CHAPTER 54 – KISS
Symphony: Alive IV
“KISS Symphony” Album Notes:
Produced by Mark Opitz. Recorded in
Tangent: “Symphony”
Could it be that the ‘KISS Symphony: Alive IV’ CD never had a chance of
being certified Gold by the RIAA, due to a slight error on the part of the
‘suits’? With all the hype surrounding its release, ‘shipping Gold,’ the RIAA
criteria concerning multi-disc sets was overlooked. Usually, each disc in a
multi-disc set counts towards the certification, hence usually a gold double-CD
will only have shifted (shipped after returns) 250,000 units rather than the
normal 500,000 required for a single-CD. According to the RIAA, ‘each unit
within set counts as one unit toward certification’ (RIAA). In terms of KISS’
‘Symphony,’ the small print seems to apply: ‘Minimum running time 100 minutes’
(RIAA). Which brings us to the running length of ‘KISS Symphony: Alive IV,’
which does not meet that 100 minute criteria as it only runs 96:14 (46:50 +
49:24). Thus with sales around 125,000 don’t hold your breath for any
certification in the
What is surprising is that these criteria were not new in 2003.
Multi-disc sets had been defined in 1992 as two or more CD/LP/Cassettes with a minimum
running time of 120 minutes (RIAA). That 120 minute minimum was reduced to 100
minutes in 1997 and pre-1982 releases were exempted from the rule.
Act I: KISS Electric
54.01. Deuce
A nice little effect is added to the introduction of
the band prior to ‘Deuce.’ Gene’s scream at the beginning of the instrumental
section of ‘Deuce’ is cleaned up. Paul’s rap intro to ‘Strutter’
is edited down to ‘
54.02. Strutter
Between ‘Strutter and ‘Let
Me Go, Rock ‘N Roll’ Paul’s rap would be removed completely. It hadn’t sounded
particularly suitable for inclusion in the first place: ‘Alright. How ya doin’ over there? All the way
over there let’s see those hands. All the way over here let’s see those hands. Hmph! Alright… Let’s rock!’
54.03. Let Me Go, Rock ‘N Roll
The intro to ‘Let Me Go, Rock ‘N Roll’ would be
redone and fixed with the intro being shortened to remove the ‘wolf-whistle’
guitar string rip and replace it with the more standard string bend which
follows the second measure. From the sound of the original recording the
‘wolf-whistle’ was a slight hiccup at the start of this song. The guitar solo
in this song is one place where one wonders if it was redone in the studio
since the fluidity doesn’t seem to match the live version.
54.04. Lick It Up
The transition to ‘Lick It Up’ would be altered
somewhat, not only to remove a brief false start for the beginning of the song,
but to edit down Paul’s original rap: ‘How we doing so far? All the way in the
back, how’s it going so far? Now sometimes in a place this big, just ‘cause you’ve got 30,000 people, someone thinks ‘cause
they’re all the way in the back they’re not important. People in the back, we
can see you, we can feel you, and we are honored to have you here. You know it’s
amazing we got people here tonight… We got people here tonight from
Between ‘Lick It Up’ and ‘Calling Dr. Love’ Paul’s
original rap went: ‘What next? Well with this change in the weather some people
may have a little rock ‘n roll pneumonia… I guess it’s time. I guess it’s time
to call out the Dr. Talkin’ about, talkin’ about, talkin’ about… Dr.
Love’! Several parts of this seemed awkward and were removed from the final
version, notably Paul’s ‘What next’ question and his sung ‘talkin’
about’ repetition. The band had intended to have Gene do his fire breathing
during the song. Paul commented, ‘As far as Gene breathing fire, we had planned
to do it in Dr. Love, and I can honestly tell you we forgot to do it at the end
of the song’ (KO-Paul Speaks).
54.06. Psycho Circus
Paul’s rap leading to ‘Psycho Circus’ would simply
have his first, and seeming incomplete thought, ‘Want to do something for ya’ removed before he introduces the song. Some clean up
work was done on the vocals of this song, but not a tremendous amount. Most of
the changes seem to be vocal echoes being removed, notably Paul’s ‘C’mon’
following the instrumental interlude which was emphasized by pyro during the concert. What is clear from ‘Act 1’ is that
whatever work was done to fully electric KISS was mostly cosmetic and pretty
transparent in comparing the album with the original show. What is lost from
Paul’s raps is nothing important, though it should be noted that Gene managed
barely a ‘yeah’ between songs!
