And party every day

Kiss - Alive! - 1975

In one of the earliest episodes of HBO's Westworld, a recently arrived guest at the park asks a host whether she's a human or a robot. She replies: "If you can't tell, does it matter?" I was thinking about that today while listening to this album, mostly because of all the controversy and debate it's brought about throughout the years with respect to how much of it was really live recordings, and how much was overdubs and studio work.
I really can't tell, so does it really matter? And even if you can tell, unless you're an extreme purist, how much do you really care?
This is, in a way, the epitome of the live rock album, this is exactly what you fantasise about, the mental image of a larger-than-life band playing live. Which means that it has every cliche in the book, and that it might even be a bit predictable. But it's so much fun to listen to, that you really have to be very bitter about life to complain too much about it.
I recently said how some of Kiss' songs would sound a bit flat to me in their studio versions, and one of the things I love most about this album is how much those songs come to life here. Even some songs that I don't like that much in studio ("Parasite" comes to mind), are great here.
Kiss were always much more than music and while a live album can't possibly give the whole experience, with the make-up, fire, lights and histrionics, listening to them live you can, at least, imagine seeing them live.
As for the overdubs? Well, a month or so ago I wrote about this King Crimson live album, called Earthbound, and that one was as low in production values as an album can get, so I guess it's the "authentic" experience. It's also an album I will never listen to in my life, because it's horrible. Give me this one any single day.
This album is so good that if anybody asked me what's the first Kiss album they should listen to, I'd recommend it in a heartbeat.

• This was the first ever Kiss album to do well as far as sales went. It actually was certified gold and, probably, saved their label, Casablanca Records, from a very rough year, after the label decided it would be a good idea to release a double album with Johnny Carson's monologues. 
• There's a really short list of live albums I really like. This is one of them, definitely up there in the top ten. Come to think of it, I think so far the only other live album I love in the chronology is Deep Purple's Made in Japan.
• Of course, the song to put here is "Rock'n'Roll all Nite". I can't believe there's not one single video with live footage that isn't shortened or much newer. So this one, with slides, will have to do.

Do it wrong or do it right

John Lennon - Shaved Fish - 1975

A few days ago, when writing about his 1950s cover album, I think I mentioned that I was surprised by how little I had by Lennon. I think I know why I was so lacking in interest for all this time now.

This album is a compilation of the most significant songs by Lennon after the Beatles split up. I remember listening to this album a lot when I was in my early teens. And, at some point, I pretty much stopped. It's hard for me to tell how long it's been, mostly because all the songs are quite well known and you're likely to hear them anyway. But I can't really remember playing it in a very, very long time. 

For the most part, I think it's because I grew out of all the "protest song" vibe of most of the songs. Mind you, there are a good few songs that don't deal much with social issues, but the majority of them do. In part, I think I grew out of them by my late teens. But I also think that the world grew out of them. Or, what's actually worse, turned them into cliches. Protest songs are a bit of a problem like that: people will grab the words, without necessarily thinking too hard about the concept, and they will repeat them until they've lost all meaning. 

Don't get me wrong, these are good songs, there's not one single bad track here. Musically they're brilliant. From the lyrics point of view, they sounded much better when I was 14. But still, they are good songs. I don't mind listening to them, but I think it's going to be a good while until I listen to this album again in full.

• The song "Woman is the Nigger of the World", from 1972, had some issues with the title, but not as much as you would expect seeing it with current eyes. In a presentation that John & Yoko did at the Dick Cavett show, the host had to issue an apology upon the request from ABC. They got a lot of letters of protest, none of them about the title of the song, but because of what was viewed as a veiled act of censorship. I wonder how that would go now (of course, being John Lennon might have helped).
• I had always heard that "Cold Turkey" was about them getting rid of their brief heroin addiction. But apparently John said at some point it was really about them getting food poisoning from, well, cold turkey, of course. 
• I'm going to put "Whatever gets you thru the Night" here, mostly because it's the one I enjoyed listening to again the most.