost always ready to explode, “Tears Are Falling” is a similar song to “Lick It Up” of its mid tempo groove and its fairly simple structure. The big, open chords (with lots of tremolo provided by Bruce Kulick) fit well with the pulsing bass line and fairly straight forward drumming by Eric Carr. The song is a melodic crunchy, rocker and features one of Bruce Kulick’s better guitar solos, as it fits the song perfectly. The criticism I would level at “Tears” is that like “Who Wants to Be Lonely” (which sounds a bit like this song’s cousin - kind of a in the pocket rocker) Paul tends to over sing on this tune. It’s like he can’t let there be any space between phrases. He’s also throwing in a “ooooh” or “wooooaaahhh” or something of that nature. He seems quite enamored with his voice in other words. It's a bit distracting a takes away from the vibe a bit. Also listen for the little whispers he does after certain sections. I really like “Tears Are Falling” quite a bit, but one issue I’ve always had with this tune is the chorus where Paul does some add libbing which is frankly borderline idiotic. “Oh, no! Tears are falling - they’re falling from YOUR EYES!!” Wow, that’s deep. So let me get this straight, tears are falling from someone’s eyes? Where else would the be coming from? Their butt? It’s just flat dumb, but, whatever, a minor quibble. If you really listen to the song, I suppose, you can hear a bit of a funk influence in the tune much like “Who Wants to Be Lonely”. This obviously harks back to Stanley’s early influences as early KISS had a lot of funk and soul to its sound. So, it still exists with metal KISS but it’s harder to find on later albums.
The video for "Tears Are Falling" shot in London, England and directed by David Mallet. Mallet had also worked with Def Leppard and David Bowie. It was basically shot on the same location as "Who Wants to Be Lonely".
TEARS ARE FALLING Unreal...and Paul wrote this one all by himself! I love the vocal...Paul really restrained and interesting, and Eric Carr coming in with his great "and then it's raining..." on the pre-chorus. Wow @GodShifter, we really don't see eye-to-eye on this one...I love Paul's "wooo's" and his 'ad-libs' at the end. The raw emotion he conveys makes up for any hint of cheesiness! And Bruce...man...what a lead. Top 10 best KISS lead for sure. So much emotion and I love that short duel part of it.
Also, wasn't this #1 on the MTV request show for something like 6 months? It was a big video hit for them for sure.
TEARS ARE FALLING This song is in neck and neck for best song on the album. This is Paul’s 80’s equivalent of Love Gun as he is extremely proud of this song that he wrote himself and he wrote it very quickly just like Love Gun. They thought it was going to be a big hit but it never happened. The song did get heavy rotation on MTV and was on Dial MTV (it may have been titled something else in late 1985 I don’t remember). Great riff and Bruce’s solo is one of his best- easily a Top 3 solo for him here. The production is the only problem I have as everything is really muddy aside from the guitars which probably prevented it being a big hit. It should have been smoothed out. A single remix would’ve been a good idea here. Neil Young’s Rockin’ In The Free World sounds very close to Tears Are Falling riff-wise. I’m not crazy when I say that right?? Anyways great song and one of the best of the Kiss unmasked period.
Tears Are Falling: Starts with a pretty cool riff, the band locked into a simple pocket, Paul does some fairly nice vocals, the backing vocals are very strong, some great hooks throughout this song, and as much as I dismiss Bruce normally(though I don't take back anything I've said about him), I have to give him this song, he delivered a solid solo here, usually his solos are about as memorable as that movie I talked about during Danger, but here he shows a nice melodic touch that compliments the song well. And wow, I never realized that was Eric singing "and now it's raining", nice. Overall, this is one of the three Paul songs I like on this album (KOTM is not one of the three).
Man, I just don't hear muddy at all. Layers of guitars are clear, drums are clear, vocals out front, lead sears through.
Now to catch up a bit on the songs I missed: I'M ALIVE 1985 (Stanley, Kulick, Child) (3:43) This song was written by Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick, and singer/songwriter Desmond Child and it pretty much flat out tries to be a speed rocker. I guess the idea was to emulate Mötley Crüe (the riff, once again, sounds like "Live Wire" mixed with "Wild Side"). This song is too frenetic and I don't like the heavy background vocals on it. I find this tune to be a very ordinary heavy rocker with the requisite amount of flashy guitar and dive bomb solos and whammy bar effects. It doesn't do much for me. I'm glad I didn't have to do a write up on it. I'm not sure what I could have said that very positive other than it has a stand out performance by Eric Carr on drums. LOVE'S A DEADLY WEAPON 1985 (Simmons, Stanley, Swenson, Beech) (3:29) "Love's a Deadly Weapon" came out the Wendy O. Williams album Kommander Kaos sessions which Gene had done some pre-production work for but didn't wind up producing. Hearing a song called "Party" written by Rod Swenson and Wes Beech (former guitarist for The Plasmastics) Gene took the idea and wrote some different parts with Stanley to create this song. Beech and Swenson did not actually write with Simmons and Stanley but were credited anyway for their contribution. The song itself is a decent speed rocker with really impressive high register Gene vocals, but other wise it's not really that outstanding of a tune. I do like it better than "I'm Alive" though.
I can definitely hear the "Keep On Rockin' in the Free World" vibe. I'm a bit embarrassed I didn't pick up on that.