Act II: KISS & The
54.07. Beth
For Peter the performance of his signature tune was
something very special, a memory to hold onto forever. During rehearsals his
excitement was apparent, with his commenting on the Rove appearance, ‘It’s so
cool, I’ve been singing to a tape for 30 years or whatever, cause we always had
‘Beth’ on a tape, we don’t have a 60 piece orchestra which we recorded it with,
now it’s the real deal, and I’m like wow’ (Rove). During ‘Beth’ the first
measure of the song would be repeated twice in the original recording, the first
repetition being edited out of the album version. Peter would then state, ‘this
is for you,’ before his vocal began. This also was cut, though was present in
the Australian PPV.
54.08. Forever
Following ‘Beth’ and Paul’s introduction of conductor
David Campbell another section of his rap would be cut: ‘Now the fun starts!
Now this, just in case you’re wondering. The whole orchestra will be out later.
This is what is known as the Melbourne Symphony Ensemble under the direction of
Mr. David Campbell. If you want to help us with these songs, you certainly can.
You made them popular, they really belong to you. We’re waiting on maestro’s
headset. Nothing’s without little glitches. That’s, I guess what makes it
exciting. We’re waiting for David’s headset. You know, just for a minute to
tell you. We were offered to do this a while ago in another city and another
country. And it really felt like we were twisting people’s arms to want to do
this. You’ve got a symphony orchestra here that’s amazing, because they had the
guts to attempt something like this. And I think when the DVD comes out… and
the live album, we’ve created another page in KISStory
tonight. This is awesome. Something important must be going on up here. We’ve
got cameras and everything down here. OK, here we go.’ The pruning would result
in Paul’s rap being reduced to, ‘Now the fun starts! The whole orchestra will
be out later. This is what is known as the Melbourne Symphony Ensemble under
the direction of Mr. David Campbell. We’ve created another page in KISStory tonight. This is awesome.’ ‘Forever’ would then
kick in.
54.09. Goin’ Blind
One of Paul’s more amusing raps during the show,
between the transition from ‘Forever’ to ‘Goin’ Blind’ would be completely removed, for somewhat
obvious reasons: ‘Yeah! Alright! How’s it sound out there? Good! Right here’s
something that comes off… No, not ‘The Oath.’ How many
people here own ‘The Elder’? Whoa! Well this isn’t from ‘The Elder,’ but we’re
going to try and entertain you anyway. This comes off the album ‘Hotter Than Hell.’ And this one’s called ‘Goin’
Blind.’’ ‘Goin’ Blind’ had
done very well in the Unplugged era being one of the obscure songs dragged back
into the set list. The ‘Symphony’ was a perfect opportunity to give one of
Gene’s oldest tracks the full treatment. ‘Goin’ Blind’ would benefit from the full orchestral treatment
which resulted in it almost sounding Wicked Lester-ish
with the violins.
The arrangement of the song would also change
substantially from the original ‘Hotter Than Hell’ taking a further step back
in history to when Gene originally wrote the piece (though Paul’s contribution
of ‘I’m 93 and you’re sixteen’ would remain). The last line of the first verse
would be changed from ‘But I think I’m goin’ blind’
to ‘Can’t you see I’m goin’ blind.’ Gene’s old lyric,
the first line of the second verse which was also sung on the MTV Unplugged
version would return. This resulted in ‘Little lady,
from the land beneath the sea’ replacing ‘Little lady, can’t you see.’ In place
of the original third verse which went: ‘You’re much younger, can’t you see /
There is nothing more for you and I / I’m 93, you’re sixteen / And I think I’m goin’ blind’; Gene would sing what was the second verse in
the ‘Hotter Than Hell’ version of the song which goes: ‘Little lady, can’t you
see / You’re so young and so much different than I / I’m 93, you’re sixteen /
Can’t you see I’m goin’ blind.’
