"But, haters, make no mistake, the make up and special effects would've gotten them a year and half of semi-fame, at most. Whether you deign to listen to them or not, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons WROTE GOOD SONGS."
I bet after last week you thought you might have seen the last of this band on these pages. Hell, I thought I was Kiss'd out, too. But my old pal really outdid himself. I already like this band and yet I found myself rah-rah-ing as I read the Huffington Post piece.
Baby, baby, don't you hesitate, please check out Binky Philips with (way more than) a few words on Kiss...and a few other people.
This will be it. Promise.
9 comments:
great one! i've loved, and commented on, Binky's columns since he started on HuffPost, and they're always a great read...if you don't know his stuff, go back and read all his archived columns from that page....he's a remarkably non-bitter peer of guys like Kiss and the Dolls, and man, i bet that ain't easy, with some of THE best stories in rock and roll...thanks for the link!
Horseshit. Poison was huge, I still hear them on the radio, and they couldn't write a song if you sat them on a landmine. But they sure had purty mouths. Image over substance, a story older than John McCain.
Brett Michaels has gone hipster, by the way. He looks like David Blaine's ass.
The difference between Poison and Kiss is that no one ever claimed Poison was great or that Poison could write good songs. We hear shit on the radio all the time and the shittiest of shit bands will always have a following.
But artists we respect from Lou Reed to Stevie Wonder, from Questlove to Paul Westerberg have all claimed to be fans of Kiss. This does not mean you should like them, Noam. I just think there had to be a better example than Poison to illustrate why Binky's article was horseshit. ;)
And then the Binky piece...yes, they should have refused to let Jann Wenner tell them how incredible they are.
That'll happen, at about the same time Fred Phelps and Hitler split a Cookie Puss.
He seems to be under the impression that Kiss were Rebels, rather than proto-corporate suckups. It reminds me of hearing Etta James discussing Mariah Carey fans..."they don't know the difference between a diva and a beava'."
I do love the reason they won't perform at the show: 60-year-old guys in wigs arguing over who gets to put on the kitty-cat makeup.
Holy moly!
I'm not a KISS fan by any stretch of the imagination, but Binky speaks for me on this one.
Actually, the Village Voice critic Chuck Eddy was a huge supporter of Poison in their time, which you had to respect in some skewed way, although it became clear after awhile that Eddy lived to stir the pot. (No matter, he turned me onto the Apache Dancers who had one great album in them at the turn of the 90s. I'd wager you can pick up the CD on Amazon for very cheap, and it will be worth every penny. One of my favorite alt country albums.)
In truth ... I kind of like a few Poison songs a lot! "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" is a pretty good power ballad ... I've heard two country covers of this song, and both are pretty solid. "Something to Believe In" is pretty solid as an 80s power ballad, too. Even "Talk Dirty to Me" is a pretty good Ramones rip-off, and I mean that as a compliment.
I feel like I'm defending people who thought I was a dick in high school, man ...
Chuck Eddy was determined to be Zombie Lester Bangs and failed miserably. His schtick was tired before the print dried.
And I respectfully - that's a lie, but - disagree that any of those Poison songs possess the slightest redeeming qualities. They are hackneyed, poorly written, ineptly played, horribly sung. They are dog shit and they embarrass me for being a member of the same human race that created them.
God I need a vacation.
I'd rather read a whole column on his claustrophobic experience with Mr. Ray Davies.
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