I think it's cute that irrelevant little Genie Simmons takes off his adorable Broadway Musical costume now and then and speaks. I mean, just the cutest little thing. I worked in a record (that's a vinyl disk, for those younger than Jesus) store when KISS first hit the scene. And I will tell you that I was among those who adored the little jeezers. Such frolicking fun...the best thing to happen to rock n roll since syphilis. I dug their wholly forgettable music. Their stomping feet and wanton disregard for talent. I mean, I seriously dug it. I think they have earned their place in the pantheon of rock n roll. They'd sit proudly in the Rarities and Oddities section...right next to Weird Al, maybe. I raised my fist at the odd Kiss concert...I screamed HOT HOT HOTTER THAN HELL!!!! You may say, "Et tu, KTC? Et tu?" It's true...me as well. I boarded the Kiss bus...I board all the fun buses.
But they are about as relevant as Scritti Politti. Yes...you may argue that Scritti is NOTHING in comparison to Kiss and their wild army of social misfits. YES THEY ARE. They are wildly famous, infamous and popular. But that doesn't make the sum of their parts relevant. Even at his height, Gene was a business man in a avant garde costume. He weighed and measured each note for shock-value and hard-rock sellability. He was savvy. They knew rock anthems and the hunger for that type of music at the time of their rise. They scored. But, please...they were an animal of their own. They were cute hug-able icons of rock...entertainers...unquestionably talented, but also questionably sincere. This + This = Money.
I don't want to hear Gene Simmons talk of the tower of song known as rock n roll. That would be silliness. Keep on your make-up, you cute little monster of mayhem. You know not what you speak. OR...you know what you speak of only in terms of the financial machine you created at the most opportunistic time in the history of the pantheon of rock. You won. But you didn't do anything earthshatteringly original. Anyone can get dolled up, sweet Genie baby. Anyone. The rest was confetti well paid for.
ROCK AND ROLL LIVES!