54.10. Sure Know Something
Following ‘Goin’ Blind’ the
somewhat embarrassing intro to ‘Sure Know Something’ would get pruned to remove
Paul’s pronunciation lecture: ‘Yeah! How’s it sound with the strings, and with
the woodwinds, and the brass, and everything else? Some people said we were
crazy to attempt this. Maybe we are, but that’s what makes us KISS. Alright,
here’s one you might have heard on television a couple of nights ago. This
comes off the album ‘Dinasty.’ That’s how you say it.
‘Dinasty.’ And we’re in your
neck of the woods so we’ll say it as you say it. Back home it’s
‘Dynasty.’ Here it’s from the album ‘Dinasty.’ Yeah!.’ The ‘Dinasty’ lecture would be
left in the PPV broadcast, though other parts of Paul’s rap would be edited in
that case.
54.11. Shandi
After ‘Sure Know Something’ further drastic rap
editing would be done: ‘Whoa yeah! Again, you know we are filming this. So if
you’re here with somebody you don’t belong with you might want to leave. You
don’t want this thing to come out and someone says to you, ‘who’s that next to
you at the KISS concert? You said you were going to your Mother’s house’? You still with us? OK. You have no idea what it’s like to
come back and see all you people come back to see us. It truly… It means the
world to us. Alright, you’ll know this. Go ahead take a look at yourselves,
you’re beautiful. Go ahead! It ain’t a concert without
you people. Alright, you’ll know this. Here we go.’ Again, much of this rap
would be broadcast in the Australian PPV. Following the rap Paul would play
0.38 of George Harrison’s ‘Here Comes The Sun’ before
immediately moving on to play ‘Shandi.’ Following the
conclusion of that final song with the Ensemble the band would take a short
break before returning to the stage with the full 60-piece Melbourne Symphony
Orchestra.
Act III: KISS & The
54.12.
For the main part of the ‘Symphony’ show the MSO
would take to the stage first and play something of a 2.08 orchestral version
of ‘God Of Thunder’ to get the crowd going. Paul would then introduce the
orchestra again, ‘that’s your Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, let’s hear it!
Under the direction of in inimitable Mr. David Campbell who wrote all the
charts, he wrote all the arrangements you’re going to hear tonight. We are
stoked! Let’s see what happens we put together black tie, black leather. Here
we go.’ Paul would count the band off, ‘one.. two.. three..’ before launching
into ‘
54.13. King Of The Night Time World
For the introduction for ‘King Of The
Night Time World’ Paul would state, ‘Whoa yeah! How’s that for a starter? How
cool is this? Here’s another song, this one comes of the same album,
‘Destroyer.’ It’s got a beginning, actually it segues
from the last one right into this one. Goes like this.’ Apart from Paul’s ‘Whoa
yeah!’ the album version would follow his rap and simply segue directly from ‘
54.14. Do You Love Me?
Paul’s rap introducing ‘Do You Love Me?’ would be
something of a cut and paste job. The original performance had him saying,
‘Yeah, it’s hot! Are you having fun? Is this cool? Hell yeah! Alright, Peter
will start this one.’ This would be changed to, ‘How’s that for a starter? Are
you having fun? Is this cool? Hell, yeah! Alright, Peter will start this one.’
54.15. Shout It Out Loud
The intro to ‘Shout It Out Loud’: ‘We do, we do love
you! Well, like I was saying earlier, you can sing any song you want to sing
with us. Awesome, awesome. Alright.
Now should we consider this a successful experiment? Alright now, now here
comes the survey and the honest poll. How many people here regularly have gone
to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra? Let’s hear you. OK, that’s cool. How
do you think they’re doing, is this good for them? How many of you people saw
us on the last tour? Is this good for us? OK, here we go, one, two, three, four...’ This would be cut down to: ‘We do, we do love you!
Now should we consider this a successful experiment? How many of you people saw
us on the last tour? Is this good for us? OK.’
