Customer Reviews

Kiss - Kissology - Volume 1 (1974-1977)

5 star:		(86)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If you are a big KISS fan like myself, then you probably have seen 95% of what this DVD has to offer. I've researched the DVD tracks on this disc and this is what I found:

Disc One Track Listing

Long Beach, CA
2/17/74
"Acrobat"
(previously unreleased track)

ABC "In Concert"
3/29/74
"Nothing to Love"
"Firehouse"
"Black Diamond"

The Mike Douglas Show
4/29/74
Interview
"Firehouse"

Winterland - San Francisco, CA
1/31/75
"Deuce"
"Strutter"
"Got to Choose"
"Hotter than Hell"
"Firehouse"
"Watchin' You"
"Nothin' to Lose"
"Parasite"
"100,000 Years"
"Black Diamond"
"Cold Gin"
"Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll"

"The Midnight Special"
4/1/75
"She"
"Black Diamond"

Kiss Alive Promo Clips 1975
"Come On and Love Me"
"Rock and Roll All Night"

Documentary: Cadillace, Michigan October 1975

Cobo Hall Detroit, MI
1/26/76
"Deuce"
"Strutter"
"C'mon and Love Me"
"Hotter than Hell"
"Firehouse"
"She"
"Parasite"
"Nothin' To Lose"
"100,000 Years"
"Black Diamond"
"Cold Gin"
"Rock $ Roll All Nite"
"Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll"

Disc Two Track Listing

"So It Goes"
Interview
"Black Diamond"

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special
10/29/76
Interview
"King of the Night Time World"

Budokan Hall - Tokyo, Japan
4/2/77
"Detroit Rock City"
"Take Me"
"Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll"
"Ladies Room"
"Firehouse"
"Makin' Love"
"I Want You"
"Cold Gin"
"Do You Love Me?"
"Nothin' to Lose"
"God of Thunder"
"Rock & Roll All Nite"
"Shout it Out Loud"
"Beth"
"Black Diamond"

Don Kirshner's "Rock Concert"
5/28/77
"Hard Luck Woman"
"Love Em & Leave Em"
"I Want You"

The Summit - Houston, TX
9/2/77
"I Stole Your Love"
"Take Me"
"Ladies Room"
"Firehouse"
"Love Gun"
"Hooligan"
"Makin' Love"
"Christine Sixteen"
"Shock Me"
"I Want You"
"Calling Dr. Love"
"Shout It Out Loud"
"God of Thunder"
"Rock & Roll All Nite"
"Detroit Rock City"
"Beth"
"Black Diamond"

I have and seen most of this footage before. Supposedly there will be lots of extras thrown in as well.

If you haven't seen any of this footage you will be blown away. The Midnight Special footage of "She" is the best. The Houston concert is great too. Love Peter on "Hooligan". The Don Kirshner's is ok. "Love em' Leave em'" rocks although lip synced. I just hope these are all full versions and not cut like previous videos.

A MUST BUY!

OK:
Here goes:
I personally called Fontana distribution and spoke with an account manager to finally clear this mess up.
YES, it is true. WALMART will have the bonus disc of 1977 LARGO and BEST BUY will have the 1st night of the COBO HALL 76 and all other retailers including AMAZON will have the bonus disc of MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 1977. The bonus discs DO NOT have the complete shows on them. They will contain 7 to 12 songs each. I have been in contact with some folks that have advance copies of this long awaited release and they assure me that it will be worth the wait. I was also able to get some unconfirmed "GOSSIP" regarding the next 2 volumes. There is a possibility that volume 2 will contain a FULL show from the CREATURES OF THE NIGHT tour with Vinnie Vincent. It is from New Orleans in 1983. I repeat::: I am NOT able to confirm this. Only time will tell. I hope this clears up all the confusion.
ROCK FORWARD;-)

6 hours of hedonistic KISS on video for around 20 bucks? You can't go wrong. For the die-hards - yes, there are a few Pro Shot videos that they left out of the two-disc set (Houston 8/13/76, Anaheim 8/20/76 and Houston 9/1/77) - but the footage that is on here (and boy is this thing jam packed) is for the most part super.

