KISS Crazy Nights

[Tommy2Tone84]

CN isn’t that bad. It’s better than Elder, Unmasked, Carnival and I’ll be so bold to say I prefer it over Revenge. I’ll Fight Hell, Crazy Crazy Nights (C’mon fellas, it’s KISS), Turn On The Night, Reason To Live, Hell or High Watwe, Good Girl Gone Band and even My Way are all solid.

You have shit for taste. Holy fuck.

The love and overrating of Revenge by the fan base sums them up perfectly. Lots of shit songs on that turd from I Just Wanna Fuh, Everytime I Look At You and Take It Off to typical, lame Gene lyrics like Spit, Tough Love and I’ll even say Domino, which lyrically hasn’t aged well. Unholy is good but Gene couldn’t sing it live. It was out of his vocal range so it came off sounding flat. It lost its punch that it had in the studio, from Gene most likely literally punching in his vocals.

I’ll take Unmasked, Asylum and Crazy Nights, as problematic at CN is over Revenge. I might take The Elder over Revenge at this point.

[Tommy2Tone84]

And what he "helped" the band do, sucked almost as much as Crazy Nights!

It’s interesting that fans hate Psycho Circus so much because Ace and Peter weren’t on it. But they love Creatures when it has ghost musicians all over it. They act like it’s a Vinnie Vincent record when it’s really not. I didn’t mind Psycho Circus. I didn’t care for Dreamin, You Wanted The Best or Into The Void. I thought it was dumb they made Peter sing a Diane Warren song. I’d give it three clown cars out of five.

Any failures on Crazy Nights are strictly Paul’s fault. From the poor choice of producer to some of his putrid songwriting. Gene’s songs are mostly solid with the exception of No, No, No. Thief is ok but I would have preferred to hear one of his 1979-1985 leftovers. It’s Gonna Be Alright, Nobody’s Perfect, Legends Never Die, It’s My Life all would have fit nicely.

I’m also in the minority in that I like Peter’s last solo album. Fans call it a jazz record when it’s really not. His voice was showing its age a little by that point but I like it.

Psycho sucks.
When people say they don’t like it cause ace & Pete aren’t on it they mean because their input is obviously missing

Ace has a song. I usually like Ace’s songs. But Into The Void makes Five Card Stud sound like Black Dog. It’s awful

[Tommy2Tone84]

I thought it was dumb they made Peter sing a Diane Warren song.

They didn’t.

You’re trying to tell me Peter willingly sang that song? That’s not what I remember reading and hearing. Peter wasn’t happy with how the record was made either.

[Hatchets Molly]

KISS has always been a retrospective band for me. Since 1976 until 1998, I would say I enjoyed all albums in the time they were released, like a snapshot, even Psycho Circus and CoS. Around Y2K, I was done. I never bought Sonic Boom or Monster and have yet to listen to them in full. Looking back from 2025, I have a lot of criticism for it all. In 87, I liked Crazy Nights the song and album. Not so much now. To me, it's strange that's how I see it. Because for other classic bands, I wasn't a huge fan at their peak. For example, I was never into the Seattle sound in the 90s, but love AiC, STP, and Soundgarden now. I also think the internet explosion ruined it for me. Pre-internet, KISS information was hard to come by except for the occasional trade show, picking up some bootlegs and interview compilations. When it became self-service, you learn too much about who they are and how they are. Gene and Paul are not guys I'd want to have a beer with.

[Love_Industry]

Any failures on Crazy Nights are strictly Paul’s fault. From the poor choice of producer to some of his putrid songwriting. Gene’s songs are mostly solid with the exception of No, No, No. Thief is ok but I would have preferred to hear one of his 1979-1985 leftovers. It’s Gonna Be Alright, Nobody’s Perfect, Legends Never Die, It’s My Life all would have fit nicely.

You do know that Thief is exactly that, a 1979-85 leftover? Probably from 82-83 as Mitch Weissman claims he wrote a bunch of songs that didn't make it to Creatures and Lick It Up. It was first released in 1984 on the Gene produced Wendy O Williams album and Paul didn't know that when they recorded Crazy Nights.....

