Friday, October 14, 2011

KISStory, On this Day, KISS ALIVE II Released

KISS ALIVE II KISS ALIVE II is released on this day, October 14, 1977. Kiss' second live album featured 3 sides live and one side of new tracks. The album was produced by the legendary Eddie Kramer and KISS.

Most of the live tracks on Alive II were recorded during the band's August 26–28 residency at the Los Angeles Forum while on the Love Gun tour. The 3:00 PM soundchecks at the August 26 & 27 shows were recorded, and later used on the album (i.e. "Tomorrow And Tonight") with crowd noise being dubbed in later. "Beth" and "I Want You" were lifted from the aborted Japanese live album and used on the finished Alive II.
As the band did not want to duplicate songs included on Alive!, the songs chosen for the three live sides of the album were all drawn from Kiss' three preceding studio albums - Destroyer, Rock and Roll Over and Love Gun. Eddie Balandas provided the introduction.
On the original double album, the songs on side 4 (tracks #6-10 on the second CD) are studio tracks. Although Ace Frehley was originally credited for lead guitar on the studio tracks, the remastered version released in 1997 confirmed what had been speculated by Kiss fans for years - Bob Kulick actually played lead guitar on three tracks ("All American Man", "Rockin' In The U.S.A." and "Larger Than Life"), not Frehley. Frehley's sole involvement for the studio songs was "Rocket Ride" which he originally wrote for a solo album; Ace sang the lead vocals and played both the guitar and bass on this song . Paul Stanley played all guitars on "Anyway You Want It" which was originally recorded by the Dave Clark Five in 1965.
 Alive II, featured a gatefold sleeve with a color photo of the band at the end of a show, in full bombastic form, on risers with every piece of pyro imaginable. Notorious for adding cool items in the albums, Kiss, included a full color booklet, "The Evolution of KISS" and removable Kiss tattoos.
KISS Alive II was a hit album for the band recorded at their peak of popularity as the #1 band in the world by the Gallup Poll.
Alive II peaked at #7 on the US Billboard  Album Charts and quickly sold over 2 million copies. Singles from the album "Rocket Ride/Tomorrow and Tonight (live)" peaked at #39 in the US and "Shout It Out Loud" at #74 in Canada.
Kiss Alive II (along with Alive!) are both regarded as two of the best  live albums ever recorded.

Track Listing:
Side 1-
Detroit Rock City, King Of The Nightime World, Ladies Room, Makin' Love, Love Gun
Side 2-
Calling Dr. Love, Christine Sixteen, Shock Me,  Hard Luck Woman, Tomorrow And Tonight
Side 3-
I Stole Your Love, Beth, God Of  Thunder, I Want You, Shout It Out Loud
Side 4- (studio side)
All American Man, Rockin' In The USA, Larger Than Life, Rocket Ride, Any Way You Want It
**Portions of this article were taken from the album's Wikipedia page.

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