Music is magic, music is Emotion: Gene Simmons

in music •  6 years ago 


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Yesteday I did a post about some great bassplayers (again) and got a comment of @bozz if I already highlighted Gene Simmons. And although I did mention him in one of my previous posts I did not highlighted him in particular. I don't really know why, but I didn't. And the stranges thing is that there is indeed a lot to talk about when it comes to Gene.... He is some musician and some flamboyant person.

Of course most people (inlcuding myself) know Gene Simmons as the bassplayer of one of the biggest rockbands of the world KISS, where he plays a big part in the stage appearance as the 'one with the big tongue'...

Kiss


Kiss was founded in 1973 (my birthyear, so it must has been a good year ;) ) by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. They wanted to create 'The hottest band in the world". They got acompanied by Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, and Kiss was born..

I dare to say that Kiss is one of the most succesfull acts when it comes to love shows. A Kiss show is about two hours of full entertainment.... I saw them as the closing act at the "Arrows Classic Rock" in 2008 (gosh, time flies).... Ànd they made this huge show, with fireworks, special effects and of course the world famous blood-bass solo of Gene.... It's a big theateral thing but it works....


His solo at a Kiss gig

A Kiss show is a bit of a mix between the vocals of Paul en Gene, from which I think at least for the last 10 years Paul lost the power and tone of his voice while Gene still kept it and he is now 68 ?!?!! years old and still on stage.....

They do like traditions, every single concert start with the same ritual, as speaker shouts "You wanted the best, you got the best...the loudest band in the world KISS".... It's became a trademark.

The Kiss company


Kiss was more than just a band. Rumors are that Kiss is the best selling band (with merchandise) in the whole world. The Kiss fans (called kiss army) can choose out of so many products with the Kiss logo or Kiss touch, it is unimaginable.


Kiss lottery cards


Kiss lip balm


Kiss kasket or urn
The former guitar player of Pantera Dimebag Darrel was buried in a kasket of Kiss, he was a big Kiss fan.

(source of merchandise pictures)

Kiss is of course world famous for their make-up, Gene is 'The Demon' . Did you know that the mak-up themselves every single show.... I guess you get some routine in it after all those years, but to be honest I thought they had staff to do that...At least I think I would for all those times...

In the next video Gene makes up his daughter with his 'demon' face..

Gene Simmons himself


Gene Simmons is a great entrepreneur, he has lot of businesses and deals. For instance he has his own

  • Record company
  • Soda brand
  • (had) his own reality show on american tv ( (Gene Simmons Family Jewels)
  • A franchise [dinner & bar] (http://www.rockandbrews.com/) together with Paul Stanley
  • A movie company

Besides that he is involved in a lot of other business deals... So he is quite the clever guy..
He does workshops and meet and greets, with the last there are some special deals.. You can do a meet and greet with bass signing sessions (click here ), with the bass signing session you receive a original 'axe'bass (or a other one you would like) and can choose in a used one (on stage) or a new one. The used ones vary from 7500 dollar to 11000 .... I could never imagine me paying for such a thing, but then again if you are such a big fan....well....


Source

Besides his entrepreneurship he is a real womanizer, once he stated that he slept with over 4800 women in his career... The guy must be full of it, I think I wouldn't brag about that... Funny thing is that people seems to love the story while when a woman will admit something like that they get all kinds of name calling...But ok, who am I :)..

At a American talkshow this was just what brought Gene into problems with his current wife. To be honest I thought that was it, she was through... But I read they got married quite soon afterward... So it gives you to think.......

Gene as a bassplayer



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When you ask a 'musician' what they think of Kiss from musical perspective it's often "Well they are doing something good, but it isn't that great of a music"... Well I disagree, there are only two kinds of music and that is good or bad music, and if you look at the recordsells and the tours almost every time sold out, there are pretty much people who love their music.

A far as Gene concerned, I think he is a steady and great bassplayer, serves the music of Kiss and his own bands like a rock. And when they play live he loves to fly around the neck of the bass a bit.. When it comes to music, it's about the whole package (musicaly)

And with Kiss it all fits like a glove... And although the vocals aren't as they used to be (Paul mostly) the band still rocks like crazy..... For me (the next video) is one of the greatest songs of Kiss "Detroit Rock City"...

