That Kiss A&E Documentary

 Because I am a sucker for such things, there was no way I wasn’t going to not watch A&E’s two night four-hour Biography on Kiss.

I’m just a bit too young for the prime Kiss years. In a way, they were the remanent of older brother’s music- like the Village People and the Bay City Rollers. I was at the age where MTV was now important and it truly flipped a switch from bands like Triumph, Rush and April Wine to the MTV pop of Culture Club, Duran Duran and Madonna. Yes, there was metal -and it was no doubt influenced by Kiss- with bands like Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister.

But Kiss has always been there and to their credit, their longevity is amazing. They never had a long run of singles - certainly not the chart success of say, Aerosmith or Bon Jovi- but they have always had their name in the headlines.

Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons think they are the best band in the world, and listening to the lifelong friends, it’s hard not to get sucked in to their train of thought. It’s clear they wanted to be the American Beatles, and they mostly succeeded.

There is something purely rock about the early ambitions. It is interesting that though they took cues from the New York Dolls and Slate, they kind of took their own concurrent path as the Punk and Metal scenes.

I largely missed on the early hits as a teen, and decades later, am familiar with the biggest “hits” but never really sat down and listened to the albums.

There are some great songs. The populist approach of Kiss meant they didn’t get the critical acclaim of the Ramones. They are of course, two very different bands, but we can’t underplay the influence of Kiss, which is emphasized here by large time given to super fans Tom Morello and Dave Grohl. I do actually love some of the raw rock of those early pre-Ezrin days.

The armchair critic in me sees some similarities between Kiss and the Dictators, and trying to work the numbers, you can see both bands are fairly independent of each other. Famously, Peter Chriss and Jerry Nolan were childhood friends. But of course, the critical approach to both is different and it’s commented on here, but Kiss never strives to be critics darling. Yet, I cannot also discount their own style of being young, loud and snotty.

Kiss always had their eye on filling stadiums with an awesome concert experience. Those early years are fascinating and were surely frustrating. Being a great live band didn’t (and likely still doesn’t) drive radio play, and we know without radio play, there’s going to be a ceiling for record sales and for homes reached.

The setup of this documentary is that Stanley and Simmons are able to craft their own narrative in this doc- and so are also able to scoff at “Meets the Phantom of the Park” and “Music from the Elder” but how could it be otherwise?

“I was made for Loving You” is a double edged sword, even more so than “Beth”. Kiss did need radio hits. I actually think “Made” is a fantastic song. Perhaps you don’t want to get too excited about a song that works equally well as rock and disco, but dang if it doesn’t.

The band downplays the 80s hair metal days. Although the band skips over nearly everything post- Lick it Up- I would have rather seen them celebrate it. It’s clearly that they are taking a ‘victory lap’ so why not embrace the full career.

Sure, they did go a bit off the rails (Gene’s acting career, for example) but I think diehards would disagree and a fuller story would have been nice (Revenge gets a bit of in depth detail, but most everything else gets skimmed over).

I mean it’s a better story to spend time on the Unplugged success and the reunion tour, which leads to a denouement of riding into the sunset.

That said, It is almost a disservice to Kiss, because they always kept themselves in the spotlight, even if their intentions sometimes missed their mark (comic books, symphonic orchestras, arena football). There isn’t a very long length of time that Kiss wasn’t in the headlines for something.

The doc had to rely on interviews from Ace and Peter to get their side of the story, as they did not want to take part. Surely, we only get one side of the story, which is likely not fair. I suspect we might forgive rock stars for wanting to be rock stars, whereas Paul and Gene act like CEO and CFO of Kiss, Inc.

Overall, though, you can’t beat the infectious enthusiasm of Simmons and Stanley and they sincerely believe they are The Best and spending time with them, you might even end up concurring.