[HueyRamone]

It’s interesting that fans hate Psycho Circus so much because Ace and Peter weren’t on it.

I dont care if Ace and Peter weren't on it. I care that is 100% steaming dogshit, including the title track, which a lot of tards inexplicably like.

[NeonKnite]

Unholy is good but Gene couldn’t sing it live. It was out of his vocal range so it came off sounding flat. It lost its punch that it had in the studio, from Gene most likely literally punching in his vocals.

Who fucking cares but you're applying different standards to both albums. Do you think Paul could sing "My Way" live? Maybe if you squeezed his balls hard.

I’ll take Unmasked, Asylum and Crazy Nights, as problematic at CN is over Revenge. I might take The Elder over Revenge at this point.

Unholy, Take It Off, Domino and God Gave Rock and Roll To You II are all better than ANYTHING off Crazy Nights.

I like Asylum but Revenge is also better than that album.

Unmasked is a severe disappointment after Dynasty. They clearly were lost thinking going a step further away from rock and roll after Dynasty was the way to go. There are songs I like on it, but the production wrecked the best Gene and Paul songs.

[JizzySynatra]

Great vocals by Paul on My Way. Also like the s/t track and Turn on the Night. Good melodic rock despite the weak production. Rest of the songs are meh.

[DangerZone]

Great vocals by Paul on My Way. Also like the s/t track and Turn on the Night. Good melodic rock despite the weak production. Rest of the songs are meh.

my way vocals are ridiculous

[Tommy2Tone84]

They didn’t.

You’re trying to tell me Peter willingly sang that song? That’s not what I remember reading and hearing. Peter wasn’t happy with how the record was made either.

No, I’m trying to tell you it isn’t a Diane Warren song. The Diane Warren song is on the DRC soundtrack and Paul sings it.

I stand corrected. It shows how often I look at album credits. I always thought Diane Warren wrote that song. So they, Stanley and Ezrin made Peter sing their equally soft, lame song. It makes ETILAY sound like Forever.

[Tommy2Tone84]

It’s interesting that fans hate Psycho Circus so much because Ace and Peter weren’t on it.

I dont care if Ace and Peter weren't on it. I care that is 100% steaming dogshit, including the title track, which a lot of tards inexplicably like.

It’s a better song than Into The Void.

[Tommy2Tone84]

Unholy is good but Gene couldn’t sing it live. It was out of his vocal range so it came off sounding flat. It lost its punch that it had in the studio, from Gene most likely literally punching in his vocals.

Who fucking cares but you're applying different standards to both albums. Do you think Paul could sing "My Way" live? Maybe if you squeezed his balls hard.

I’ll take Unmasked, Asylum and Crazy Nights, as problematic at CN is over Revenge. I might take The Elder over Revenge at this point.

Unholy, Take It Off, Domino and God Gave Rock and Roll To You II are all better than ANYTHING off Crazy Nights.

I like Asylum but Revenge is also better than that album.

Unmasked is a severe disappointment after Dynasty. They clearly were lost thinking going a step further away from rock and roll after Dynasty was the way to go. There are songs I like on it, but the production wrecked the best Gene and Paul songs.

Take It Off and Domino are lame af. They didn’t write God Gave. Unholy is good but Gene can’t sing it live. It came off flat and

I like Asylum better than anything they did post Dynasty.

Unmasked is better than most of their 1980-2012 releases. Creatures, Lick It Up, Asylum and Unmasked for me. Psycho Circus after that. Everything else is a mixed bag.

[NeonKnite]

Take It Off and Domino are lame af.

Again, you have horrendous taste in music.

[DemonFilth2001]

Tommy is correct on a lot here. Revenge is one of their worst non makeup releases. Unholy is good. Domino was ok. Guess the ballad was good for what it was. CN wasn’t good. But still better overall than Revenge, Hot, COS, and Unmasked.

After Creatures, each album had a couple of good tunes. The rest was trash. No good deep cuts to be found.

