The Blog is exhausted tonight.
Exhausted by a long, ugly day at work.
(And, when The Blog says "ugly" he means that literally.)
Exhausted, and too, by the ongoing spew from the Right-Wing and the Westborough Baptists and other pseudo-Christians, in the wake of the Oklahoma tornadoes.
So, before bed, The PC will go light and easy tonight, with a little something about one of his favorite rock bands.
If you are a loyal blogglitt, you know that The PC is a geeky Batman fanboy.
But, you may or may not know that he is also a huge fan of KISS.
Which, if you think a bit, makes sense.
Black leather and spandex.
Check.
Capes.
Check.
Secret identities and hidden faces.
Check and check.
Th Blog probably isn't the biggest KISS fan on Earth.
And, while he owns truckloads of KISS "collectable" merchandise...
He does not own the KISS casket.
But, yeah.
The Blog is a KISS fan.
Tomorrow, (or today, or yesterday, depending on your time zone,) marks the 34th anniversary of the release of KISS' "Dynasty" album.
Holy shit! 34 years!
By the time "Dynasty" was released, the band's best and most classic work was already behind them. They had a few high points after that, but those high points have been sporadic.
Music critics have always dismissed KISS as gimmicky and commercial.
But, the fact is, after their first three, straight forward, cranium crushing, hard rock albums, KISS became nearly as experimental as more famously experimental recording artists like Frank Zappa.
"KISS: Alive!" was one of the first two disc, live performance albums. (A rock staple, ever after.)
"Rock and Roll Over" was recorded in an auditorium with "live, ambient acoustics," instead of a multi-track recording studio.
"Love Gun" was an early experiment in the genre of the "concept album." A vague concept, to be sure. Not as coherent as The Who's earlier "rock operas." Or later recordings by "The Alan Parsons Project."
But, "Love Gun" was a pioneer, conceptualizing (The Blog is making an educated guess, here,) a tribute to Gene Simmons' penis.
"Dynasty" was another experiment.
By 1979, Casablanca Records, "the record label that KISS built," was making a fortune producing disco icons, Donna Summer, Cher, and The Village People.
So, in hindsight, it only makes sense that the hard rocking KISS would dip a toe into the world of disco.
Or, as they called it, "KISS-co."
"I Was Made For Loving You."
The young PC hated to admit it, but at the time, KISS had totally sold out.
*Although, in an era of The BeeGees and K.C. and the Sunshine Band, "IWMFLY" did give The young Blog the opportunity to work the dance floor with some degree of white boy confidence.*
It's weird, but 34 years later, The PC took a glance at the liner notes from "Dynasty..."
And, for being an album that he knew, front to back, at the time, can only remember three of the songs from the album.
"2000 Man," "Sure Know Something" and "I Was Made For Loving You."
The rest is a blur. The passage of time sure does weird shit to the memory.
Even weirder, "I Was Made For Loving You" has evolved in The PC's mind from lame pandering to a disco audience, to a classic tune of the time.
In the dozen or so live KISS concerts that The Blog has attended in as many years, the song seems better, performed live, than it was when it was first recorded.
But, the real crossing point happened a few years ago, when KISS performed a concert in Australia, backed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
That was when "Dynasty's" lame, pandering, sell-out, disco hit, magically transformed into an epic, classic.
Enjoy, as The PC does.
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