Spiderbite

The videos for I Love It Loud, All Hell's Breaking Loose & Lick It Up are all on the previously released title Kiss Exposed.

If I rememer correctly, there are some commercials for the Kiss dolls and other things on Exposed & the video Kiss My Ass though it has been awhile since I have watched them. I know the dolls & make-up commercials on on them but just don't know which particular video.

I am glad they did not include stuff that has already been previously released. As someone said in another thread, these Kissology videos are for the fans that already have everything released and want the rarer stuff.

B5Erik

I got all three today - Wal Mart for $20.88, Target for $21.98, and Best Buy for $24.99.

The theatrical cut of Phantom is interesting - extra scenes, extended scenes (which give better character development - even if only a little), music from the solo albums - but the editing is a little more haphazard and events are out of order (and, unfortunately, clearly so). Still, it was fun watching this thing with "new" stuff.

The highlight of the set has to be the Hot In The Shade show from 1990 - that was such a great tour!

duse

Thanks. I was not aware they were previously released. I rented Exposed back in the day, and have Kiss My Ass on video, but have not looked at it in awhile as well.

Spiderbite

Just finished watching the first disc. Man, Phantoms is bad. I mean bad bad. I haven't seen it in many years (probably 15) since Good Times Video released it on VHS. I didn't remember all the solo albums music use before. Is that just in the theatrical or did I just forget it. I guess the solo albums were being pushed at the time but I did not remember so many songs being in the movie before.

I didn't notice a whole lot of extended or extra scenes but my mind is pretty hazy on it. I did seem to remember when Chopper and his gang are abducted that it showed each of them being sucked into a tunnel but this time I onlt noticed the girl. Am I imagining that?

Is there a list of the new/extended scenes and edits? I am just curious.

Phantoms is classically bad. What's funny is Peter appears to be the best actor of the four of them yet all his dialogue is looped by a voice actor. Paul is by far the worst actor of the bunch which is kinda ironic. The guys just sitting there looking into space with sad expressions as Peter sings Beth for no apparent reason. Their glitter robes. Gene roaring like a lion all the time. The non-concealment of wires for stunts. The main chick was cute though. And the guy playing her boyfriend...is he the main guy from Ark II?

My question is why did they just do excerpts of Land of Hype & Glory & the Tom Snyder interview? There was clearly enough space to include all of both. And was there more of the Tom Snyder interview or did they just do a song? It was classic and I had never seen that much of it before...just snippets. Ace was awesome. Funny as hell and bugging the shit out of Gene. Peter looks like he is loving it and Paul seems to want to have fun but doesn't want to get in trouble with Dad (Gene). Shame they couldn't let Ace and Peter do commentary as well. I would love to hear Ace talking about it while watching it.

1st disc is 1 hour 40 minutes of content. 2nd disc is 2 hr 4 minutes. 3rd disc is 3 hr & 2 minutes. I wish they had loaded up disc one and 2 a little more but beggars can't be choosers.

DaveWadding

There was lots more...give me a minute to find the YouTube link...

Spiderbite

Cool. Thanks Dave. Wonder why they didn't include the whole thing?

Another comment...the aspect ratio on Phantoms was anamorphic and was wider than 1.85:1 but less than 2.35:1. It almost looked like 2.05:1 if there is such a thing. The bar at the top was smaller than the bar at the bottom. Nothing seemed misframed but just seemed a strange ratio.

DaveWadding

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0jzve-Tmd70"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0jzve-Tmd70" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UvFNs3_uaUg"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UvFNs3_uaUg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

B5Erik

The edit of Attack of the Phantoms is totally different from Phantom of the Park.

There are several added scenes as well as several extended scenes - but also some dialogue was edited out as well. The timeline is screwed with as well - some events happen out of sequence and don't make as much sense. There's a "Good" bad movie in there if the thing were edited right. (Include all the added footage, make sure the sequence of events is correct, and pull out a couple of the solo album songs - a couple of them are really bad fits for the scenes they're in. Remember, Attack of the Phantoms was released theatrically in Europe in 1979, so they were still pushing the solo albums at that point.)

I would also change the aspect ratio to 1.78:1 so as not to crop too much off the picture (some shots were cropped too much for the wider aspect ratio that they used).

I thought they should have used more complete versions of Land of Hype and Glory and the Tom Snyder interview. I have no idea why they didn't - they really should have included the Space Bear.

Still, I love this set. Lots and lots of great stuff on there. And I still say the Hot in the Shade show is the highlight of the set...

