Alive II

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Alive II
Live album by Kiss

Publication
(s)

October 1977

Label (s) Casablanca Records

Format (s)

LP , CD , MC , TB , 8-track cassette

Genre (s)

Hard rock

Title (number)

20th

running time

71:26

occupation

production

Eddie Kramer , Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss

chronology
Love Gun
(1977) 		Alive II Double Platinum
(1978)

Alive II is the second live album by the US hard rock band Kiss , released in 1977 . It is a double album that, in addition to the live recordings, contains five tracks produced in the studio.

History of origin

Classification in the musical background

The musical history of the band has several clearly separated phases. Kiss recorded six studio albums from 1974 to 1977 with Kiss , Hotter Than Hell , Dressed to Kill , Destroyer , Rock and Roll Over and Love Gun , which showed their typical hard rock comparatively consistently and without major deviations. During this time, two extremely successful live albums fell, namely 1975 Alive! and 1977 Alive II . Especially Alive! made the band suddenly known to a large audience. Alive II can be seen as the end of this first phase, as the group then oriented itself towards the development of pop music and followed the disco trend with the next joint studio album, Dynasty .

Origin and result

For the album, two concerts of the Love Gun tour were recorded at the LA Forum in Los Angeles, which took place on August 25 and 26, 1977. In contrast to the usual procedure today, in which all concerts on a tour are recorded, these two dates were specially selected for the recordings for the planned live album. All tracks were later edited in the studio, so-called overdubs were recorded. Peter Criss later explained in an interview with Ken Sharp that the titles Hard Luck Woman and Tomorrow and Tonite did not come from the live recordings from the LA Forum, but were recorded afterwards in the studio and inserted into the live recordings.

So as not to include tracks on the album that were already on the album Alive! were included, but to be able to offer the fans a full double album, the group recorded five more titles in the second half of September 1977 at the Capitol Theater in Passaic , New Jersey . Four of these tracks were new titles, the fifth was a cover version of the Dave Clark Five hit Any Way You Want It .

Since Ace Frehley, as with the recordings for Destroyer , was repeatedly absent and only actively participated in one song, the title Rocket Ride , written by him and Sean Delaney , he was chosen for the recordings of Larger Than Life , Rockin 'in the USA and All American Man replaced by Bob Kulick , the older brother of the later Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick . However, Frehley also played bass at Rocket Ride , so that apart from him only Paul Stanley and Peter Criss were involved in the recordings for this title.

The double album was released on October 27, 1977. In addition to the gatefold cover that was common for double albums at the time, it contained an eight-page, four-color booklet the size of an album with numerous photos, an order form for Kiss promotional items and a sheet of removable "tattoos" with Kiss motifs. The group's record deal stipulated that another would have to follow six months after the last studio album at the latest, otherwise the record company would have had the right to release a best of album without the group's participation or approval . Kiss therefore cheated Casablanca Records through the studio page of the album.

The cost of producing the album was around $ 150,000, while Kiss made about $ 17.7 million between 1976 and 1978 just through record sales and copyright royalties.

Track list

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Alive II
  UK 60 December 17, 1977 (1 week)
  US 7th 07/01/1978 (33 weeks)

Page 1 (live recordings)

  1. 3:56 am Detroit Rock City (vocals: Paul Stanley; lyrics and music: Paul Stanley, Bob Ezrin)
  2. 3:05 King of the Night Time World (vocals: Paul Stanley; text and music: Paul Stanley, Bob Ezrin, Marc Anthony, Kim Fowley)
  3. 3:14 Ladies Room (vocals: Gene Simmons; text and music: Gene Simmons)
  4. 3:13 Makin 'Love (vocals: Paul Stanley; lyrics and music: Paul Stanley, Sean Delaney)
  5. 3:40 Love Gun (vocals: Paul Stanley; text and music: Paul Stanley)

Page 2 (live recordings)

  1. 3:35 Calling Dr. Love (vocals: Gene Simmons; text and music: Gene Simmons)
  2. 2:45 am Christine Sixteen (vocals: Gene Simmons; text and music: Gene Simmons)
  3. 5:51 Shock Me (vocals: Ace Frehley; text and music: Ace Frehley)
  4. 3:06 am Hard Luck Woman (vocals: Peter Criss; lyrics and music: Paul Stanley)
  5. 3:25 Tomorrow and Tonight (vocals: Paul Stanley; lyrics and music: Paul Stanley)

Page 3 (live recordings)

  1. 3:35 I Stole Your Love (vocals: Paul Stanley; text and music: Paul Stanley)
  2. 2:24 Beth (vocals: Peter Criss; text and music: Peter Criss, Stan Penridge, Bob Ezrin)
  3. 5:16 God of Thunder (vocals: Gene Simmons; text and music: Paul Stanley)
  4. 4:14 I Want You (vocals: Paul Stanley; text and music: Paul Stanley)
  5. 3:39 Shout it out Loud (vocals: Paul Stanley; Gene Simmons; text and music: Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Bob Ezrin)

