Sunday, July 27, 2014

Kim Fowley Reviews Alice Cooper's "Musle of Love"/The Hollywood Stars "Shine Like a Radio: The Great Lost 1974 Album"/Richard Creamer Shoots Alice

So did Kiss decide to enlist Bob Ezrin for Destroyer after Fowley’s mash note or prodding? I dunno. The review is spot on nevertheless and pretty funny. Having seen Kim perform a few times, I can even imagine him reading this as a funny spoken word piece. I still like the title track and Teenage Lament ’74 from Muscle of Love but come on Kim, that one sounds like the Band?? I re-read Fowley’s piece in Bomp! on the greatness of the Hollywood Stars (pre-major label article) recently and then listened again to the Hollywood Stars Shine Like a Radio: The Great Lost 1974 Album that came out last year. Yeah, the original Hollywood Stars lp is a bit of a stinker, at least Shine Like a Radio has some good and almost great moments. Live they would have been excellent. Well worth grabbing if you see it. Fowley is right about the failure of Muscle of Love owing to the dropping of Ezrin – I like the Ezrin-produced Kiss cover of “King of the Nighttime World” more than the original, but that may be due to 1970’s saturation or my old roommate Darren’s repeated playing of the lp back in Santa Cruz. Maybe if the the Alice Cooper Band hadn’t fought with Ezrin in the studio, Muscle of Love would be up there with all the lps that preceded it as an undisputed classic. Or maybe they should have let Fowley produce it. I mean that is around the same era as Fowley’s Jimmy Jukebox persona on "Motorboat," which is one of 1973’s top singles worldwide. Do enjoy Kiss on the Paul Lynde show from 1976 (ouch!). Somehow I missed it the first go round. Watching it made me wonder whether Paul Stanley is to thank or to blame for naming Ezra Feinberg's great combo Citay with his pronunciation of the word on the track?

2 comments:

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  2. "Whoever put the first strings on a rock 'n' roll record should be yawned at forever": yes. In my defense, Muscle of Love came in a stained cardboard box. So it was hard to say no to. The Teenage Lament video is funny, too. Alice drinks Budweiser like Dukowski. Ha ha.

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