I've been collecting KISS video for over 25 years, and I have gone through many different versions and varying quality copies of the footage on this set, and here is my take:

2/17/94 Long Beach: Old 8mm slient footage of the song "Acrobat". Quality is about the same as the footage that has been in bootleg trading circles for the last few years. This is only a portion of the source tape. The silent footage has had an audio track from 4/17/74 Memphis dubbed in.

4/29/74 Mike Douglas Show: Outstanding quality of the Gene Simmons interview and "Firehouse", probably culled from the shows' master reels. My question is why was some of the interview portion cut out? Only 1 minute folks. They could have kept the "kissing contest" in.

1/31/75 San Francisco: Outstanding quality of the entire show (minus the ending which does not exist). The copies that have been circulating in bootleg trading trading circles are generally excellent, and they have some slow-motion video spliced over the damaged parts of the tape. This release looks untouched (and thats a good thing!), with a few warts left in. Superb audio. Only complaint is that the first 30 seconds of the video are cut out. We don't miss any music, but why not just let the reel go from the beginning?

4/1/75 Midnight Special: Great performances of "She" and "Black Diamond", but the quality could be better. I've seen cleaner copies on bootleg.

1975 Promo Clips: Perfect quality of the promotional videos "C'Mon And Love Me" and "Rock And Roll All Nite". Sounds like the remastered audio of the studio tracks from Dressed to Kill have been used.

10/75 Cadillac, MI: Great stuff. This footage has existed in bootleg circles for years and is generally decent, but this is hands down better. And the brief live footage from the Cadillac concert is a welcome site!

1/26/76 Detroit: Performance wise, as good as it gets. Entire show. The audio sounds great, and the video quality is very clean. There are a few glitches, but they are presumably on the master tape. Only complaint is that the first 45 seconds and the last 10 seconds of the video are cut out. We don't miss any music, but why not just let the reel go from end to end?

8/21/76 'So It Goes TV': Great quality, nice documentary piece. Better than all circulating versions in trading circles.

10/29/76 Paul Lynde Halloween Special: Decent quality, but two songs are missing ("Detroit Rock City" and "Beth") from the broadcast, and they do exist. Where are they? Only 6 minutes folks. They could have kept the songs in.

4/2/77 Tokyo: Full concert. Very nice. This one cleaned up well.

5/28/77 Don Kirschner's Rock: Great quality of the lip-synched performances of "I Want You", "Love 'Em, Leave 'Em" and "Hard Luck Woman".

9/2/77 Houston: Over the years, this probably has been the widest circulated Kiss concert video in trading circles. A few songs taken from this perfomance have already been officially released on Kiss Exposed. Many of the bootlegs in circulation have been lightened; this copy looks like it has been left as it was filmed be the in-house crew at the Summit. It's a bit dark at times, but generally fantastic. Only complaint is that the first 60 seconds and the last 3 complilation minutes of the video are cut out. We don't miss any music, but why not just let the reel go from end to end? Also, if you have this show on bootleg, the master tape has still shots from the performance in between the songs. On this release, the choice was made to forgo the still shots and fade to black in between the songs.

Bonus discs: 1/25/76 Detroit is complete (no encores - they don't exist on tape) and is available at Best Buy. The 12/20/77 Landover is close to complete (12 songs) and is available at Wal Mart. The 2/18/77 New York is only half the show, and is available at most music retailers. Why the hack job on the 2/18/77 is beyond me. I bought the set with 1/25/76 bonus disc, and the quality is very good. But the bonus disc has no menus or chapter points/song points.

Can anyone corroborate if their bonus disc(s) have menus and chapter points?

Geez folks, they could have taken the hour required to make menus and chapter points on the bonus discs!

A great DVD set containing a lot of stuff fans might already have, but likely an equal amount of stuff they don't have.
And the 5.1 sound and remastered video is awesome to see and hear.

I would suggest checking a -different- place to get the 1977 Largo Bonus DVD.

In the 70s Kiss was it. It was cool to be into Kiss. In the 80s, it was the exact opposite. By the late 80s and early 90s the makeup was off and Kiss were a (no pun intended) washed up "bunch of posers."

This DVD dispels the myth that Kiss were ever posers. They indeed were always great musicians and they were the inspiration for many metal bands rocking your world today (rumor has it that while backstage at a 70s Kiss show Eddie Van Halen's signature guitar tapping was inspired while seeing Ace Frehley do it). And Kiss so happen to have put on one of the most theatrical shows in rock and roll history.

