This got me thinking that I would bet that the band went into this album with almost no songs. Many of the songs on this album feel haphazard or in Gene's case, were bits of old discarded songs slapped together and retooled. If you got a verse and a chorus, fudge together a second verse, chorus again, add a guitar solo, then repeat chorus until fade out. They probably rehearsed the skeletons of songs once or twice, recorded them and didn't bother to arrange the endings because it was easier to fade out. Which also got me wondering about the tempos of the songs on this record. It's probably the most "mid tempo'd" of all the KISS albums. One way to stretch the length of a song out is to repeat the chorus until the fade out the other way is to slow the tempos of the songs down. I know that many contracts, especially from the 70's 80's, will state that an "album" consists of so many minutes worth of material. I wonder if the tempos were deliberately slowed down either by having Peter play slower or by actually slowing the multitrack tape of Peters performances in order to stretch the length of the record out.
I think you nailed it regarding Ace's tone and execution- especially solos- on this record. It's a close call, but I would call this his best record.
Simply put, Mr. Speed is a fun, kick a$$ KISS song. I just have a hard time believing any KISS fan could not or would not like this song.
What happened to the person who started that thread, by the way? He/she seemed like a cool dude/dudette, but I don't remember seeing them after they abandoned that thread. Of course, I don't remember what their user name was, and I've even already forgotten their avatar, which they might have changed anyway . . . I'm still pretty new here and I'm primarily remembering people by their avatars so far.
@If I Can Dream_23 was the dude/dudette. I think he decided to bail and take his toys with him. Too bad, the guy is a passionate KISS fan. I'd love for him to participate but I don't see it happening. Maybe, though.
MR. SPEED: My favorite tune off of RNRO and one I never get tired of hearing. It's just an infectious tune that once you hear it, you can't get it out of your freaking head! LIKE NOW!
Anyway, never mind the music...anyone else still got their RnRO stickers intact? (or their LOVE GUN?)
Most of my inserts are gone or in bad shape and stored somewhere other than the albums. However, I still have my love gun stored in the album sleeve . . . but the "Bang" part is ripped at the fold (from playing with it). The inside sleeve of that album is also pretty much in two separate pieces.
I might have the stickers from RaRO but the love gun was destroyed many years ago. My vinyl copy of Love Gun is close to 40 years old.
I wish I still had all of the solo album posters in decent shape. I'd get them framed now. When I was a kid I had my room wallpapered in posters--a lot of it was centerfolds from Hit Parader and Circus, but I also had stuff like the KISS album posters, inserts, etc. hanging up, as well as larger posters from places like Spencer's. My best friend and I would regularly rearrange them, which led to a lot of bends, tears, tack holes, and later stains from that stickem/gummy stuff we used to use. When I finally moved out of my folks' place, my bedroom walls were so full of tack holes that my dad just paneled over them, haha.
No stickers in RaRO - but reaquired a Love Gun in 03' that has a small tear.... probably same as described above & is a bit yellow. Nice to have a fresh gun w the reissue.
Too funny as I did the same. My entire room was covered in pull outs, posters, and inserts. I used push pins to put them up. When I finally took them down there must have been 1000 holes in my wall. My mom wound up having to repaint the room just to cover up all the holes.
I still have my LOVE GUN, RaRO stickers and all the inserts from The Originals. Also the Paul mask which came with the purple vinyl 7" of Hold Me Touch Me, and the posters from Paul & Ace's albums. Did the US versions of any of the first 4 studio albums have special inner sleeves or other stuff inside? I'm pretty sure we got stiffed with UK pressings, in terms of packaging, although there is the minor bonus of the Pye/Casablanca pressings ('Quiex' vinyl?) which were slightly translucent - blood red or purple - when held up to the light.
My older brother had RARO & Alive II with the loot, and over the years, I took possession of his early KISS albums. But I knew well enough not mess around with the booklets, stickers, tattoos because he would probably one day ask "Hey, what happened to my KISS albums?". I picked up the 2014 reissues and returned his copies back to him. The only one of his albums that I kept was an original Led Zeppelin "In Through The Out Door" which I wiped with a damp towel to get the color effect on the inner record sleeve. He's not a Zep fan and it was gift to him so I now consider that my album! My room was plastered with posters as well. I regret that the Dark Side Of The Moon poster and stickers are long gone along with the Aerosmith Live Bootleg poster. Also had some cool KISS posters - Spirit of '76, Gene Simmons from the '78-ish set, a mega poster that would be cool to still have.
SEE YOU IN YOUR DREAMS 1976 (Simmons) 2:34 This was already covered in the first thread but I thought we'd revisit it here again. The original title of this in demo version was "See You In Your Dreams Tonight" but the "tonight" was dropped when the song was included for Rock and Roll Over. The basis for this song goes back to a demo from early 1976. It's a very short song and features Gene on rhythm guitar. The song was also included on Gene's 1978 solo album with a bit of a different feel to it, but it's not radically different. The biggest difference being the production is a bit slicker and it's more Jim Steinman like in terms of the female background vocals and the bass line is changed up. The version for Rock and Roll Over kind of has a fifties vibe to it with Gene's walking bass line but the backing vocals by Paul and Gene hark back more to The Beatles or British Invasion type band. Peter does a good job of hitting the accents with his high hat and really propels the song along with his strong 4/4 beat. There's some interesting rhythm guitar going on with the harmonic melody that's going on starting at 0:43. I also like the choppy, almost percussive guitar on the right channel. It's a nice touch. Good job of Paul doing kind of doing a call and response with the other backing vocals (which are Gene and Paul). I really like Ace's tasteful high flourishes on this in terms of his solo and, once again, kind of channels Chuck Berry for the lick at 1:24. I don't think there's much evidence of this tune being played live and I can see why. It's not that great. However, I would say it is KISS at their most "pop" sounding and the quick hitting tune is pretty catchy. Not too sure why Gene decided to re-do this one for his solo album other than he felt he could improve on it or he lacked material. I'll link Gene's version from his solo album for comparison. See which version you like (or dislike) more. PS Sorry this blurb is so short but for the first time ever in doing this thread I had a write up ready and accidentally deleted it and, thus, had to redo it (which hacks me off big time).
