{"id":82126,"date":"2025-08-21T08:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/82126\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T08:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:04:08","slug":"the-album-gene-simmons-said-was-the-peak-of-kiss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/82126\/","title":{"rendered":"The album Gene Simmons said was the peak of Kiss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kiss<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Casablanca Records)<\/p>\n

Thu 21 August 2025 4:00, UK <\/p>\n

When you listen to Kiss<\/a>, which band do you immediately think of? Yes, of course, The Beatles. <\/p>\n

Well, at least that\u2019s the case if you believe what Paul Stanley says<\/a>. The band who are most renowned for their stadium rock, live show and facepaint credited the Beatles with being their inspiration. It wasn\u2019t anything necessarily about their sound or how they acted throughout their career, but it was instead the fact that the Beatles (and other 1960s bands around them) all looked like unified musical outfits.<\/p>\n

While The Beatles might have hated wearing their suits and having to cut their hair shorter, the look made it so they were clearly from the same band. Paul Stanley has previously said that it was their unity which inspired Kiss to paint their faces. They didn\u2019t feel like bands in the \u201870s had as iconic images as those from the decade prior, and he wanted to reintroduce the unique element of individual bands. <\/p>\n

While the original idea that the band had makes perfect sense, it also helped them channel the two best aspects of Kiss: their ability to be versatile and their live show. Gene Simmons once spoke about the fact that by painting their faces, they channelled The Beatles in a way that expanded beyond their look, as they were given permission to explore different styles in the same way the Beatles did.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also took pride in having the same freedom The Beatles had,\u201d said Simmons. \u201cTheir philosophy was, \u2018No matter what kind of music we do, it\u2019s still The Beatles.\u2019 That\u2019s what was amazing about them\u2026 The Beatles were not trapped in that way. They could do music hall, psychedelia \u2013 anything \u2013 and they did. Yet somehow it always sounded like The Beatles.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you take an album like Dynasty, for example, this record came during a period of friction within Kiss. Peter Criss was at the end of his tether with the band and wanted to leave, and each band member had different ideas about the direction they should go in. The result is a pretty haphazard offering, but one that remains one of Kiss\u2019s most commercially successful albums. They could get away with having an album which was mixed in tone, because their image is what held it all together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With blends of disco, funk and rock all mixed into one, there is no denying the fact that the versatility on Dynasty makes it a pretty great album; however, it\u2019s not Gene Simmons\u2019 favourite. Kiss have been able to continue selling out stadiums around the world for decades because they\u2019re one of the greatest live bands in the world. Starting their gigs with the proclamation that the audience \u201cWanted the best\u201d and subsequently \u201cGot the best\u201d would seem big-headed coming from any other musical outfit, but when Kiss take to the stage and deliver their unrelenting heap of pyro, rock and energy, they give crowds something they\u2019ve never experienced before.<\/p>\n

Geezer Butler once recalled the time Black Sabbath had Kiss as their support<\/a> act and worried about following them every night because of the high bar they set. \u201cIt was a completely new direction for people,\u201d recalled Butler. \u201cPeople had to start thinking about stage production after Kiss. It was tough to follow them. We went on just as an ordinary band, no effects or anything, and everybody else still had their mouths wide open from seeing Kiss.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of bands struggle to condense the energy of their live show into an album, but Kiss managed it with their record Alive!. Fans were transported from their living rooms to the front row of one of the greatest gigs in the world, and as such, the record became one of Kiss\u2019s most commercially successful. Alive! Is Gene Simmons\u2019 favourite Kiss album for that very reason, as what they prided themselves on the most was now a tangible piece of music.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were at the peak of our career when we recorded Alive!, and we knew it,\u201d Simmons concluded. \u201cAlive! was real, and was very much a product of its time \u2013 it wasn\u2019t just Kiss, it was the mid-70s. People had had enough of the hippie, political thing and just wanted to rock out and have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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