Comparing these albums is like sniffing dog turds and deciding which shit is least offensive.

[NeonKnite]

Tommy is correct on a lot here. Revenge is one of their worst non makeup releases. Unholy is good. Domino was ok. Guess the ballad was good for what it was. CN wasn’t good. But still better overall than Revenge, Hot, COS, and Unmasked.

Nah, you're wrong too.

Revenge is vastly better than HITS and CN which are two of the biggest turds in their catalog. I'd say it has more great songs than ASYLUM or Animalize though it has a few absolute stinkers ("I Just Wanna", "Everytime I Look At You") and a few "eh" songs ("Heart of Chrome", "Spit") where those albums pull closer when they're judged on the whole. I don't get why people don't like "Domino". I've always love that song and it should have been the 2nd single as planned, but Paul was such a bitch they had to release IJW. With GGRARTY2 released in 1991, followed by "Unholy", Kiss was getting some cred back. "Domino" would have continued that momentum because being in college at that time, I knew non-Kiss fans that like that song. IJW brought the momentum to a screeching halt.

In regard to sales for Revenge, you can throw that out the window. First off, we were in the grunge era and second, they had released two such god awful albums in a row that it was gonna take more than one album to get people back. Similar to COTN.

[DemonFilth2001]

Tommy is correct on a lot here. Revenge is one of their worst non makeup releases. Unholy is good. Domino was ok. Guess the ballad was good for what it was. CN wasn’t good. But still better overall than Revenge, Hot, COS, and Unmasked.

Nah, you're wrong too.

Revenge is vastly better than HITS and CN which are two of the biggest turds in their catalog. I'd say it has more great songs than ASYLUM or Animalize though it has a few absolute stinkers ("I Just Wanna", "Everytime I Look At You") and a few "eh" songs ("Heart of Chrome", "Spit") where those albums pull closer when they're judged on the whole. I don't get why people don't like "Domino". I've always love that song and it should have been the 2nd single as planned, but Paul was such a bitch they had to release IJW. With GGRARTY2 released in 1991, followed by "Unholy", Kiss was getting some cred back. "Domino" would have continued that momentum because being in college at that time, I knew non-Kiss fans that like that song. IJW brought the momentum to a screeching halt.

In regard to sales for Revenge, you can throw that out the window. First off, we were in the grunge era and second, they had released two such god awful albums in a row that it was gonna take more than one album to get people back. Similar to COTN.

I was in college at that time as well. You’re correct. I knew people that liked Domino that gave zero fucks about KISS. Same people also gave zero fucks about IJW. Shit song.

Still not a good album.

[DangerZone]

I didn’t listen to anything beyond ‘Revenge’ except for a few songs on ‘psycho circus.’

Revenge is their worst non-makeup album to that point

[Wiseacre]

It’s interesting that fans hate Psycho Circus so much because Ace and Peter weren’t on it.

I dont care if Ace and Peter weren't on it. I care that is 100% steaming dogshit, including the title track, which a lot of tards inexplicably like.

The title track has a great verse, but the chorus is awful. Gene's "Journey of 1,000 Years" is a fantastic piece of music, especially the brand new mix and arrangement I will be including on my mega-epic-Elder Musical Theater remix version (not kidding).

The rest of the album in kinda meh, even Ace's song. "Within" is kinda cool, but I liked it a lot better when it was called "Thrills in the Night".

[Love_Industry]

Revenge is their worst non-makeup album to that point

When did this Revenge hate start? I remember when it came out the reaction was that "Kiss are back" after a string of disappointing albums (from Animalize and on) and that they looked cool again.

Us Kisstards expected it to blow up and when it didn't there was some disappointment but I can't recall any Revenge album bashing until much later.

Revenge is the opposite of Elder and Unmasked, very few liked them when they were new-ish but now it's cool to like them...

[Tommy2Tone84]

Revenge is their worst non-makeup album to that point

When did this Revenge hate start? I remember when it came out the reaction was that "Kiss are back" after a string of disappointing albums (from Animalize and on) and that they looked cool again.

