This week we unbox the brand new Kiss ‘Dressed to Kill’ (50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) box set. It is massive. There are 5 CDs and 1 Blu-Ray but it also has a bunch of goodies included. You get a 100-page Hard Back book, stickers, buttons, picks, posters photographs, newspaper, ticket stubs, backstage passes and everything and anything related with a Kiss logo on it. The album came out in 1975 and produced what would become one of the greatest rock anthems with “Rock And Roll All Nite”. The tour would spawn the greatest live album ever made, Alive!, and you get not one, but two full shows that album was taken from. The rest will hopefully be on the Alive! box set, we will get to that one after it comes out. Sit back and enjoy as you unbox with me as it just showed up on my doorstep.
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My love for bootlegs started with collecting Kiss Bootlegs and as you can see from the list at the bottom of this post, I have quite a few Kiss Bootlegs and as long as I keep finding them, the more I will buy. It is a never ending cycle as new Kiss bootlegs keep popping up all the time. This one I found over a Repo Records was released in 2022, but it is a re-issue of one that came out in 2012 and it is a little different than the others that I have. Most of my bootlegs are full shows, parts of one show or a collection of demos.
This one is different in that is a collection of live tracks from various shows and not one show in particular. That to me is odd. What is the purpose of this one? I can’t seem to find out. The timeframe of the shows range from 1974 up to 1978 so they are the peak years of the band. But it is still a strange collection.
What is not strange and rather cool is the packaging. The cover is a cool live shot of Gene as the Demon and the back cover is the Kiss Alive II photo of Gene with the blood all over his face. It is an awesome shot. The inner sleeve is a couple of cool band photos on bot sides. And the final piece is a cool colored vinyl in the color of purple. I don’t have too many purple discs, so very nice. The picture from the cover is on one side of the vinyl and the Kiss logo on the other, both with the Diamonds in the Dust title. I don’t have much info on this so let’s get to the music.
SIDE ONE:
The first track is “Room Service” which was taken from Fremd High School Gymnasium, Palatine, Illinois April 19, 1975 and it sounds like it was. It is very hollow sounding and not from a soundboard. It sounds like I am outside the gym getting refreshments and the sound is bleeding from the closed doors. Paul sounds good though.
Next up is the “Love Theme From Kiss” from the Bayou Theatre in Georgetown, Washington D.C. from March 25, 1974. You hear Paul say this is one we never perform live which is not true because they use to play it when it was called Acrobat. This is definitely an early version since it is 1974 and a month after the release of the debut album.
After it fades out we get “You’re Much Too Young” from Lafayette’s Music Room in Memphis, Tennessee on December 2, 1976. A song the band would never release, but I have several versions of it live. A really cool mostly instrumental piece with basically Gene saying “You’re Much Too Young” several times during the show. The band is jamming and Peter is killing it on the drums. An interesting cool piece that sees Ace ripping a cool solo and an all around killer track. The album jacket says The Lafayette show is from that same night as the next song “Strutter”, but at a different arena. Kiss are good, but I don’t think they are that good. That means the Lafayette show from “You’re Much Too Young” is probably from April 18, 1974. And I have that show down below in the Bootleg Series list. Just my guess.
Then we get a twofer with “Strutter and “Hard Luck Woman” back to back as they are from the same show at the Mid South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee on December 2, 1976….wait a freaking minute…”Strutter” just ended and so did Side one. Where the heck is “Hard Luck Woman”. I think I just got ripped off. And I did. The 2022 version is missing a couple songs that were on the 2012 release. Oh well. “Strutter” was pretty good though.
SIDE TWO:
Side Two kicks off with “Ladies in Waiting” which was played at the National Guard Armory in Rockford, Illinois on November 15, 1975. The sound is really rough, it sounds like it was taken from a tape that was taken from a tape and then taken from a tape again. It is muddied and almost unlistenable. I can make out Ace’s killer solo, but the vocals are tough to hear and so are the drums, but Gene’s bass is pretty loud. All simply horrible.
Next up is a group of shows from the same show starting with “Watching You”, then a Peter Criss drum solo and lastly “Flaming Youth”. These are taken from the Roosevelt Stadium show in Jersey City, New Jersey on July 10, 1976. The sound is really good on these tracks (compared to the others). Gene sounds menacing and you can hear Peter on backing vocals really well. Peter’s drum solo is typical Peter or I should say classic Peter. It sounds great, if not a little simple. He definitely is beating the crap out of the skins, but he’s doing it as well as Peter can. You can hear the crowd scream out a few things during it. He bangs the gong and then rips a drum roll before it fades out in to “Flaming Youth”, a personal favorite. Paul’s vocals sound so deep as the tape this taken from drags a little. Man, oh man.
For the last track, we get the classic Kiss song “Deuce”. This one is from the Roberts Municipal Stadium in Evansville, Indiana on January 23, 1978. Roberts Municipal Stadium what a boring name, I guess company’s didn’t fork out millions to sponsor stadiums yet. Anyway, on to the song. Paul introduces and says this isn’t one they’d done in a long time which surprises me. When the band kicks in the sound is horrible. I can’t make hardly any of it out. I can hear Gene, but it is distant and not all that clear. Man, it is hurting the ears the high pitch it is all coming out at. I hope this ends soon as my ear might actually be bleeding.