When I played in the band Sixstrings we played one time at a wedding of a lesbian couple, they asked us if we could play "I was made for loving you"... And although it's a quite poppy rock songs, sweet and sound, the bassline is awesome.... It's full of octave picking.... You got to listen it sometime particular to the bass... (live it's btw awesome...)

So my opinion about Gene Simmons .... Well I think he is great musician, for all those years keeping people comming to concerts and buying records... That's something to respect. I do like the music of Kiss a lot, don't play it that often but when I do I play it for days (ask my kids)...

So Kiss Army ROCK on ( and @bozz of course ;) )

Have a great day


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Nice write up. His childhood was also fascinating and his family history is interesting. I got to see Kiss a couple of years ago. Loudest concert I have ever been to. It was awesome. I pull out my best Paul Stanley voice around the campfire with that friend.

Yes ,he have had and still have some live..wow.. In fact at this moment I am downloading their real life soap . It was never broadcasted in the Netherlands, reading and writing made me more curious :) talking about the loudest concert... I went to a show of Testament once with my brother...they played so loud we had real pain in our ears... it made the gig terrible... with Kiss at arrows rock is was loud for sure, but it was defined loud :)

Yeah my ears were ringing for about an hour after the show but it wasn't painful.

I never got too into the music of Kiss. They seemed like some sort of comic book band, and I think they did have a comic. I guess they are a form of pop rock and that's fine if you just want some good tunes.

I understand what you mean. Troughout all those years they were and are a big marketing machine with music for a broad audience.. The studio music is for me the least interessting, live sounds a little more rough :) ...

I got quite entranced by this band at the end of the 70's, it was the image and the makeup which attracted me, but after listening to 'Destroyer', I was a fan.

"Detroit Rock City" the song you mention is on this album. I will have to have a listen again, its been 30+ years plus.

'Strutter' is now my favourite song though.

Also a great song, there is indeed something about them that attracks :) 🤟

Hi verhp11,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.

Thank you very much, I appreciate it !!

@verhp11 Very nice job on this review of Gene Simmons and KISS. I remember seeing them on a television show called Solid Gold when I was a little girl and they scared me. But they have some really good songs and Gene Simmons is a great theatrical performer when it comes to his stage presence. Excellent job, once again!

Well thank you :)

You're very welcome.

OMG!!! I have been a huge KISS fan since I was in middle school!! Some of my all time favourite tunes come from the KISS collection. I still remember when they decided to go without the make up for a few years in the 80’s. I was so upset. Lol. Thanks for taking me down memory lane with these awesome videos!!!

You're very welcome. I did watch the vids without the makeup, and it did took away some of the kiss magic :) .. looking back to the history of kiss, there arent a lot of bands anymore with that kind of track record.. thank you for your comment !

What an American Icon - giving it his all! I can't say I'm a big KISS fan but you've got to admire a man like Gene and they do know how to put on a show!

Thank you for your comment, and they indeed put of a great show :)

Your Curie vote is well deserved. Although I do have one album of Kiss, I am not really a fan.
Your post is very informative and fun to read.

@verhp11 Thank you for the kind support on one of our posts! I am more of a Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep and Black Sabbath man. Ever heard of Alvin Lee? Unfortunately Kiss has never appealed to me! Blessings and upvoted!

Ooohwww KISS, I was made for loving you ... and many many other songs, I could dream them all. Yes I was a very big fan of Kiss, and a funny thing, I was at the Arrow Rock too in Nijmegen 2008. I saw them too ... And my memorie with that is that I stopped smoking for 6 years back then. And at that event, while KISS was playing, the man I was with put his cigarette in my hands to hold it for a minute while he was going to get us some drinks ... and yes, I immediately start smoking as if I never had stopped. But KISS was GREAT!

So kiss started as a combined live performance, and 10 years down the river it still rocks,,

Then they sing and set the audience high.
That's so nice to see those men pulling the guitar strings accompanied by the best lyrics.

I knew him like the guy with the big tounge before this post hahaha thank you!