Us Kisstards expected it to blow up and when it didn't there was some disappointment but I can't recall any Revenge album bashing until much later.

Revenge is the opposite of Elder and Unmasked, very few liked them when they were new-ish but now it's cool to like them...

I was never a big fan. I always found the hype surrounding it to be overblown. I like Unholy but live it’s one of Gene’s worst songs.

I like Unmasked. I have a similar feeling for the Elder as I do Revenge. Neither give me a throb. In the long run I’ve prolly come to like the Elder more

I’ll take Creatures-HITS over Revenge and COS

Unplugged was cool and not necessarily because of Ace and Peter. No argument that lineup was excellent but I don’t find them superior to the Carr/Kulick, Carr/Vincent or Frehley/Carr lineups.

[Tommy2Tone84]

Tommy is correct on a lot here. Revenge is one of their worst non makeup releases. Unholy is good. Domino was ok. Guess the ballad was good for what it was. CN wasn’t good. But still better overall than Revenge, Hot, COS, and Unmasked.

Nah, you're wrong too.

Revenge is vastly better than HITS and CN which are two of the biggest turds in their catalog. I'd say it has
more great songs than ASYLUM or Animalize though it has a few absolute stinkers ("I Just Wanna", "Everytime I Look At You") and a few "eh" songs ("Heart of Chrome", "Spit") where those albums pull closer when they're judged on the whole. I don't get why people don't like "Domino". I've always love that song and it should have been the 2nd single as planned, but Paul was such a bitch they had to release IJW. With GGRARTY2 released in 1991, followed by "Unholy", Kiss was getting some cred back. "Domino" would have continued that momentum because being in college at that time, I knew non-Kiss fans that like that song. IJW brought the momentum to a screeching halt.

In regard to sales for Revenge, you can throw that out the window. First off, we were in the grunge era and second, they had released two such god awful albums in a row that it was gonna take more than one album to get people back. Similar to COTN.

Demon is spot on here even if we don’t totally agree on the details

Most of us were in college at the time, There was alot of hype and MTV showed it a lot of love.
But when you threw the cassette in the deck it fell flat. Solid playing and admittedly, some of the
best production, but the songs weren’t there. To top it off, you had both Gene and Paul claiming
there were no lyrics about strippers, sluts and sex. Then you throw it in the deck and you hear
lyrics that make X In Sex sound like Sympathy for the Devil.

No need to make excuses. Non makeup and non original lineups had flat sales and uneven attendance during that time.
Figuring out the fickleness of KISS fans is something I finally gave up on. I can’t figure out why Animalize and Crazy Nights sold more copies than Creatures, Lick It Up and Asylum.

I can’t figure out how Crazy Nights went platinum but the tour was allegedly an abysmal failure. The shows I’ve seen from Tokyo to Western Europe to Stateside seem to prove otherwise. But the tour doesn’t have quite the enthusiasm
that the Asylum shows did.

Fans shit talk Asylum but it went gold and every audience bootleg I’ve heard and seen from that tour, the arena crowds are rabid, LOUD and going absolutely insane for the band, from the Garden in NYC to Cobo Hall in Detroit to Cleveland to Dallas. But fans claim it was sparsely attended and a bust of a tour. Judging by audience reaction, Asylum seems like one of the more successful tours they did from 1980 to 1995. They played from coast to coast whereas Revenge seemed more like the Creatures tour and later
Psycho Circus tour. Lackluster and lethargic

The Reunion proved fans and the public at large wanted the originals back. I didn’t necessarily. I liked the non makeup era. I was one of the few who missed it when it was gone. I wasn’t surprised when the originals fell apart again. It was inevitable. They all wanted to pad or have a retirement. I didn’t blame them.

[Love_Industry]

Figuring out the fickleness of KISS fans is something I finally gave up on. I can’t figure out why Animalize and Crazy Nights sold more copies than Creatures, Lick It Up and Asylum.

I can’t figure out how Crazy Nights went platinum but the tour was allegedly an abysmal failure. The shows I’ve seen from Tokyo to Western Europe to Stateside seem to prove otherwise. But the tour doesn’t have quite the enthusiasm that the Asylum shows did.