This is a very skippable bootleg except maybe real diehards. This one makes no sense being a collection of songs from various shows. The only real cool thing about it, other than the packaging, is the fact it isn’t the standard fair of songs. You get some deep cuts and thankfully no “Rock & Roll All Nite” as I could do without that one. The sound sucks at times and sometimes not, but overall this is not one I’ll pull out very often as I prefer to hear full shows. My Overall Score is a 2.0 out of 5.0 Stars and that is being generous. It gets points for great artwork and a cool Purple vinyl. I took one for the team on this one, but still glad it is in the collection because I didn’t have it. Thanks for hanging around.
After the MTV Unplugged special that ran on August 9, 1995, the fan reaction was huge. People were itching for the original line-up to get back together in make-up. Now Kiss is not one to generally miss a good opportunity. While they were in the studio with their current line-up of Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer recording their next album (Carnival of Souls), Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons were contemplating their next move. Well, the noise was getting too hard to ignore and so was the money.
The Carnival of Soul album was shelved (for the time being) and Bruce and Eric were pushed to the side as Peter Criss and Ace Frehley were back in the band. The Kiss Reunion was going in full force. The band decided to get back together, the make-up was re-applied and the Tour was scheduled. This tour would be called the 1996-1997 Alive / Worldwide Tour. If you want to read about my concert experience a little and see the Tour Book…click TOUR BOOK.
In support of the Tour, Kiss decided to make a massive cash grab and released a Greatest Hits compilation of sorts. This one was released on June 25, 1996 and was called “You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best” and consists of all live tracks from the band with Ace and Peter. The name of the album, of course, stems from the opening line of all the Kiss shows when most famously, roadie JR Smalling would scream out “You Wanted the Best, and you got it. The Hottest Band in the Land…KISS!!!”
Before we get to the music, let’s talk about what was inside the Album. Not much, sorry. When you bought this album, inside was simply order forms for Kiss merchandise because Kiss never missed an opportunity to sell you something…
Alright, back to the music on the album. Did this album offer anything new and different. Well yes, it actually did it. But it mostly consisted of songs taken from the albums ‘Alive!’ and ‘Alive II’. There were, however, 4 previously unreleased tracks as well. You get four songs that were taken from those eras that were outtakes or leftover tracks. Now, if you were in Japan you got a bonus track. Let’s be honest, this is a total and utter cash grab. There is nothing real special. This is pure & simple, Kiss trying to profit off the new found interest in the band. But at least you got some unreleased stuff which is still way more than you get on from the next release. I’m getting ahead of myself, let us talk about what you get on this one.
RECORD 1:
The first record has the most unreleased stuff. The first three tracks are all unreleased. First up you get “Room Service” recorded in Davenport, IA in 1975. Then you get “Two Timer” which was recorded at Cobo Hall in Detroit MI on May 16, 1975. The third track is “Let Me Know” and it was recorded at the same Cobo Hall show as the previous track. These are cool tracks as they aren’t normally played live so that much is awesome about them. But here is the crazy thing. They were overdubbed and remixed in 1996 with not Ace on guitar or probably not even Peter on drums. Bruce Kulick has admitted he worked on the overdubs and those drums sound pretty damn good and clean…and a little modern. I’m just saying. The crowd noise also sounds so fake and it doesn’t really feel that live. Who knows what to believe.
The remaining of Record 1 are three tracks from ‘Alive!’ which are “Rock Bottom”, “Parasite” and “Firehouse” and one track from ‘Alive II’ which is “I Stole Your Love” and “Calling Dr. Love”. If you don’t have those two albums, then these songs are classic and worth having. But if you don’t, you aren’t really a Kiss fan are you…sorry I’m judging and that isn’t nice…but seriously why don’t you own those two albums…better than this crap!!
RECORD 2:
The second record kicks off with another previously unreleased track and that one is “Take Me” which was Los Angeles, CA and recorded in 1976. Again, this was overdubbed in 1996 as well. It at least has more of a live feel than those first three. Paul is a little rougher around the edges and there is a better energy so I won’t bash this one. Now most of the rest of the album are tracks from the two classic albums again. The tracks are “Shout it Out Loud”, “Beth” and “Rock And Roll All Nite”.
If you have the Japanese edition, your album would end with another unreleased live track. This one was Ace’s song “New York Groove”. This one is cool in that it was recorded from Australia back in 1980 and actually includes Eric Carr on the drums which is always cool. I actually like this track as well and glad I have it. I like it because it has the warts and all as they didn’t clean up the feedback or much of anything which makes it really live. On Side D of this album is a 17 minute interview with the band hosted by Jay Leno. Which basically makes it pure promotion, nothing but softball question and Peter is the only that sounds like he is having any fun (maybe Ace too). Gene and Paul are the same as they always are…stick to the point and sell it. Now the funny thing is Paul states that everyone is “Straight” and “Clear Headed”, but if I’m not mistaken that during rehearsing for the Unplugged, Ace would show up late and in a slight “haze” from possible drinking so not an honest comment completely.
And that is it, thank goodness. What a waste of product this truly is and is only for diehard fans and idiots like myself. However, I don’t own this yet as it is really expensive to get on vinyl. I will have it at one time, but right time, right price! As far as a score, it gets a 2.0 out of 5.0 Stars only because it does have 5 unreleased tracks at the time. If it wasn’t for that, this would be a 0!!
Next Up: Kiss – Greatest Kiss (1997)
Check out the rest of the series if you have time!!
2 Loud 2 Old Music 