54.16. God Of Thunder
‘Shout It Out Loud’ would be
followed by Gene’s 3.33 solo section which segues directly into ‘God Of
Thunder.’ With Gene’s usual ‘Oh Yeah!’ at the beginning…
54.17. Love Gun
Paul would have an insanely long rap leading into
‘Love Gun’ toying with the crowd trying to get them going: ‘
54.18. Black Diamond
Paul wouldn’t talk much as the band headed directly
into the introduction of ‘Black Diamond’ following ‘Love Gun.’ After a false
start with Paul trying to get the audience singing along to the intro he would
start the song over again commenting, ‘Oh, you can sing better than that. Let’s
do it again!.’ With a ‘one.. two.. three, hit it,’ from Peter
and a pyro burst, the song would launch with Peter
singing. The whole of the false-start would be cut for obvious reasons, though
the intro would be duplicated with and added in ‘Are you ready’ from Paul,
before the sung part of the introduction began. This seems to be an area where
studio work was done on the recording. Peter would have fun during the song
singing, ‘Paul, he’s got you under that thumb,’ to which Paul would call out,
‘Hey!.’ This would be the final song of the night,
with Paul shouting, ‘
54.19. Great Expectations
When the band returned to the stage to take their
bows, but Paul would also take the opportunity to honor the orchestra and
conductor: ‘What do you say we bring out David Campbell. Let’s give David
Campbell a rock ‘n roll applause. Let’s give him a
rock ‘n roll welcome. David Campbell.’ Gene would chime in with a ‘Oh Yeah!’ Paul continued, ‘we couldn’t do this without
Peter! Wow, what a night, what a night. All full of all kinds of excitement,
and let’s not forget the amazing Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Let’s hear it
for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Yeah! C’mon, stand up be rock stars. And
here comes the Australian Children’s Choir. What a beautiful looking bunch
(Gene: One, two). What a great bunch of kids. Alright, here’s something we’ve
never done before. You want to talk about guts. So this comes off the album
‘Destroyer.’ Australian Children’s Choir, are you ready? You want to wave to
everybody. Fabulous. Here we go, one… two… three…’
‘Great Expectations’ had been mentioned as going to
be performed that night prior to the show, so it was no surprise, apart from,
perhaps, the band wanting to give it a shot in the first place. The song had
never been performed live previously, though with a full orchestra and choir a
performance was finally possible. Lyrically, Gene would do similar to ‘Goin’ Blind’ and revert the song
to an older format which was more of a hybrid of the original and album version
lyrics. The third and fifth verses would use the different lyrics: ‘You watch
Paul playin’ guitar / And you feel what his fingers
can do / And you wish you were the one he was doing it to / Well listen’; and
‘You watch Pete beatin’ his drums / And you know what
his hands can do / And you wish you were the one he was doing it to /Well,
listen.’ Paul would conclude the song stating, ‘one more hand for the
Australian Children’s Choir. You’re the best. Thank you. Maybe we’ll see next
tour.’ Gene would follow with, ‘Say Good-bye.’
54.20. I Was Made For Lovin’ You
While the track order for the album would change from
the performance order, Paul immediately launched into the introduction of the
next song: ‘OK. Was that cool? Hell yeah! Here’s a song we always play when we
come to
54.21. Rock And Roll All Nite
The introduction of the
final song: ‘Whoa yeah! Good people of
Paul would end the show,
thus: ‘Have you had a good time tonight? We love you people. Good night! Rock
stars, definitely rock stars. Let’s hear it for the MSO. What you’ve gotta remember, the applause at one of their concerts is
very nice and polite. And you don’t want to be polite, show them what it sounds
like at a rock ‘n roll concert. The Australian Children’s
Choir. And Mr. David Campbell, who we couldn’t done
this without. And now, let us all take a bow. Good night! Thank you for making
this a memorable evening we’ll never forget. Thank you!’
54.22. Sure Know Something (Rove)
Recorded with the Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra ensemble on
Naturally the issue of Ace came up, though Paul graciously deflected it:
‘This is a time to celebrate the people who are here, not the people who aren’t
here, you know, this is about KISS continuing, not about getting steamed about
why people aren’t here, you know we respect everybody for not being here, but
like your football teams, we gotta move on forward’
(Rove). Even Tommy was allowed to speak, and give a taste of the material which
would be performed at the show: ‘I wanted to add also we’re doing lots of songs
that we’ve never done before, no one’s ever played, which is really going to
make this ex… you know very different… Well there’s a song off the CD called
‘Great Expectations’… Songs like ‘Shandi,’ ‘Sure Know
Something,’ uh, there’s a few others… ‘Forever’’’
(Rove).