Hard Luck Woman – Kiss

One of the most endearing songs that Kiss ever released was this acoustic guitar based ballad that featured lead vocals from drummer Peter Criss. It remains one of writer  Paul Stanley’s masterstrokes in the evolution of the band.

It was a formulaic song in the way in was structured and it was highly reminiscent of a Faces song like Maggie May or You Wear It Well more so than most of the rock music that had carried Kiss into the hearts and minds of fans around the world. It’s no surprise then that Stanley actually wrote it with the intention of Rod Stewart singing it. Hard Luck woman was later covered by Garth Brooks for a Kiss tribute album

Where Stanley was clever here is that he cast the title character as a completely different kind of woman than those usually found in Kiss songs. “A sailors only daughter” was not the image of the kind of woman that Kiss usually lauded and by giving Criss the task of singing this song it helped establish a character for the “cat” that actually had an identity. It was a process that had started with Beth and Hard Luck Woman bought in home.

Criss was a limited vocalist but his raspy tone and sincere performance on this song was ideal for what it sought to achieve.

Ace Frehley Tour Re-Scheduled

Ace Frehley’s creatively named It’s Ace Downunder tour is now scheduled for February 2010.

The East Coast venues remain the same and all tickets bought for the October tour are valid for the rescheduled February shows. Additional  dates have also been added in Adelaide and Perth. If you had tickets for the October shows and are unable to make the new dates you can obtain a refund from ticketing agency.

VIP Meet And Greet packages are available in all states.

This is the first ever solo tour to Australia by the former Kiss Spaceman.

The press release offers “Ace Frehley is one of the most influential guitarists in rock history and his trademark KISS black-white-and-silver face paint is one of the most recognisable images in rock history.”

That’s a lot of use of the phrase “rock history”.

You gotta love Ace Frehley. He’s a kooky Kiss member, the one who always seemed a bit out of place in the Kiss money making machine. He’s fought a few demons along the way and has somehow come out the other end with his spirit intact.

He may not have a celebrity/reality show like Gene Simmons but he probably should!

And lets not forget that Ace  designed the KISS iconic logo.

On September 15th Ace Frehley released Anomaly, an album that’s set to become his most successful solo release to date.  It’s his first solo album  in nearly 20 years.

Lets not forget that Ace Frehley’s first solo album was his 1978 self-titled classic, the most successful of the four KISS members’ solo albums and the only one to spawn a hit single  New York Groove.

As for the lengthy delay between solo albums, “I don’t know why it’s taken so long,” he confesses. “I had to put the record on the back burner when I reunited with KISS. But I knew it would be important, so I kept listening to my old records to try to capture what the fans like.”

To commemorate Ace Frehley’s latest solo release, Gibson has created their second Ace Frehley signature Les Paul guitar – the first one (in 1997) was one of the best-selling signature models of all time.

Perth : Monday February 1st, Metropolis Fremantle.
Adelaide : Thursday February 4th, HQ.
Melbourne : Friday February 5th, Palace (formerly Metro)
Sydney : Sunday February 7th, Enmore Theatre
Brisbane : Monday February 8th, The Tivoli

Another Kiss Box Set

There’s only so many ways to re-package a catalogue but Kiss keep coming up with new ones.

The latest is a a four-CD collectors’ package called Ikons which  showcases the iconic contribution of each Kiss member to the greater good. The packaging for Ikons features a 24-page booklet filled with classic Kiss photos. The actual Kiss icons and the IKONS logo on the box cover are printed in silver foil.

Track Listing

Gene Simmons

1. God Of Thunder
2. Almost Human
3. Calling Dr. Love
4. Ladies Room
5. Christine Sixteen
6. Deuce
7. Rock And Roll All Nite
8. Cold Gin
9. Parasite
10. Larger Than Life
11. Love ‘em And Leave ‘Em
12. Plaster Caster
13. Radioactive
14. Charisma

It’s fair to say that Gene’s songs seem to specialise in the theme of sexual conquest – always a winner in rock n’ roll.

Paul Stanley

1. Detroit Rock City
2. Love Gun
3. Take Me
4. Strutter
5. C’mon And Love Me
6. Hotter Than Hell
7. 100,000 Years
8. Rock Bottom
9. Do You Love Me?
10. All American Man
11. Mr. Speed
12. I Stole Your Love
13. Wouldn’t You Like To Know Me
14. I Was Made For Lovin’ You

Paul clearly had a knack for pop melodies in rock songs and was the more commercial writer. There’s a couple of other songs of his like Hold Your Heart that probably should have been included.

