Let's go back to the days of BMG Music Club. The early to mid 90's. Somewhere between 1993 to 1995. I was a young lad, paying no attention to school. Interested in anything but learning. This is how I fonud myself in vo-tech. Faced with a decision that I was either going to flunk out of high school or take a vocational class, my parents opted for the latter. It was around this time that I found out that a jobless teenager could sign up for a CD club, receiving multiple CD's for a penny, and then ultiamtely never pay for them because...how could? I was broke!
What I also found out about this time was that one could also sign up friends and family members, and recieve even more CD's for a penny. This is where the bus ride to vo-tech got rather interesting. I must have signed up half the bus in one day. In doing so, I was able to select so many CD's that it encompassed the entire catalog of Kiss to date, as well as several other albums.
While albums trickled in at first, this didn't last long. Either BMG felt I was somehow scamming them with the multiple sign ups they recieved in the span of a few days, or they got tired of me paying. Regardless, the albums stopped coming before I was able to complete the collection of Kiss albums. What I do remember recieving, though there could have been more, were the four solo albums, as well as Alive III.
Knowing absolutely nothing about the band, other then they were four guys who favored really cool makeup, I opted to start with Alive III. My ears were immediately greeted by thundering drums and thrashing guitars, or as the song was known, Creatures Of The Night. Oh, wow! This was awesome! Then came the rest of the album, and I lost interest. However, that opening song stayed in my head, and I would frequently throw the disc in to hear it again and again.
Other than that, Kiss stayed relatively out of my mind until 1998's Psycho Circus. Again, it would be the open track of the album which would resonate in a big way, with the remainder of the album flopping for me. Again the band went on the back burner, with me only returning for one song here and there.
Fast forward with me now to 2017. I'm in the midst of building a vast CD collection, and I decide that I'm going to grab some of the hits from Kiss. This starts off reasonably. I grab their 1974 self titled debut, 1975's Dressed To Kill, 1976's Destroyer, 1977's Love Gun, 1982's Creatures Of The Night, and 1992's Revenge. Things are fine for the longest time. I have the hits I know, and I'm happy.
May of 2019 rolls around, and I'm at a local used CD shop. I'm doing some perusing, grabbing some titles, and I come to the Kiss section. I decide, why not. Let me grab a few more. I pick up 1975's Dressed To Kill, 1977's Love Gun, 1979's Dynasty, and 2009's Sonic Boom in May. This time, Love Gun is the original(ish) pressing, whereas all of the above original purchases were the remastered editions.
This is where things go South. Suddenly, I remember how much I despise remastered music. I don't want the remastered editions. Enter September 2019. I go on a massive buying spree. I not only repurchase the albums I initally bought, but then decide that I must have every Kiss album ever made. Within weeks, I own everything from 1974 through 2012.
And that, my friends, is how I ended up with the entire Kiss catalog. Now there's another problem. When the heck am I going to get time to listen to all of these? Well, I've hit a few on Retro Spins. After that long winded introduction above, today, it's time for one more.
Creatures Of The Night showcases Ace Frehley on the cover, and credits him in the liner notes. However, it would later be found that he wasn't actually invovled with the album. Rather, lead guitarist, and fellow track writer, Vinnie Vincent was the man thrashing on the strings. It's sad in a way, because the album deliver's a hard rock fest that I think was ultimately lacking to begin with, and led to Frehley originally leaving.
When it was released on CD in 1985, Kiss opted to change the original cover (above) to the much less interersting group photo (below).
In general, this sucks because the original "blue" cover is actually my favorite Kiss cover of all time.
Despite the loss of Frehley, Creatures delivers in a big way. Had this been the album that introudced me to Kiss, my history, or lack there of, may have been very different. It's a solid entry from start to finish, with Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons alternating vocals from track to track...well, until the last two, which Simmons sings back to back.
I dig this album in a big way, and I wish this painted the full portrait of what Kiss was. Of coure, that would both be boring and unreasonable. Bands do ebb and flow, evolving over time and experimenting with sounds. I suppose, if using Queen as reference, that's how you go from A Night At The Opera to Hot Space, and bow out with Innuendo. It's innevitable that bands change over time.
Still, I'm happy to say that right there in 1982, we got an itteration of Kiss that was all about hard rock, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS April 30, 1983 |
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS April 30, 1988 |
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