Subject:
Hipster- Dufus Critics and the Hall of Shame
From:
darryl-machum on 05/19/2007
Attn: Administration Dept at Kissonline.com. Hi submitted this earlier but was tired last night and gave it another edit this morning. If you think it is worth posting on the site can you please use this version. Thanks Darryl.
To: KISS
Re: Hipster-Dufus Critics and The Hall of Shame
How is it going guys? Words cannot describe what you and your music mean to me. I have been a fan for fifteen years; however, this is the first time I have ever actually written you. You always will be a source of inspiration for me and in the past, through your songs, have helped carry me through some very difficult times. Whenever I am feeling down, anxious, or stressed out, all I have to do is crank up one of your cds or concert DVDs and I instantly feel better. Legendary artists such as yourselves have that special something that allows you to transcend place and time, to connect, as strange as it may sound, spiritually with the fans for which you are performing. No act in history has been better at connecting with their fans in concert than you guys. I am proud to say that I am a fan of KISS,--in all of its variations over the years. There are far too many fans complaining about which member or members or which line-up is the best. They all are. I embraced the various changes in the band\'s lineups over the years not because it was easy to do, but because I always want to have KISS in my life. For me, the band’s appeal lies in the songs themselves and the precision with which they are performed, and Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer deliver the goods each and every time out.
When I hear or read critics make absurd comments early on in the band’s career regarding their “supposed” limitations as musicians, or the band’s technical flaws, I cannot help but laugh at their ignorance. All one needs to do is watch your brilliant MTV Unplugged show or the paired down theater shows on the Rock the Nation DVD, to realize how what a polished live act you truly are. It does not matter which line-up (original, eighties, or current) is on stage, nor does it matter what the stage looks like, nor whether or not you have the warpaint on and the pyro in full effect, you guys always put on unforgettable shows, shows driven by some of the catchiest, fist-pumping songs ever recorded. As far as I am concerned, Strutter, Deuce, Firehouse, and Love Gun are some of the greatest, and most overlooked, songs in rock history. Moreover, the double adrenalin-shot provided with the addition of Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer will ensure that the group continues to carve their way through the rock and roll landscape for, hopefully, years to come. It aggravates me, and I am sure many of your fans, that you guys never get the recognition you deserve, especially by the anal-retentive, hipster-dufus wannabes who run the so-called Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
That place is a total farce. I am not being disrespectful towards Grandmaster Flash, but their accomplishments do not stand up to those of KISS. Yet, they are being inducted because they were one of rap’s earliest practitioners; however, they were no longer relevant when the group the Hall of Fame should be inducting as its first entry in the rap category, RUN DMC, was accomplishing for that genre in 1986, what KISS did for the American heavy metal and arena rock scene in 1975. Will you guys ever get the respect you so truly deserve? It is inconceivable that KISS, a band who all but forced all those who followed to up the ante in terms of their live performances , a band who has more platinum and gold albums and concert ticket sales than at least two-thirds of the current inductees, a band who influenced a generation of critically and commercially successful acts, including Garth Brooks and Nirvana, is being ignored because Stanley and Simmons’s original vision for the group was more ambitious than anything that could have been dreamt up by the the hippie/pizza delivery boy look-alikes at Rolling Stone. I would like to know what any of you think now about the critical backlash that has followed the band from the start, not that what they have to say matters anyway? Do critics dislike you simply because you are different, or because you became hugely successful in spite of their opposition? Will you ever tour across Canada again? The Reunion and Farewell concerts held in Calgary were truly unforgettable! Thank you to all of the members of Kiss, both past and present.
Darryl Machum.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Fan, or just the cutest?
