Retro Video of the Week: "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll To You II" by KISS

Monday night, I had the pleasure of seeing the fourth-to-last KISS live show ever, and sadly, my seventh and final KISS live show ever -- assuming this weekend's shows in Madison Square Garden are, in fact, the last two concerts the band will ever perform.  The band's End of the Road tour started in January 2019, and I took my kids to see the 19th show on the tour in early March 2019.  Of course, COVID meant the tour was put on hiatus for much of 2020 and 2021. I didn't expect them to return to Chicago, but you better damn well believe that I wasn't going to pass up the chance to see them one last time.  And they were predictably fantastic.

To call KISS iconic is an understatement.  Setting aside the unmistakable face paint, the merchandising (KISS coffin, anyone?), and the rabid following they've had for nearly 50 years, they revolutionized the concert-going experience, bringing pyrotechnics, explosions, fire breathing, smoking guitars, elevated drum platforms, and, of course, blood spewing to the stage.  Every time I've seen them, they've given 100% and they're still as tight of a live band as there is around.  I hope you had a chance to see them live at some point in your life, and if you didn't, you missed out on a hell of an experience.  As the house announcer before every show says, "You wanted the best, you got the best."

So in honor of KISS, I'm giving you a Russ Ballard song.  Written by Ballard -- who also wrote Ace Frehley's 1978 "solo KISS" hit "New York Groove," among many other songs for other artists over the years -- and originally released in 1973 by British rock band Argent (with Ballard on lead vocals and guitar), "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll To You" was a Top 20 hit in the UK, but didn't crack the Billboard Hot 100 in the states.  

Fast forward 18 years, and the most important time-traveling movie sequel of 1991 needed an anthem for its closing credits.  Enter KISS.  The band modified some of the lyrics -- hence the modified title "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll To You II" -- and gave it a late '80s/early '90s hard rock makeover, but it's otherwise a pretty faithful cover.  And I'd be lying if I said it didn't turn our pretty damn great.

It's also kind of a bittersweet song.  Not because I'm an atheist, so I don't believe any deity gave rock and roll to me, but because it's the last song with drummer Eric Carr, who died from heart cancer at age 41 a few months after the song was released.  He wasn't physically well enough to play drums on the song, but he did sing backing vocals, including during the a cappella part.  He also appeared behind the drum kit in the video, with a wig on, as he had lost all his hair from chemotherapy by that point.  Eric Singer -- who has been KISS's drummer since Carr's death, save for 1996 to 2000, when the original lineup reunited -- played the drums on the recorded version of the song, marking his first recording with the band.  The song was also the first KISS song since 1981 on which both Gene and Paul shared lead vocals.

It wasn't a huge hit in the U.S. -- only reaching #21 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart -- but it was a big hit internationally, reaching the Top 10 on the pop charts in the UK, Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland.  In addition to being featured on the Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey soundtrack, it was also a track on the band's underrated 1992 album Revenge.

The video features the "unmasked" band members playing the song in an empty airplane hangar, as was the fashion back then.  Interspersed are shots of KISS shows from the '70s in full makeup.

This was the song played over the PA after the end of the show Monday night, as the house lights came on and people slowly filed out of the arena.  So it will always be the first song I heard after the last KISS concert I attended.

Hair Band Friday - 11/17/23

1.  "Addicted to That Rush" by Mr. Big

2.  "Don't Damn Me" by Guns N' Roses

3.  "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Leppard

4.  "Dance of the Dogs" by Lynch Mob

5.  "Make It Real" by Scorpions

6.  "Love Hungry Man" by AC/DC

7.  "Jet City Woman" by Queensrÿche

8.  "Rhythm or Not" by Y&T

9.  "There's Only One Way to Rock" by Sammy Hagar

10.  "Paradise" (live) by Tesla

Retro Video of the Week: "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" by Us3

Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the release of British jazz rap group Us3's debut album, Hand on the Torch.  Presumably most people didn't know jazz rap was a thing until they heard the debut single off the album, "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)."  But I'll be damned if it didn't work.  

Us3's record label was iconic jazz label Blue Note Records, and the album was unique in that it featured a lot of sampling, which was still in its nascent stages.  Every song on the album samples songs from old Blue Note recordings.  You may be saying to yourself, "For some reason, I knew that Us3 recorded for Blue Note."  That's likely because of the intro to "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" -- by Pee Wee Marquette from 1954's A Night in Birdland, Vol. 1, a live album by the Art Blakey Quintet -- which says, "Ladies and gentlemen, as you know we have something special down here at Birdland this evening:  a recording for Blue Note Records."  Then the song kicks in, and it's just so damn catchy.  The title comes from the song that is sampled throughout, Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island."

"Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" is another example of something weird that came out in the '90s that no one batted an eye at, instead just accepting that it was a good song, even if you didn't listen to jazz or have any idea that the song sampled a '60s jazz classic (that was certainly the case for me).  The song reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the group's only song to chart in the U.S.  Hand on the Torch peaked at #31 on the Billboard album chart and was eventually certified platinum in the U.S. -- the first Blue Note album to achieve platinum status.

