2014 has been a whirlwind of a year for KISS. This includes their recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, original founder and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley has just released his autobiography that reached number 2 on the NY Times best seller list, and the band also is gearing up for a summer trek with Def Leppard to celebrate its 40th year anniversary. With all of these things, including Stanley and co founder Gene Simmons’ side business venture of restaurant opportunities and their new football team (LA Kiss), they have teamed up with Universal Music to release possibly the most comprehensive piece of music the band has ever released. Yes EVER!
During the 40 year period, the band has released a slew of greatest hits and compilations, and even a box set, but it has never really grabbed a part of each KISS era like the piece Universal has put out. This 40 song, two disc set grabs a song from each released album including the live albums, the solo albums, compilations (which includes a song off of Killers – a record only released via import back in 1982), and the unplugged disc. As stated, it is all covered here including a never released demo called “Reputation’ that’s from the mid 70’s period that has Simmons on vocals and could be a leftover from his 1978 solo album.
As stated previously, this release contains the unreleased live track “Crazy Crazy Nights” and unreleased commercially live tracks “Cold Gin” from Cobo Hall in 2009 and “Deuce” from Pittsburgh, PA in 2004. There are a few different versions of the release that includes one from Best Buy that contains a t-shirt and the Japanese version that includes a live track from Budokan 2013 titled “Hell of Hallelujah.”
It could be a daunting task when a band that has career that spans as wide as KISS to find that all encompassing release that truly does represent an entire history. If you wanted to introduce the band for the very first time to someone then this is the best possible solution you could offer. Maybe this should have been shared with the powers that be at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when it came time to knowing who or who not to induct? It could have given them clearer and definitive proof (not that any more was needed) that KISS is a band that has stretched past the original fearsome foursome!
