You Want the Best! You Got Dan ...

Yes I am a Kiss fan, but no, I am not part of the Kiss Army (though that is why I live in Canada, draft dodging.... cough,cough...) They were my favourite band for a number of years up until early high school. "Hot in the Shade" is the album that got me hooked on Kiss. Mind you, I only owned a few of their albums which is shameful for a Kiss fan, but I was young and jobless, and by the time I got a job and money, I had out grown my Kiss phase. You don't have to be a fan to appreciate the influence Kiss has had on rock n roll and I learned a lot about them in the few years they ruled my cassette player. I don't need to go on much about the band -I'll be reviewing other albums at a later date (I've now increased my collection to a whopping total of ten).

But if you ever have the chance, see "Kiss meets the Phantom of the Park"! It is brilliant! A B-movie some would say (with a capital B!). I liked this album for one simple reason; Because "I" liked it. I heard some tracks, I liked them, I bought it. This is where I started to branch out on my own. This is by no means Kiss' best album, but it has some good songs (Even if "Forever" was partly written by Michael Bolton... sigh ...) I myself preferred the Gene Simmons songs, more for the darker, heavier feel like "Prisoner of Love" and "Betrayed" (for reasons you'll see as I progress through my CD collection) but I love the funky feel of "Read My Body" my favourite track. Kiss do not write a lot of inspirational music and though "Hide your Heart" got lots O radio play it was a little cheesy (especially the video, kind of West side story-ish). And I found they never broke a lot of ground musically. Sex, money, fame and Rock 'n' Roll! But they do that VERY well. "Love's a Slap in the Face" is another classic tune and lyrically amusing as well as the albums last song "Boomerang" which is a blistering guitar assault and a great closer.

This is not my favourite Kiss album, but it represents the time when I began discovering what I liked musically, independent of outside influences. This album to me is where I began my journey down a long musically unique road, and one I now tread alone. Oh, there are also people who introduced new music to me which would turn me down musical roads I may never have discovered, and I'll be writing about those shortly.


However, it was while watching Kiss interviews and footage of the "Hot in the Shade" tour that I discovered Slaughter.... but that has to wait till my next post ...