Ace Frehley

1. New York Groove
2. Shock Me
3. 2,000 Man
4. Rocket Ride
5. Snow Blind
6. Speedin’ Back To My Baby
7. Talk To Me
8. What’s On Your Mind
9. Rip It Out
10. Save Your Love
11. Hard Times
12. Two Sides Of The Coin
13. Dark Light
14. Into The Void

As expected Ace’s contributions vary the most in quality – but there’s no denying that the best of them are great songs.

Peter Criss

1. Hard Luck Woman
2. Baby Driver
3. Hooligan
4. Beth
5. I Can’t Stop The Rain
6. Black Diamond
7. Mainline
8. Don’t You Let Me Down
9. Dirty Livin’
10. Getaway
11. Strange Ways
12. That’s The Kind Of Sugar Papa Likes
13. Easy Thing
14. I Finally Found My Way

Peter’s ballads Hard Luck Woman and Beth are important songs in the Kiss catalogue and Black Diamond is of course one of their greatest songs. Admittedly the quality drops of fairly quickly after that.

Ikons is available now.

My First Review – Kiss!

I’ve written a lot of reviews in my time but none had quite the immediate impact that the very first review had. It actually managed to bring an entire room to silence and cause a collective intake of breath. It also got me into a lot of trouble.

The review was of the Kiss song Shout It Out Loud.

It was way back in Form 2, so I was about 12 or 13 years old. The Form 2 English teacher at Murrumbeena High School (which incidentally is no longer there, and has become a housing estate) was Miss Warwar. She was known to be a tough, no-nonsense teacher whose classes were not to be taken lightly.

She did have her positive side though. Appearances can be deceiving and apparently Miss Warwar was a bit of a groover. This led to her setting us an assignment intended to test our English comprehension.

The task was to select our current favourite pop or rock song and analyse its lyrics. Then we had to write a report about our interpretation and present it to the class.

Little did I know at the time but this was going to be the first of probably ten thousand songs I would listen to, analyse and report on.

I was a big Kiss fan at the time (come to think of it I’m still a big Kiss fan!). I had discovered the band via their video for Rock N’ Roll All Nite and from there I had bought the Kiss Alive album before working my way back to Dressed to Kill, the self titled Kiss album and Hotter Than Hell.

By the time Destroyer came out I was pretty sure I was Australia’s pre-eminent Kiss expert – I was certain I was the best informed Kiss fan in Miss Warwar’s Form 2 Murrumbeena High School English class.

The song I chose was the first single from Destroyer – Shout It Out Loud. In retrospect it was an obvious first single – it was thematically almost identical to their big hit Rock N’ Roll All Nite and it had the same style of massed anthemic chorus.

History probably judges songs like God Of Thunder, Detroit Rock City and King Of The Night Time World as superior to Shout It Out Loud, but for me, as an impressionable 13 year old, Shout It Out Loud was my youth rebellion anthem.

I didn’t actually write a report – that would have been too much like homework – instead I was ready to give  a verbal report. When Miss Warwar asked for volunteers to go first I was quick to put up my hand. I was proud of  being a Kiss fan and I was already confident about my ability to string a few words together on music related matters.

I had it all well planned. I’d analysed the song in depth and came to the monumental conclusion that it was about a bunch of kids who were being exhorted to rebel against authority and express their rebellion by having a loud party. Deep stuff.

The problem came when I was describing what the kids were doing, how they were coping with their version of suburban boredom. I was rolling along nicely until I had to make a snap decision between saying they were “fooling around” and they were “mucking around”.

I chose both and loud and clear I announced to the class that the kids were out “fucking around”.

You could have heard a pin drop.

I quickly gathered myself and blubbered on until the end of my review, hoping that perhaps I’d been the only one to notice my gaffe. No such luck. Miss Warwar looked at me and said “I hope you are pleased with yourself”, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I’m sorry”, I replied. “It just slipped out”

Her response was to assign me 100 lines “I must not swear in class”.

I wonder if Hunter S Thompson started this way?

Kiss would continue to make some unexpected appearances in the story of my life, but not in this chapter.