Take It Off

Greg Prato

Description

‘This was a statement: We’re on our way back. It signaled to the industry that this band that you thought was over and done … might not be.’ Eddie Trunk (Trunk Nation host)

‘There’s just something about those albums they released from 1983 to 1997 that resonates with me more than their other music.’ Chris Jericho (Fozzy)

There is a common misconception about KISS, one of the greatest hard-rock/heavy metal-bands of all-time: that their ‘non-makeup’ era of 1983-1996 is not as enduring as the period when they stalked stages as the Starchild, the Demon, the Spaceman, and the Cat.

This is untrue. In fact, this period helped resuscitate KISS’s career, as they reestablished themselves in arenas, on the charts, and via MTV, and yielded some of their most popular songs – including ‘Lick It Up,’ ‘Heaven’s On Fire,’ ‘Tears Are Falling,’ ‘Crazy Crazy Nights,’ ‘Hide Your Heart,’ ‘Forever,’ ‘Unholy,’ and more – many of which consistently found their way into the band’s set lists.

While the majority of KISS books are focused on the glitz and glamour of the iconic makeup era, the non-makeup years are ripe to be explored in book form, and Take It Off does just that, zeroing in on the eleven albums KISS issued during this period – including such gold- and platinum-certified hits as Lick It Up, Animalize, Crazy Nights, Revenge, and Alive III – as well the resulting tours, videos, and other escapades.

Take It Off draws on all-new interviews with KISS experts and associates, including the band’s lead guitarist throughout most of this period, Bruce Kulick, plus Crazy Nights producer Ron Nevison and video director Paul Rachman (‘Unholy’ / ‘I Just Wanna’ / ‘Domino’). Among the other contributors are Charlie Benante (Anthrax), K.K. Downing (ex-Judas Priest), Derek Sherinan (ex-Dream Theater), and rock music experts Eddie Trunk, Katherine Turman, and Lonn Friend. The book also includes a foreword by Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho and an afterword by acclaimed producer Andreas Carlsson, as well as rare photographs and memorabilia from the period.

Now is the time to get Truly Unmasked!

Sujets

• Musique
• Culture musicale
• Histoire de la musique
• Individual Composer
• Musician
• Music

Informations

• Publié par: Jawbone Press
• Date de parution: 11 novembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781911036586
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

A Jawbone ebook
First edition 2019
Published in the UK and the USA by
Jawbone Press
Office G1, 141–157 Acre Lane
London SW2 5UA
England
www.jawbonepress.com
Volume copyright © 2019 Outline Press Ltd. Text copyright © Greg Prato Writer Corp. All rights reserved. No part of this book covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or copied in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews where the source should be made clear. For more information contact the publishers.
Jacket design by Paul Palmer-Edwards
Ebook design by Tom Seabrook

CONTENTS
FOREWORD BY CHRIS JERICHO
INTRODUCTION BY GREG PRATO
01 LICK IT UP
02 ANIMALIZE
03 CREATURES OF THE NIGHT
04 ASYLUM
05 CRAZY NIGHTS
06 SMASHES, THRASHES & HITS
07 HOT IN THE SHADE
08 REVENGE
09 ALIVE III
10 KISS MY ASS: CLASSIC KISS REGROOVED
11 KISS UNPLUGGED
12 CARNIVAL OF SOULS: THE FINAL SESSIONS
AFTERWORD BY ANDREAS CARLSSON
EDDIE TRUNK’S TOP 20 KISS SONGS OF THE NON-MAKEUP ERA

FOREWORD
BY CHRIS JERICHO
In the fall of 1984, I turned on the television to watch my weekly dose of rock videos. I can’t remember if the show I was watching was Friday Night Videos on NBC, or maybe the local Winnipeg show Citivision , but what I do remember was a video that started with this really cool-looking guy with long curly hair and a devil-may-care smirk on his face, yodeling while his hands were on fire.
Then the song kicked in, and what followed over the next three minutes was this guy and his band seemingly having the time of their lives. He was dancing onstage, making out with women, sucking on his finger, singing harmonies with the drummer … and then, for the grand finale, he jumped through a FLAMING HOOP OF FIRE. I had never seen anybody in a band do anything like that before, and I was instantly hooked. The guy was of course Paul Stanley, and the band was of course KISS.
The next day, I went to the store and bought my first KISS album, Animalize , and my lifelong obsession with KISS began. Now, of course I had heard of KISS and knew who they were, but I wasn’t really into the whole makeup thing, as I felt it was an outdated remnant of the 70s. However, I had no idea that they had taken their makeup off, so I was totally surprised when I saw them, sans greasepaint, looking cool and contemporary in that video. I wanted to be those guys!
Paul once said that it didn’t matter what floor of the KISS elevator you got on as a fan, as long as you got on. Well, non-makeup 80s KISS is and always will be my floor. Paul, Gene, Bruce, and both Erics are my classic KISS lineup, and I don’t care who disagrees.
Now obviously over the last thirty-five years, I’ve gone back through their catalogue and completely embraced all of KISS’s work from the 70s and the 90s, all the way up to the present day. But there’s just something about those albums they released from 1983 to 1997 that resonates with me more than their other music. Maybe it’s because I grew up with those records as they were released, maybe it’s because I’m a nonconformist, or maybe it’s because I admire and respect the balls it took for KISS to unmask and totally reinvent themselves. It’s something I’ve done many times in my own career.
Now, they’ve always done that musically—by using elements of disco, pop, glam, grunge, and thrash in their songs, depending on the era. But to me, their willingness to change their entire image and embrace what was going on in the early and mid-80s makes KISS mk. II almost as popular and relevant as the original version. Name another band that transitioned from the 70s to the 80s as successfully as KISS did? Sure, there are a few—like ZZ Top and Rush—but KISS not only transitioned into the 80s but they were tailor-made for the excess and debauchery of the times, and they obviously had more fun with it than those other bands. Believe me, Rush Exposed or ZZ Top X-Treme Close Up never would’ve cut it!
When KISS put the makeup back on for the reunion in 1996, I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I thought then (and still do) that the Stanley/Simmons/Kulick/Singer lineup was their tightest and best. But I understood the reason they did it, and why they felt the need to reinvent themselves once more. It’s what they have always done.
And now we are here in 2019, and KISS are about to embark on the End Of The Road tour. I’m sure they will play the bulk of their hits from the 70s … but I always get just a little more excited when they launch into an 80s classic, like ‘Lick It Up’ or ‘Hide Your Heart.’ And I’m even more stoked at the prospect of them adding ‘Heaven’s On Fire’ back into the set! It’s their best-written song of the 80s, with one of the best choruses in rock history.
But the main reason why I’m so happy when they play a song from the non-makeup days is because they are few and far between in the modern setlists. And that’s another reason why I love that era: those songs can only be heard on our devices and streams. They will never be played into the ground live, so they always remain fresh … they are like lost artifacts found only in Abner Devereaux’s laboratory.
In closing, both Paul and Gene have said that when they are ready to hang up the platform boots, KISS will continue on without them, and I have no doubt that it will. I just hope that when they find a replacement Starchild and Demon for the 70s-era KISS, they find alternates for a non-makeup KISS lineup, as well! After all, the world needs more neon-pink cloaks and Body Glove costumes in these troubled times, doncha think?
Chris Jericho, Fozzy, January 20, 2019