Spiderbite

Thanks for the links Dave. I can kinda see why they didn't use the rest of the interview from Gene's point of view (who probably made the final decision). He comes across as more of a geeky, dick, Dad-figure the longer it goes on. At least he is honest in his commentary. He was a miserable son of a bitch and Ace was getting all the attention and love.

They definitely should have included all of the interview though.

B5Erik - my ratio was definitely not 1.78:1 or it would have filled the screen. Did you have bars?

B5Erik

The aspect ratio they used was something like a 2.05 or 2.1:1 - which makes no sense considering that it was shot as a 4:3 TV movie. They had to do a lot of cropping to get it to that aspect ratio. It works OK, but would have been a lot better at 1.78:1 (but they made the decision they did back in 1979, so I doubt anyone would even remember why they went that wide).

I just watched the Ritz show - single camera with the camera man playing a little too much with the effects. But it is a very cool show to see. I had no idea that video existed of the Ritz shows. Cool stuff.

testpattern

Couple of things that I have noticed;
(Mine is the Wal-Mart copy)

Disk 1 really pissed me off. You have all that space left, and they only give excerpts from both Hype and Tom Snyder. I almost didn't buy the set when looking at the back of the box, and it clearly says, excerpts for both of those features. But when you view on your player, disk 1, it says in the title (excerpt) for Hype and Glory, but not for the Tom Snyder show ... so when it started, I thought it was the whole show. Basically at the first commercial break Tom takes, that's it, no more show.

I give Gene/Paul credit for at least putting excerpt on the back of the box set. They were being honest about it.


Disk 3 is odd also. The Hot in the Shade concert has the F-word, and MF-word, cut out of Pauls intro's to a couple songs, I counted at least 4 times. You can clearly read his lips, but the words aren't heard. It's not a major deal, but it just seems odd and out of place. Is this just typical Wal-Mart, or was this cut from all the versions sent out. I've never known Wal-Mart to cut movies, music they do, but never a movie. I even thought maybe the concert hall had a dump button, so that's the way the show was presented.

Really wasn't as excited after watching this set, as I was the first set.


Someone mentioned Peter, never getting back with the band, earlier in the post. He was on a radio call, 98 Rock Baltimore - WIYY, last week - August 2007, during Stash's show in the afternoon. He was promoting his new album which he described as a mix of music; rock, big band/swing, jazz, etc. Not much talk about KISS, but did mention the tour with Aerosmith. Said he won't tour for his new album, and honestly said he was only 1/4 of a major band, so he himself wouldn't expect a bunch of people to turn out for a show, less sell out a show. Stash asked about getting back together with the guys, to which he said he doesn't expect it, because he wants to be treated equally at this point and he doesn't expect that to ever happen. FYI

bluestraps

No..... Paul and Gene especialy were not happy at all with Ace, or Peter . Just listen to the commentary by Gene about the Tommorrow Show.

Gene kept saying he was a miserable s.o.b .... during this appearance

I have the whole appearance on vhs .. I for one have been a KISS fan for 25 + years
and I am not happy at all that they only put the first 10 minutes of the interview on the DVD.

Paul and Gene especialy still have the view that Ace was a thorn in their side

This trick shows how they have no sense of humor

The land of hype and glory could have been left off

I for one will watch the full Tommorrow show and laugh my butt off......Because I now know how much they hate that interview

I highly recomend any one who wants to find the whole version.. please do so.

DaveWadding

Well, finding it is not the issue. I just posted the 2 Youtube links of the whole thing 5 posts up.

nodeerforamonth

I haven't heard the commentary yet, but did you read what Gene & Paul said about Ace and this interview in the booklet? Gives a completely different take on what they think of the situation now.

I'll quote:

Paul: "The first thing that hits me when I'm watching the Tom Snyder show is that we were clearly losing our edge."

Gene: "When I watch this, the real star of this interview is Ace Frehley. It's safe to say I was a miserable son of a bitch because I thought we were going to come on like big bad superstars and the result is kind of a grumpy old man who used to stick his tongue out at and a bombed guitar player."

Paul: "The truth is, we probably could have used more of Ace's personality and point of view than ours, at that point."

B5Erik

There's also a point that Paul makes in the commentary from the Fridays performance where he's talking about Ace's lack of enthusiasm for The Elder when recording it. He mentions how Ace refused to go up to Canada to work on the album and how they had to send the tapes to him to record his solos at his home studio.

He thought Ace wasn't working very hard and was being a bit of a flake about it - but he also noted that Ace was right in his assessment of the whole project (that it was a mistake and that they should have been making a Hard Rock album like the old days).

