Cornerstone: KISS gets a little respect

“You wanted the best, you got it” or so goes KISS’s concert introduction.

Next Thursday, KISS will finally be inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of fame, and on that note Rolling Stone opted to put the band on its cover for the first time.

So it looks like KISS might actually be getting some respect, albeit begrudgingly.

Given that the globally-known band has been eligible for Hall of Fame induction for fifteen years, one has to wonder what took so long.

Yes, their music isn’t very original, the lyrics read like the notebook ramblings of a teenage hooligan, and the band’s image is like something a twelve-year-old would dream up, but you can’t deny the success and influence they’ve had.

While bassist Gene Simmons is an admitted egomaniac, he may have a point when he asserts that KISS is the world’s biggest band.  The makeup and hard rock that is their stock in trade is known throughout the world.

We don’t need to add up their record sales or wonder about their cultural significance.

So what would keep them out of the Hall?

Well, it didn’t help that the president of the Hall of Fame, Jann Wenner, and remaining original members of KISS, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, haven’t had nice things to say about each other.

According to one account, Wenner asked Simmons to borrow some memorabilia to display at the Hall of Fame Museum and Simmons asked for a cut of the admission in return.  Wenner responded by saying that as long as he was alive, Kiss would not get in the Hall of Fame.

Whether the story, true or not, sounds plausible.

Simmons has a long-standing reputation of chasing dollars, and it’s a reputation he doesn’t deny or feel a need to apologize for.

Ronnie James Dio once accused Simmons of trademarking the abbreviation “OJ” for orange juice so he’d get a royalty payment every time the abbreviation was used.  As it turns out, the story wasn’t true, but it was funny, and it sounded like something Simmons would do.

Simmons is a capitalist first and foremost; he just decided to use the concert stage instead of the corporate office.

But it is the rabid commercialization, the focus of image over substance that has been the focus of so much criticism.

When we think about any given musician, we think about the music, but with KISS, the first thing that comes to mind is the visual spectacle, the makeup and the stage show.

And it is in the spectacle that they have been most influential; the next time you see rockets and explosions at a concert, you can thank Kiss.

KISS has also been criticized for the breadth of their merchandising, but everyone forgets that particular path was paved with Beatlemania back in ’64 and ’65.  You can still buy a wealth of Beatles merchandise, but it doesn’t change how we feel about the Beatles.

They have also been criticized for playing the same songs for several decades.  In a Rolling Stone interview, Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot said he overheard one of the members of KISS saying something to the effect that “I have the best gig in the world. I’ve been playing the same 17 songs for 35 years.”

Talbot said that didn’t sit right with him, but there are a lot of other artist out there that have done that. Heck, AC/DC has done that, and they are lauded for being resilient.  Does anyone complain that Elton John sings “Your Song” or “Rocket Man” every night?  Nope.

So KISS while has receive a lot of criticism, some of it with merit, to some, that juvenile, trashy image is pure rock n’ roll, which is kind of right, too, but ultimately, if KISS is any pleasure at all, it is a guilty one.