Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Gene Simmons - Radioactive...

Radioactive, the first song on Gene Simmons' 1978 solo album was always my favourite of all the KISS solo records (I remember being very disappointed by them as a child, only ever listening to this and Ace's version of New York Groove, but perhaps it's time to revisit them).  Aerosmith's Joe Perry played guitar on this and Tunnel Of Love and Bob Seger sang backing vocals!  It's a really good pop song.




On the 1979 Dynasty Tour (also known as "The Return Of Kiss") they performed a song from each of the four members' solo records (makes sense) though it looks like Radioactive (and Peter Criss' Tossing And Turning) was dropped after only a few gigs.  A shame.  A live version from Largo, MD 1979:




I was chatting with David Ryder Prangley the other night and he reminded me that not only did Gene Simmons produce Van Halen's 1976 "Zero" Demo, he also roped in Eddie and Alex to play on some KISS demos for him.  The Van Halen brothers played on early versions of Christine Sixteen, Got Love For Sale (originally entitled Have Love With Travel when the VH bros. played on it), and Tunnel Of Love (which ended up on Gene's solo record with Joe Perry on guitar).  How I would LOVE to hear these!  But this is one of those rare occasions that always makes one frustrated with technology, that even with all we have now, there's still no way to hear them.  There's been some conjecture about them being released and fingers crossed one day it will happen. Gene apparently states in the KISS box set that they wanted to use Christine Sixteen and Got Love For Sale but couldn't track Eddie down to get his permission.  He needs permission from both brothers in order to release them.

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