INTRODUCTION
BY GREG PRATO
I must confess, after becoming a major KISS fanatic at the ripe old age of five (thanks to a friend who let me view his KISS trading cards at our school bus stop), there was a period of time during the early 80s when I took a KISS sabbatical.
I could deal with the grief I took for even uttering the words ‘I like KISS’ when friends and acquaintances discussed music (and, to this day, I’ve never seen a rock band get such an instantly vehemently negative reply from the majority of others—usually ‘KISS SUCKS!’). I could even deal with the fact that KISS were now mostly allotted to the covers of 16 Magazine , Teen Beat , and Tiger Beat , rather than Circus , Creem , or Hit Parader . But what I could no longer stomach was that when you stacked their last few albums ( Dynasty , Unmasked , and Music From The Elder ) up against their hard-rockin’ output from ’74–78 (OK, OK, besides Peter Criss’s flaccid solo album), there was simply no comparison. Musically, it appeared as though KISS had completely lost the plot, and were beyond the point of no return.
And while a viewing of the killer ‘I Love It Loud’ video did pique my interest, it was not enough for me to pick up the Creatures Of The Night album at the time of its initial October ’82 release. But during the summer of ’83, and after a ‘musical realignment’ when I began soaking up the peaceful and serene sounds of AC/DC, Ozzy, and Maiden, I decided to re-inspect my old, well-worn KISS vinyl. A pleasant surprise was in store for my earholes— Destroyer , Rock And Roll Over , and Alive II fit in splendidly with my then-current playlist of Highway To Hell , Speak Of The Devil , and Piece Of Mind .
Even so, thinking back on this precise point in KISStory, it sometimes gets lost how it was undoubtedly the lowest point of the band’s entire career. Their last few albums had not come close to the platinum-certified heights of their aforementioned 70s classics, while it appeared as though their once-massive fan base had dwindled and turned their attention elsewhere—including to up-and-coming metal bands (some of whom were more than happy to pick up the slack in the makeup ’n’ metal department), plus more easier-to-digest MTV acts.
Today, however, Creatures is rightfully considered a glorious return to form, and one of KISS’s best studio efforts. But it underperformed on the charts upon its release, peaking at only #45 on the Billboard 200. And when KISS promoted the album with a US tour (their first in three years), they were consistently playing to half-empty venues, and performed a meager fifty-six concerts. It was a far cry from the days of headlining Anaheim Stadium and multiple nights at Madison Square Garden. It didn’t take a genius to recognize that KISS had to do something drastic— and quick .
So, when it was announced that KISS were planning on finally unmasking and preparing a new album for release, I was certainly interested. I unfortunately missed the official unmasking of the band on MTV (back in the pre-internet era, it was often difficult to find out about these things in a timely manner), but I did make a point of remaining in my seat one day when an MTV VJ announced that the music video for the song ‘Lick It Up’ would be coming up in a jiffy.
Admittedly, if you were to view the video today, you would probably think it a bit foolish (it’s a mini-movie with visuals à la Escape From New York ), but in its proper time and place, it was one heck of a cool video clip and song—especially to someone like me, who was just about to enter teenagerdom. Soon after, not only did I secure a copy of Lick It Up but I also went back and purchased Creatures Of The Night . By the time of Animalize —and with the prompting of a chum who was an even bigger KISS fanatic than yours truly—I was ready to proclaim KISS as my new favorite rock band (sorry, AC/DC). I remained faithful to KISS throughout the 80s, turning an entire bedroom wall into a photo shrine to the band, and began a crusade of introducing as many of my fellow friends to their music.
And while they did not quite become the cultural phenomenon that they were in the 70s, there was no denying that KISS did successfully re-establish themselves as one of the most popular hard-rock/heavy-metal bands around for the