Alive II

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Alive II
Live album by Kiss
Released	October 14, 1977
Recorded	August-September 1977
Genre	Hard rock, heavy metal
Length	71:26
Label	Casablanca
Producer	Eddie Kramer & Kiss
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Rolling Stone (positive) link Pitchfork (7.0) link
Kiss chronology
Love Gun (1977) Alive II (1977) Double Platinum (1978)

Alive II is a 1977 live album from Kiss. It is the group's eighth album and second live album.

The songs

The origins of "Alive II" go back to early 1977 when the band's manager, Bill Aucoin, had the idea to have Eddie Kramer record a live album during the evening show at Budokan Hall in Tokyo on April 2, 1977. The plan was to release a live album to give KISS some much deserved time off before recording the album that would become Love Gun later that Fall. Kramer finished work on the album, but Casablanca Records and KISS deemed it unusable, and the band forged ahead with the Love Gun sessions.

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.

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 to handle all guitars and bass guitar for "Rocket Ride." Paul Stanley played all guitars on "Any Way You Want It" which was originally recorded by the Dave Clark Five in 1965.

Promotional items

The original vinyl issue of Alive II was a 2LP set, in a gatefold sleeve, with picture LP-liners. Continuing the Kiss tradition of including promotional items with their albums, Alive II was packaged with a booklet entitled "The Evolution of Kiss" and a set of rub-on tattoos in a cartoon-style. The tattoos depicted the band logo, Kiss Army logo, band member heads, member signatures and symbols. The symbols were meant to represent the four personas of the group and included a skull and crossbones for Simmons, a rose and star with eye for Stanley, a Saturn-like planet and block print-style 'ACE' for Frehley and a drum and cat's head for Criss. The rose and 'ACE' are copies of Stanley and Frehley's actual tattoos, respectively.

A merchandise order form was also included with the album. It listed an array of official Kiss merchandise, as well as a chance to "enlist" in the Kiss Army.

Re-release

Alive II was issued as a 2CD set in what has now become known as a 'fatboy' 2CD case. When the Kiss back-catalogue was remastered it was housed in a slimline 2CD case and, in keeping with the rest of the reissue programme, had the artwork restored. This included the set of tattoos. The booklet 'The Evolution Of Kiss' and the picture-liners were now incorporated as part of the CD booklet.

Most recently, Alive II was re-released in 2006 as part of the Kiss Alive! 1975-2000 box set (also featuring Alive!, Alive III and Alive! The Millennium Concert). It includes Rock And Roll All Nite (Single Edit Version) as a bonus track. The short running-time of Alive II allowed for a single CD edition in this latest release.

Track listing

Side one

1. "Detroit Rock City" (Paul Stanley, Bob Ezrin) – 3:58
   • Recorded at The Forum, Los Angeles, CA, August 25-28, 1977
2. "King of the Night Time World" (Stanley, Ezrin, Kim Fowley, Mark Anthony) – 3:06
   • Recorded at The Forum, Los Angeles, CA August 25-28, 1977
3. "Ladies Room" (Gene Simmons) – 3:11
   • Recorded at The Forum, Los Angeles, CA, August 25-28, 1977
4. "Makin' Love" (Stanley, Sean Delaney) – 3:13
   • Recorded at The Forum, Los Angeles, CA, August 25-28, 1977
5. "Love Gun" (Stanley) – 3:34
   • Recorded at The Forum, Los Angeles, CA, August 25-28, 1977

Side two

6. "Calling Dr. Love" (Simmons) – 3:32
   • Recorded at The Forum, Los Angeles, CA, August 25-28, 1977
7. "Christine Sixteen" (Simmons) – 2:45
   • Recorded at The Forum, Los Angeles, CA, August 25-28, 1977
8. "Shock Me" (Ace Frehley) – 5:51
   • Recorded at The Forum, Los Angeles, CA, August 25-28, 1977
9. "Hard Luck Woman" (Stanley) – 3:06
   • Recorded at the Capital Theatre, Passaic, NJ and Electric Lady Studios, New York City, NY, September 1977
10. "Tomorrow and Tonight" (Stanley) – 3:20
    • Recorded at the Capital Theatre, Passaic, NJ and Electric Lady Studios, NYC, NY, September 1977

Side three

11. "I Stole Your Love" (Stanley) – 3:36
    • Recorded at soundcheck, The Forum, Los Angeles, CA, August 25-26, 1977
12. "Beth" (Peter Criss, Ezrin, Stan Penridge) – 2:24
    • Recorded at Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan, April 2, 1977
13. "God of Thunder" (Stanley) – 5:16
    • Recorded at The Forum, Los Angeles, CA August 25-28, 1977
14. "I Want You" (Stanley) – 4:14
    • Recorded at Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan, April 2, 1977
15. "Shout It Out Loud" (Stanley, Simmons, Ezrin) – 3:37
    • Recorded at The Forum, Los Angeles, CA, August 25-28, 1977

Side four

(New studio tracks)

16. "All American Man" (Stanley, Sean Delaney) – 3:13 (Lead vocals - Paul Stanley)
    • Recorded at the Capital Theatre, Passaic, NJ and Electric Lady Studios, NYC, NY, September 1977
17. "Rockin' in the U.S.A." (Simmons) – 2:44 (Lead vocals - Gene Simmons)
    • Recorded at the Capital Theatre, Passaic, NJ and Electric Lady Studios, NYC, NY, September 1977
18. "Larger Than Life" (Simmons) – 3:55 (Lead vocals - Gene Simmons)
    • Recorded at the Capital Theatre, Passaic, NJ and Electric Lady Studios, NYC, NY, September 1977
19. "Rocket Ride" (Frehley, Delaney) – 4:07 (Lead vocals - Ace Frehley)
    • Recorded at the Capital Theatre, Passaic, NJ and Electric Lady Studios, NYC, NY, September 1977

20. "Any Way You Want It" (Dave Clark) – 2:33 (Lead vocals - Paul Stanley)
    • Recorded at the Capital Theatre, Passaic, NJ and Electric Lady Studios, NYC, NY, September 1977

Several early copies of the album's cover feature a rare misprint of 3 additional songs ("Take Me," "Hooligan," and "Do You Love Me") with a slightly altered song order. None of these additional songs, however, appear on the LP. On this misprint, "Take Me" is after "Detroit Rock City," with "King of the Night Time World" appearing after "Ladies Room" on Side 1. Side 2 features "Hooligan" after the song "Shock Me," which is placed after "Hard Luck Woman." On Side 3, "Do You Love Me" appears after "God of Thunder," with "Beth" sandwiched between "I Want You" and "Shout It Out Loud." "Hooligan" and "Take Me" were performed on the Love Gun Tour of 1977, and "Do You Love Me" was performed on the Japanese tour of 1977 making their consideration for inclusion with the second live album possible.

Personnel

• Paul Stanley - rhythm guitar, lead vocals
• Gene Simmons - bass, rhythm guitar on "Larger Than Life", lead vocals
• Ace Frehley - lead guitar, bass on "Rocket Ride", vocals
• Peter Criss - drums, vocals

with

• Bob Kulick - lead guitar on "All American Man", "Rockin' in the U.S.A.", and "Larger Than Life"
• Ed Balandas - The Introduction "Voice"

Charts

Sales accomplishments

References

External links

• Kiss FAQ - Alive II, Accessed on July 13, 2005.