Hair Band Friday - 11/10/23

1.  "Another Rainy Night (Without You)" by Queensrÿche

2.  "Danger on the Track" by Europe

3.  "Love Doll" by Roxx Gang

4.  "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)" by Mötley Crüe

5.  "Back Seat Rock 'n Roll" by Krokus

6.  "Sticks & Stones" by Dangerous Toys

7.  "Heartache" by Giuffria

8.  "Come Back" by Bon Jovi

9.  "Eagles Fly" by Sammy Hagar

10.  "Too Late For Love" by Def Leppard

Tuesday Top Ten: Halloween Costumes (2023 Edition)

We are one week removed from the greatest holiday of the year, so it's time for my annual homage to the best Halloween costumes I saw this year.

On Halloween proper, our dark lord graced us with temperatures in the 30s and snow.  But that didn't stop this guy from saying "hi"!

As always, I tried to dress as something that, while handing out candy to small children, forced me to say "I'm just a man with face paint on.  Now who in the afterworld would you like to speak with?"  This year's choice was an ode to voodoo intermediary Papa Legba.

Our annual Halloween party had to be postponed from the Saturday before Halloween to this past Saturday, thanks to some jerk parents in Lollipop's class who sent their kid to school with COVID, thus infecting Lollipop.  But through confining Lollipop to her room and masking, the rest of us managed to avoid getting the 'rona.

The theme of our Halloween party this year was puns and wordplay, so people were encouraged, if not required, to wear a costume that was a play on words (like Daughter, who wore a Barbie shirt with plastic shrimp sewed to it, for Shrimp on the Barbie) or before-and-after (like my suggestion that no one went with, which was wearing an 1800s double-billed detective hat, a Detroit Tigers 19 jersey, carrying around a primitive telephone, and walking around singing "Poison" and "Do Me" -- better known as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Alexander Graham Bell Biv DeVoe).  You get the picture.  People took their assignment with vigor and creativity.

There's no use trying to narrow it down, so I'm just going to show you everyone I managed to get a photo of.  Some are blurry, which is a direct reflection on my state of being at the time and the fact that I have an old phone.  To the extent any explanation is needed or you can't see part of the costume, I'll note that.  These are in alphabetical order.

1.  Arm Candy and Plague Dr. Feelgood

2.  Bad Blood (on the right - Taylor Swift in a prison jumper with an "A-" nametag).  Disregard the cow on the left until further notice.

3.  Box of Rainn

4.  Carole Baskin Robbins

5.  Cats Pajamas (I also would have accepted Cat Nap)

6.  Ceiling Fan

7.  Fork in the Road

8.  Golden Girls Gone Wild

9.  Grateful Dead

10.  Hip Hip Hooray (the mom's hip bone pants are kind of hidden)

11.  Hugh Heifer

12.  Jeff Lynne Dickey

13.  Johann Sebastian Bock

14.  Madonnald Trump

15.  Nordstrom Rack and Nunchuck

16.  Pumpkin Pi

17.  Rubber Band (if you can't see, they have erasers pinned to their shirts, as erasers are called rubbers in the UK, and it was more appropriate than pinning condoms to children's shirts)

18.  Runaround Sue (you can't see her "Sue" nametag) and Dead Ringer

19.  Running With the Devil (complete with a mini speaker playing the song)

20.  Vincent Van Gofundme

21.  Walter Payton Manning (his hat is a Broncos Super Bowl champ hat)

22.  Wednesday Adams & Wabash, Shania Mark Twain, and Fantasy Football

23.  Witch Doctor

24.  Wonderbread Woman

It will be tough to top this Halloween party theme, but dammit, I'm going to try every damn year.  At the very least, we'll see if I can now turn the part of my brain off that has been thinking of potential punny costumes for the last six months.

Hair Band Friday - 11/3/23

1.  "Livin' On a Prayer" by Bon Jovi

2.  "Hold Your Fire" by FireHouse

3.  "I'm Eighteen" by Hurricane

4.  "Youth Gone Wild" by Skid Row

5.  "Lady Strange" by Def Leppard

6.  "Gambler" by Whitesnake

7.  "No Surprise" by Ratt

8.  "The Invisible Boy" (live) by W.A.S.P.

9.  "All In the Name Of . . ." (live) by Mötley Crüe

10.  "King of Rock and Roll" by Dio

Retro Video of the Week: "Neon Knights" by Black Sabbath

It's been a rough evening in Hoosierland, with the news of Bob Knight's death.  Whether you loved him or hated him -- and I don't know there's many people who fall in between -- he was unquestionably one of the greatest basketball minds and coaches to ever walk the planet.  I was fortunate enough that my four years as an undergrad at IU were Knight's last four years as IU's coach.  I was on campus with the protesters when he was fired, watching Myles Brand's effigy rightfully burn in front of Brand's house in the middle of our picturesque campus.  For his many faults -- and there were many -- he cared deeply about his players and did a lot of genuinely kind things for a lot of people that he didn't want publicized.  It's a sad day for college basketball and the extended IU basketball family.

I was trying to think of a song for this week's Retro Video of the Week with "knight" or "general" in the title.  I remembered one of my favorite post-Ozzy Black Sabbath songs, "Neon Knights," off of the band's 1980 Heaven and Hell album, which was the first album after Ozzy left the band and the first album to feature Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals.  The song is a frenetic metal song with a great guitar riff, signaling that, even if Ozzy was gone, the rock would still go on.  So crank it loud and throw some chairs if you got 'em.