One such diamond was KISS's 1977 live double album, Alive II. As you can see from the photo above, some jackass kid (presumably) drew all over the album cover with a black marker, but that wasn't going to get me down. The 50-cent "bric/brac" sticker from Salvation Army is still on the album, and it was a half-dollar well spent, even if it skips in a couple spots.
KISS released their first live album, Alive!, in 1975, and it not only save the band's record label (Casablanca Records), but it came to define live albums and ushered in the popularity of live albums, which were relatively rare before then. Alive! captured KISS's legendary live show, and the album far out-performed the three studio albums KISS had released to that point, coming in at #9 on the Billboard album charts and remaining on the charts for over two years.
In 1977, the band decided to release another live album, Alive II, which included live versions of songs from the band's three studio albums released after Alive! -- Destroyer, Rock and Roll Over, and Love Gun -- as well as one side of new studio tracks. Originally, the plan was to use live recordings from KISS's show in April 1977 at Budokan Hall in Tokyo, but the recordings ended up being mostly unusable, so that plan was scrapped. Instead, the band mostly used live recordings from three shows at the LA Forum in August 1977, as well as a few of the usable songs from the Budokan show and some soundcheck tracks from the LA shows with crowd noises dubbed in. As I alluded to above, the fourth side is comprised of five new studio tracks that the band recorded in September 1977.
Both Alive! and Alive II are great live albums, and I think Alive II really captures the essence of KISS at its height of being the best live band in the world. The album reached #7 on the Billboard album charts, the live version of "Shout It Out Loud" reached #54 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the studio song "Rocket Ride" became the band's seventh Top 40 hit, reaching #39 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Favorite song from Side 1: "King of the Night Time World"
The opening track, "Detroit Rock City," and its legendary intro that is still used to this day at KISS shows -- "You wanted the best and you got the best. The hottest band in the world, KISS!" -- would seem to be the obvious choice, but as much as I love that song and the live version here, I'm going with the second track, "King of the Night Time World," another fantastic gem from 1976's Destroyer album. The song has great energy, and I'm sure there has been a time in all of our lives when we thought we were the king or queen of the night time world.
Favorite song from Side 2: "Calling Dr. Love"
This is a great live version of a great song. Gene hams it up, elongating and over pronouncing "kiss" as "keeyoooosss" when he sings "the first step of the cure is a kiss." Peter Criss's drumming is great on this track as well.
Favorite song from Side 3: "Shout It Out Loud"
While "God of Thunder" has a great drum solo courtesy of Peter Criss, I had to go with "Shout It Out Loud" because I think it captures the live energy of a KISS show better than any other song on Side 3. You can hear the pyrotechnics explode at the beginning and the of the song, and then there is the crowd chanting "we want KISS!" at the end. Good stuff.
Favorite song from Side 4: "Rocket Ride"
"Rocket Ride" was Ace Frehley's only contribution to Side 4, as he was mostly absent from the recording of the studio tracks. Bob Kulick handled lead guitar duties on "All American Man," "Rockin' in the USA," and "Larger Than Life," while Paul Stanley handled all guitar parts on the cover of The Dave Clark Five's "Any Way You Want It." But as an unapologetic Ace fan, I think "Rocket Ride" is the best of the studio tracks. As you would expect from an Ace song, it has great guitars, especially the intro. But I'll be honest, guys, I don't think "rocket" means a jet-powered space vessel.
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