Page 4 (studio recordings)

  1. 3:13 All American Man (vocals: Paul Stanley; lyrics and music: Paul Stanley, Sean Delaney)
  2. 2:36 Rockin 'in the USA (vocals: Gene Simmons; lyrics and music: Gene Simmons)
  3. 3:59 Larger Than Life (vocals: Gene Simmons; text and music: Gene Simmons)
  4. 4:07 Rocket Ride (vocals: Ace Frehley; text and music: Ace Frehley, Sean Delaney)
  5. 2:33 Any way you Want it (vocals: Paul Stanley; lyrics and music: Dave Clark)

Charts & Awards

The album reached number 7 on the Billboard 200 on January 28, 1978 , and stayed in the charts for 33 weeks. The two released singles reached 54th place ( Shout it out Loud ) and 39th place ( Rocket Ride ) on the Billboard Hot 100 .

Alive II was in the United States for the first time on 28 November 1977 a gold record awarded the RIAA, the same day the album went platinum. Alive II is now multi-platinum.

In 2014, the album was ranked 79 on the list the 100 best metal and hard rock albums of all time of Rolling Stone .

literature

  • Julian Gill: The Kiss Album Focus - Kings of the Night Time World, 1972-1982 . 3. Edition. KissFaq.com 2008, ISBN 978-0-9722253-7-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karen and John Lesniewski: Kiss Collectibles Identification and Price Guide ; Avon Books, 1993, ISBN 0-380-77166-7 .
  2. ↑ Rock Power , Article Kiss - The Story , June 1992 Issue, p. 20
  3. ↑ a b c Dale Sherman: Black Diamond - The Unauthorized Biography of Kiss ; Collectors Guide Publishing Inc., 1997, ISBN 1-896522-35-1 .
  4. ↑ a b c The Kiss Album Focus: Alive 2 ( Memento from January 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ CK Lendt: Kiss and Sell - The Making of a Supergroup ; Billboard Books, 1997, ISBN 0-8230-7551-6 .
  6. ↑ Charts UK Charts US
  7. ↑ It is sung as a duet. The first two lines of songs by Paul Stanley; the second two by Gene Simmons. The refrain of everyone.
  8. ↑ Overview of Alive II at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
  9. ↑ http://www.rollingstone.de/die-100-besten-metal-und-hardrock-alben-aller-zeiten-363764/
Kiss
Studio albums

Kiss (1974) • Hotter Than Hell (1974) • Dressed to Kill (1975) • Destroyer (1976) • Rock and Roll Over (1976) • Love Gun (1977) • Dynasty (1979) • Unmasked (1980) • Music from the Elder (1981) • Creatures of the Night (1982) • Lick It Up (1983) • Animalize (1984) • Asylum (1985) • Crazy Nights (1987) • Hot in the Shade (1989) • Revenge (1992) • Carnival of Souls (1997) • Psycho Circus (1998) • Sonic Boom (2009) • Monster (2012)
Solo albums: Peter Criss: Peter Criss (1978) • Ace Frehley: Ace Frehley (1978) • Gene Simmons: Gene Simmons (1978 ) • Asshole (2003) • Paul Stanley: Paul Stanley (1978) • Live to Win (2007)

Live albums

Alive! (1975) • Alive II (1977) • Alive III (1993) • Kiss Unplugged (1996) • You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best! (1996) • Kiss Symphony: Alive IV (2003) • Kiss Alive 35 (2008/2009) • Kiss Rocks Vegas (2016)

Soundtracks

Detroit Rock City

Compilation albums

The Originals (1976) • Double Platinum (1978) • The Best of the Solo Albums (1978) • Killers (1982) • Smashes, Thrashes & Hits (1988) • Chikara (1988) • Greatest Kiss (1997) • The Box Set (2001) • The Very Best of Kiss (2002) • The Best of Kiss: The Millennium Collection (2003) • The Best of Kiss, Volume 2: The Millennium Collection (2004) • Gold (2005) • Kiss Chronicles: 3 Classic Albums (2005) • The Best of Kiss, Volume 3: The Millennium Collection (2006) • Kiss Alive! 1975–2000 (2006) • Jigoku-Retsuden (2008) • Ikons (2008) • Kissology (2019)

Video albums

Kiss Konfidential & X-Treme Close Up (1993) • Kiss Unplugged (1995) • The Second Coming (1998) • Kiss Symphony - The DVD (2003) • Kiss Rock The Nation Live! (2005) • Kissology, Vol. 1, 1974–1977 (2006) • Kissology, Vol. 2, 1978–1991 (2007) • Kissology, Vol. 3, 1992-2000 (2007) • Kiss Rocks Vegas (2016)

Singles

Detroit Rock City • Beth • Christine Sixteen • I Was Made for Lovin 'You • Dirty Livin' • Hide Your Heart • God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II • Unholy • Jungle

Featurings

Wicked Lester • Kiss - Chased by Phantoms • Detroit Rock City