Favorite Vinnie Vincent era Kiss album?

I figured hey, why not the first music thread not have something to do with Kiss? Personally I have a REALLY hard time picking between the two but LICK IT UP wins out for me for two reasons.

1.)Sentimental reasons as this was the first Kiss album I had heard.

2.)Vinnie writing almost all of the songs on it made for a GREAT sound and excellent compositions in general, so it just SCRAPES by Creatures barely.

Yeah, I'm similar. But Lick It Up takes it. It was also my first KISS full album that I heard.

Lick It Up really? I guess i'll have to relisten to that one cause Creatures Of The Night is almost flawless all the way through. This is unrelated to this topic but I just had the hugest fly I ever saw in my life crawling on my screen window outside. Hes gone now so everyone calm down now. Anyway back to my Creatures Of The Night talk. You got the opening track probably one of the heaviest Kiss songs besides Unholy then you got the classic I Love It Loud. I think that was the first kiss song I ever heard. Then theres I Still Love You and War Machine. The other songs are great too but those are my favs.

With Lick It Up the only one I like off of that is the title track. I'll give it another listen though. I'll probably still feel the same way.

BTW I have all the kiss albums but I have some that are remasters and some originals would anyone want to trade their remasters for originals?

Ill take that offer, which ones do you want to trade?

And on Creatures, I agree, some great songs on that, but when it comes down to it, sentimental stuff plays a big part in why I picked Lick It Up, I dont really dislike any songs from either one, but the strictly Gene written tracks on LIU are a little weaker then the rest of the album. But, theres a couple on COTN that I feel the same way about as well, but I dont really dislike any songs on either. Exciter on LIU is a must hear.

Whats funny is the heaviness your talking about was brought by Vinnie, each time, they really need to give the guy more credit.

Yep that heaviness was Vinnie.

Vinnie Vincent is soooo under appreciated. It's a shame.

Ive done alot of research on it and talked to alot of different people about the whole situation with Vinnie, and what actually happened is painfully different than what Kiss claims.

Ashame too as he's my favorite guitarist.

I would love to know that story, the REAL story.

spectrefate wrote:

I would love to know that story, the REAL story.

About Kiss, or just with his career in general?

Vinnie and his departure from KISS.

Well, the Kiss thing goes like this:

Originally, Vinnie was a songwriter, and he was hired to write a few songs for Creatures Of The Night and beef up the sound for it because they wanted a return to a heavier sound after the previous two disasters in the charts. He came in and played on a couple of tracks and when it was obvious Ace wasnt coming back they hired him as a full time guitarist. Now, Vinnie has a strong ego about the music and level of perfectionism about it too, but it got to the point on both tours actually where they would cut his amp during his solos because Gene and Paul felt they went on too long (I've seen a few rumours that he was fired after the COTN tour, then rehired because they couldnt find anyone else on such short notice but no one has seemed to confirmed it from either side). This went into the studio too, where they would shorten his solos or have someone play a different solo in his place. And Gene had changed all the lyrics too BOYZ ARE GONNA ROCK to ON THE 8th DAY even. Apparently, (Bruce Kulick said something about this in an interview too) he didnt just want to play along as a hired gun. Which I dont blame him, if youre invited to be a part of the band, you should be a part of the band. Business wise he just didnt see eye to eye with them and has the same my way or the highway attitude Gene has it sounds like. Apparently he was quite close with Eric Carr too. As far as his exodus, Gene says he fired him because he wasnt a good business man, I was told by an old manager the last conversation that was had was that Gene was going off to shoot Runaway and wanted Vinnie to have the songs finished for Animalize when he got back (which leads me to believe that some of those riffs or solos may have originated from him possibly), Vinnie didnt want to give him another "child" so he quit. And thats how it went with Kiss.

That sounds about right. Gene and Paul went and got a complete unknown patsy (St. John). I'm sure he didn't say no to anything.

He didn't. They actually used session musicans to record over parts of songs alot. Thats how Ace Frehley met Anton Fig.

Id've added this above, but it wont let me edit my posts in here for some reason, but I was going to say Kulick didnt say no either it would seem, He said he knew how to play ball with him. He also said, despite them being outright jerks to Vinnie, he thinks they'd still be on good terms had he not sued them.

DeathCult wrote:

Ill take that offer, which ones do you want to trade?

And on Creatures, I agree, some great songs on that, but when it comes down to it, sentimental stuff plays a big part in why I picked Lick It Up, I dont really dislike any songs from either one, but the strictly Gene written tracks on LIU are a little weaker then the rest of the album. But, theres a couple on COTN that I feel the same way about as well, but I dont really dislike any songs on either. Exciter on LIU is a must hear.

Whats funny is the heaviness your talking about was brought by Vinnie, each time, they really need to give the guy more credit.

Nice I'll send you a PM

Ok.

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

Lick It Up really? I guess i'll have to relisten to that one cause Creatures Of The Night is almost flawless all the way through. This is unrelated to this topic but I just had the hugest fly I ever saw in my life crawling on my screen window outside. Hes gone now so everyone calm down now. Anyway back to my Creatures Of The Night talk. You got the opening track probably one of the heaviest Kiss songs besides Unholy then you got the classic I Love It Loud. I think that was the first kiss song I ever heard. Then theres I Still Love You and War Machine. The other songs are great too but those are my favs.

With Lick It Up the only one I like off of that is the title track. I'll give it another listen though. I'll probably still feel the same way.

BTW I have all the kiss albums but I have some that are remasters and some originals would anyone want to trade their remasters for originals?

So, you're opinion change on Lick It Up any?

I like both albums but Lick it up has always been my favorite of the two.The title track is still one of my favorite Kiss songs of all time.

CREATURES is my fave. I loved LICK IT UP when it first came out (that album got me back into KISS after being away for quite a while) but it hasnt' aged anywhere near as well as CREATURES.

My two favorite songs off of Lick It Up are Exciter and Young and Wasted. I like the title track alot too, I just wish Vinnie's live solo would've made the studio version, there was some serious shred to be had there.

DeathCult wrote:

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

Lick It Up really? I guess i'll have to relisten to that one cause Creatures Of The Night is almost flawless all the way through. This is unrelated to this topic but I just had the hugest fly I ever saw in my life crawling on my screen window outside. Hes gone now so everyone calm down now. Anyway back to my Creatures Of The Night talk. You got the opening track probably one of the heaviest Kiss songs besides Unholy then you got the classic I Love It Loud. I think that was the first kiss song I ever heard. Then theres I Still Love You and War Machine. The other songs are great too but those are my favs.

With Lick It Up the only one I like off of that is the title track. I'll give it another listen though. I'll probably still feel the same way.

BTW I have all the kiss albums but I have some that are remasters and some originals would anyone want to trade their remasters for originals?

So, you're opinion change on Lick It Up any?

Nope. Maybe when I get those remasters it will but I really doubt it haha. Maybe its the picture on the front of the album that bothers me about Lick It Up. Vinnies head looks like it was cut and pasted from somewhere else cause its looks bigger than the rest of his body. Unless thats how he is then it looks fine.

Supposedly thats actually what happened, he either didnt make the photo shoot, or something else happened, and they superimposed his head on a stand in.

DeathCult wrote:

Supposedly thats actually what happened, he either didnt make the photo shoot, or something else happened, and they superimposed his head on a stand in.

I never even noticed.

really you didnt notice that? If you look at it his head is freakishly huge.

It looks natural to me.

Yeah, I dont see it either, but thats a rumour I heard.