I've read for years that Eric was pushing for a more Hard Rock album, but he was dismissed by Gene and Paul due to his inexperience at that level of the business. Ace said basically the same things, but he was dismissed because he was a drunk and a flake (and because Gene was so full of himself that he thought The Elder was the most brilliant idea in KISStory up to that point, and he thought that anyone who couldn't see that was an idiot).

Paul is fair in his commentaries when it comes to Ace. He basically admits that had he and Gene listened to Ace more and had more of Ace's attitude that KISS would have been better off.

Paul does tell an interesting story, though, about when Ace was leaving the band. Paul went to Connecticut to ask Ace to stay in the band, but years later Ace kept telling a story in interviews about how no one asked him to stay in the band, and that's why he left. He had completely forgotten about Paul coming to spend the day with him and trying to convice him to stay in the band. Ace was pretty out of it at the time, so he had no recollection of that day. (Which convinced Paul in hindsight that it was in everyone's best interest for Ace to have left the band at that point and that things worked out the way they needed to.)

The commentary tracks are pretty interesting. And it was nice to hear Bruce get in on the commentary action.

Josh-da-man

Which they didn't actually do until "Revenge," after Eric was dead.

B5Erik

Well, that's not exactly true, is it? Creatures, Lick It Up, Animalize, and Asylum were all heavy, hard edged Rock albums. Crazy Nights was a little too slick with too many "poppy" songs, and Hot in the Shade was just mediocre (with a handful of really good songs).

I have a fanzine that has a handwritten "interview" with Eric Carr in which he describes the new material for Revenge. He SO wanted to play on that album! Unfortunately, cancer got in the way of that happening. Eric Singer did a great job, but Eric Carr really wanted to play on that album - he knew how good it was going to be.

I'm still pissed that he got such a rare, lethal form of cancer. It just isn't fair that a really, really nice guy and all around good person dies so damned young like that. I just can't believe that the guy I met in January, 1990 was dead only 22 months later.

nothingfails

:::coughs::: Creatures Of The Night? :::coughs:::

hell, even Lick It Up to an extent, even though the albums got progressively poppier afterwards until 87-88 when they were their poppiest ever and started getting harder again after HITS

nothingfails

am I alone in actually enjoying The Elder? Outside of World Without Heroes, the album is almost universally disdained to this day, even by it's members. I generally love it when artists step out of the box and experiment, after all KISS would've been boring as fug if they continued to clone Hotter Than Hell and Dressed To Kill for the rest of their careers. I think there's a handful of great songs on the album, Under The Rose, Dark Light, I, The Oath and Just A Boy offhand come to mind as other tracks from the album that I enjoy immensely.

I think the main problem was with the fans and not the band. Kiss wanted to be ala Bowie or someone and constantly evolve their sound but the fans demanded Alive! type material every time out, pretty much stunting them in a lot of eyes. You can tell when a lot of fans wish they'd scrap all post-Destroyer songs from the setlist, and I personally think Destroyer was when they started getting interesting to be honest. The run of solo albums/Dynasty/Unmasked/Elder/Creatures/Lick It Up was actually a very fruitful run with a lot of underrated and relatively unknown gems that was sadly overlooked because Gene and Paul had other interests than writing Anything For My Baby Pt. 23.

cultshock

I'm also a big fan of The Elder, along with Unmasked, but I always feel I am in the minority.

nothingfails

Unmasked has some great songs IMO. Is That You, Shandi, Talk To Me, Naked City... Granted, the album was power-pop and not metal from start to finish, but they still wrote good material.

People just painted Kiss in a box and refused to give anything that didn't sound like Strutter a shot. Up until Carnival Of Souls, I could name at least 3-4 songs I like off each album, even Crazy Nights. But it seemed like a lot of people were hung up on the original lineup and Alive! and refused to accept that the world didn't end in 1975. This is one of the reasons I'm not too crazy about the current lineup with Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer dressed as Ace and Peter. Kiss proved for 20 years that they could keep evolving musically but the fans demand that they stay stuck in 1974-1977 forever.

Jason

I really like the song "I" from Elder, and think most of it is decent, except for Mr. Blackwell.

Unmasked is almost as bad as the Peter Criss solo album though. The cover is literally the only thing I like about it.

B5Erik

Hey, nothingfails - I don't want KISS stuck in 1974-1977 forever.

I want them stuck in 1992 forever.

Revenge, baby!

nodeerforamonth

Ouch! Could you be a little more harsh?!?! Wow!

It's not THAT bad!

Darth Maher

You forgot Ace's silly noises.