Animalize and Crazy Nights sold more because the songs Heaven's on Fire and CCN got more exposure. HOF was a song even non-fans heard and liked, it could even be the 2nd best known Kiss song in Europe after IWMFLY. Lick It Up went platinum too and the title track also got a bit of exposure. There isn't one track on Asylum that a non-Kisstard would recognize, and Creatures bombed because Kiss was uncool and unpopular at the time. I Love It Loud eventually became a classic because they played it on every tour, but back then nobody cared about Kiss.

[cowpins]

Factoring in MTV and the change of the music landscape, this was just an odd time for KISS, as they went w/ the flavor of the decade and eventually became a character of themselves. Opposed to Paul McCartney who stayed true to himself for the most part and reached legend status.

(note how I worked Paul into a KISS thread since you fuckers brought KISS into a Paul thread).

[HueyRamone]

I can’t figure out how Crazy Nights went platinum but the tour was allegedly an abysmal failure. The shows I’ve seen from Tokyo to Western Europe to Stateside seem to prove otherwise. But the tour doesn’t have quite the enthusiasm
that the Asylum shows did.

Not sure if you mean enthusiasm from the band or from the fans, but the Cray Nights show that was supposed to be at Long Beach Arena was cancelled for weak ticket sales. We went to the one in Orange County and while it wasnt bad, it was the absolute minimum with everything- 70min set, no pyro, I think Gene did aces rocket shooting out of the headstock.

Not sure why they would halfass their live shows because the album underperformed. If you realize you arent gonna do Jovi sales, wouldnt you ensure your live audience stays strong? I guess they course corrected on the live front with the Shade (Hot in the) tour.

[NeonKnite]

There isn't one track on Asylum that a non-Kisstard would recognize, and Creatures bombed because Kiss was uncool and unpopular at the time. I Love It Loud eventually became a classic because they played it on every tour, but back then nobody cared about Kiss.

You can't argue with people who didn't live through it, but think because they read about it on the internet, that their opinion means as much as someone who did. If you didn't actually live through an era of something, it's just impossible to understand the minutia the same way as someone who did.

A few dweebs shouting from the rooftops about how bad Revenge was just doesn't line-up with the reality. Yea, the tour didn't do the numbers they wanted, but music was changing. And CN / HITS were so god awful that a large segment of the rock audience had moved on. That's hard to get back in one album. The catastrophic decision to not release "Domino" as the 2nd single killed the album. This isn't just my opinion, someone in the inner circle of the band or record company stated this (I forget who specifically).

KISS wasn't cool in 1992 and it was going to be extremely hard to resurrect them and turn it around in one album. From 85-90 they went completely flaccid. They had some solid singles in that period, but the gradual move towards hair metal over that span definitely didn't earn them cred.

They gave up and reunited.

[Jason Jennifer Leigh]

Bruce’s guitar tone is brutal.

Paul is singing ridiculously high for no reason.

Asylum is classic KISS, all it needed was classic Ace … that being said Tears Are Falling solo is one of their best solos … and Modern Day Delilah is THE last great KISS solo.

[maninblack]

iIve seen KISS quite a few times and I cant remember if one of them was this tour. It was in an era where rock seemed to be ..... less popular, I mean it was very popular to me, but I mean generally in the world.
Edit. If you can remember it you werent there. Therefore I cant remember it so I was there. I was always drunk when I was younger, same as now in fact.

[kwf]

Needs a remix. The demo versions are better

[Tommy2Tone84]

Factoring in MTV and the change of the music landscape, this was just an odd time for KISS, as they went w/ the flavor of the decade and eventually became a character of themselves. Opposed to Paul McCartney who stayed true to himself for the most part and reached legend status.

(note how I worked Paul into a KISS thread since you fuckers brought KISS into a Paul thread).

Mac had reached legend status decades before. Before The Beatles ever broke up. Wings only galvanized his legend status.

[Black Stuff]

Complete garbage album.

this