I was a teenager back in the seventies and I remember the first time I heard Rock and Roll All Night and when I finally saw the band that sang the song on an album cover, I was shocked and highly curious. I was never a fan. But, I saw a little bit about them on the news every once in a while. And I heard a song here and there, and I thought it was something taboo and exciting at the same time. I remember seeing Gene Simmons sticking his long tongue out with his scary looking makeup and long black hair! It was almost traumatic!!! Nowadays, that sort of thing isn't at all shocking, but I guess it was a different era, and Kiss was ahead of their time. The funny thing is that those guys are still touring. I read that Gene Simmons is 66 years old now.Does anyone else remember Kiss? What were your reactions when you first saw or heard them? Are you surprised that they are still going!?!?!?
That was one scary dude there, @Larry Stevenson ! Yes, I was a teen in the 70s, too, and Kiss was right there at the top of the heap. Shocking... now there's a good word. Gene Simmons... Ozzie Osborne, Alice Cooper... not really favorites of mine, but I did like a few of Alice's songs, and Kiss songs. I'm trying to remember which one of them grossed me out with biting that chicken head off on stage. I *do* think I've heard various rumors that it was all three of them, so I don't know which did it... or *did* they all three do it? For the record, it STILL grosses me out!
Oh YES........Kiss and Alice Cooper. Never went to their concerts, but have a dvd, Dick Clark's American Bandstand 50th Anniversary, with Kiss on it doing Detroit Rock City. Also have another dvd showing various rock bands, including Kiss doing Rock And Roll All Night. Have a dvd showing Alice Cooper doing School's Out. Have these songs on cd as well and play them on our boat and in our vehicle. Wife loves it. Cruising down the water playing School's Out or I Love Rock And Roll (Joan Jett/Blackhearts)........one of my wife's favorites. In fact, a little trivia here: Did you know that the same Lead Guitar Player that was going to play for Michael Jackson's concert tour, This Is It, is now playing Lead Guitar for Alice Cooper? Her name is Orianthi Panagaris and she is from Australia. Been with Alice since early 2011. The lady is one HOT Lead Guitar Player! We have the dvd video of "The Making of "This Is It" concert and she can really make that guitar talk! Yes, members of those old groups are now the same age as I am. Actually, I think some of the members of the band, Chicago, are older than I am! Yes, get me going on Classic Rock and I can talk all day about it! Love the drummers back then, including Chicago's drummer and Phil Collins w/Genesis.
Okay, @Cody Fousnaugh .... best drummer ever in your eyes. Bonham or Peart? Or someone else? Same question for guitarist, electric or otherwise. Hendrix or... wait, WAS there anyone else?
Well, Mick Fleetwood definitely was. Also, any rock drummer that played a full set of drums that went from far right to far left w/two base drums were great as well. And, can't forget about the lady rock drummers....many really hot ones there as well. I wasn't into Jimmy, but Carlos played a mean guitar. As for a Horn section, Chicago and Earth, Wind and Fire. Keyboard, Deep Purple keyboardist doing Hush.
I remember Kiss very well..I don't really think they were ahead of their time, because they followed after Alice Cooper..and a few others who were hard rockers.... Not at all surprised that gene Simmons is going strong still..at 66 he's a lot younger than many...the Stones, and Black Sabbath for example... What did shock me however....was the romantic relationship that he and Diana Ross had for a while after he left her best friend ''Cher'' for her...(you couldn't make it up) ...and Cher and Diana have never healed that rift!! Also another very surprising thing you may not know about Gene Simmons is that his heroes and his inspiration to make music in the first place was all down to seeing and hearing the Beatles for the first time.. ...
I remember Kiss and saw them in concert once. Gene Simmons had a "reality" show a few years ago called Family Jewels. toward the end of this strange little show he finally asked Shannon Tweed, his long-time live in lady and mother of his two children to marry him. When I first saw it I was surprised at how soft spoken Gene is and how well spoken, also.
I remember seeing the pictures from Kiss and the other rock bands of that era; but I never liked ANY of the rock music. I grew up in a small north Idaho town, and we had country music. My first hero was Roy Rogers; but I also like Rex Allen, and later singers like Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. My favorite guitarist, @Mari North , has always been Duane Eddy. I pretty much like everything with the "twangy guitar sound"; but when he came out with the Twangy Guitar and Silky Strings album, that became my very favorite. He took some of the beautiful slower love songs of the era, and played them in his own unique style. Unchained Melody has always been one of my very favorites, and I love pretty much every version I have heard of the song; but Duane Eddy really does something wild and beautiful with this song.
Yvonne that is beautiful. It was Micheals and my favorite song. For his service only this was played. Patricia made a disk of every version she could find of the melody. I think I'll google the history behind it. I even seem to remember their were lyrics on the radio years back, but I don't remember who sang them.
From what I have read, @Ina I. Wonder , this song was written as a theme song for a movie, and I think the name was "Unchained" or something similar to that. The interesting part is that the movie never went anywhere, and most people have never seen the movie, or ever heard of it; but the song went on to become a favorite of many people. They never even really gave the song a proper name, and since it was just the melody/song for the movie , Unchained, they just called it Unchained Melody. I remember reading about that; but not where I read it; so you will have to look it up to find out more. Here is the information about the 1955 movie that this is the theme song for. UNchained Melody is probably the only song that was the theme song for TWO different movies, since it was also the theme for the huge hit movie, Ghost. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unchained_(film)
It was Ozzy and yes he DID do it, but it was a BAT not a chicken ...but he's always maintained that he didn't realise it was a real one,. It had been thrown onto the stage by a member of the audience and he thought it was a fake..a rubber toy......I Love Ozzy..but I don't I believe that!!
Ah, can't wait to listen that, @Yvonne Smith ! I'm not familiar with Duane Eddy but I love that song. I put a version of it in the "What are you listening to now?" thread, in fact. ****Edited to say that was in another thread I put Unchained Melody I see now... can't remember which one... was there one about 50s music? Yes, I think so.**** Rock music was never my thing, either. Many of the bands had a song or two I liked, but that's about it. I liked some of the softer stuff from the 70s like Bread... "If a picture paints a thousand words..... " Nice! And Jim Croce... loved Croce. Other than those few hit and miss songs I liked, it was country all the way for me, too, starting with Twitty.
Ah, okay... so who did the chicken? What *that* Cooper? Wow, if Ozzy really didn't realize that was a real bat, his tummy must have been all kinds of sick from realizing it. Or... maybe not.
Oh yes ... *mellowed now just thinking of them*...Bread was one of my very favourite bands, I have everything they ever did...Music is my first love , Folk,... particularly Celtic folk... and Country foremost..then everything but Trad Jazz... Rap and heavy head banging metal...is literally music to my ears returning to Bread for a second..if you'd all just just indulge me for a few minutes to listen to a very sentimental song sung by David Gates...it's one of a choice of 2 that I would like played at my funeral....just beautiful...