And that history is captured on this 2-disk DVD, albeit mostly with terrible video quality.

Man, did I ever enjoy being able to see the original line-up of Kiss perform on these disks. The thing is that the awesome performances on these disks are mostly footage from 1974 - 1977 live shows, so the quality is early 70s video...and that ain't good. Often times in the live performances there are major reminders that the video is dated: horizontal lines across the picture, complete picture blackouts and just plain old low quality video.

On the other hand, the audio on the first two disks is a completely different story. The audio wizards cleaned up the sound on Disks 1 & 2 and they've offered it with a terrific 5.1 Dolby mix.

After enjoying what was more of a front row seat experience with the quality HD video and surround sound on the awesome, 5-star Rock the Nation 2004 DVD by Kiss, the live performances in the Kissology set were reduced to mere DVD viewings. However, it was great to reminisce and watch as Gene, Paul, Ace & Peter went through their classics of the era. And the Kissology set that I got included a 3rd bonus disk that to my surprise was a show from Madison Square Garden in February 1977 THAT I WAS AT! (Bonus disks may be limited with various versions so check the set at point of purchase if possible.)

They give you:

DISK 1

Long Beach, CA (absolutely atrocious audio & video, but interesting to watch)
2/17/74
"Acrobat"
(previously unreleased track)

ABC "In Concert" (terrible video for a television production)
3/29/74
"Nothing to Lose"
"Firehouse"
"Black Diamond"

The Mike Douglas Show
4/29/74
Interview (comical exchange between Gene and Totie Fields)
"Firehouse" (Not lip-synced!)

Winterland - San Francisco, CA (in Black & White)
1/31/75
"Deuce"
"Strutter"
"Got to Choose"
"Hotter than Hell"
"Firehouse"
"Watchin' You"
"Nothin' to Lose"
"Parasite"
"100,000 Years"
"Black Diamond"
"Cold Gin"
"Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll"

"The Midnight Special"
4/1/75
"She"
"Black Diamond"

Kiss Alive Promo Clips 1975
"Come On and Love Me"
"Rock and Roll All Night"

Documentary: Cadillace, Michigan October 1975

Cobo Hall Detroit, MI
1/26/76
"Deuce"
"Strutter"
"C'mon and Love Me"
"Hotter than Hell"
"Firehouse"
"She"
"Parasite"
"Nothin' To Lose"
"100,000 Years"
"Black Diamond"
"Cold Gin"
"Rock & Roll All Nite"
"Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll"

DISK 2

"So It Goes"
Interview
"Black Diamond"

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special
10/29/76
Interview
"King of the Night Time World"

Budokan Hall - Tokyo, Japan
4/2/77
"Detroit Rock City"
"Take Me"
"Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll"
"Ladies Room"
"Firehouse"
"Makin' Love"
"I Want You"
"Cold Gin"
"Do You Love Me?"
"Nothin' to Lose"
"God of Thunder"
"Rock & Roll All Nite"
"Shout it Out Loud"
"Beth"
"Black Diamond"

Don Kirshner's "Rock Concert"
5/28/77
"I Want You"
"Love `em & Leave `em"
"Hard Luck Woman"

The Summit - Houston, TX (The best video quality of all the live performances in the set)
9/2/77
"I Stole Your Love"
"Take Me"
"Ladies Room"
"Firehouse"
"Love Gun"
"Hooligan"
"Makin' Love"
"Christine Sixteen"
"Shock Me"
"I Want You"
"Calling Dr. Love"
"Shout It Out Loud"
"God of Thunder"
"Rock & Roll All Nite"
"Detroit Rock City"
"Beth"
"Black Diamond"

BONUS DISK 3 (that came with purchase at Amazon)

Madison Square Garden - New York, NY (Atrocious A/V, NOT remixed in Dolby)
2/18/77
"Detroit Rock City"
"Take Me"
"Let Me Go Rock and Roll"
"Firehouse"
"Nothin' to Lose"
"Shout It Out Loud"
"Black Diamond"


Regardless of the horrible video, all of the performances reflect the great show that Kiss put on: clear, effortlessly powerful vocals, some of the coolest guitar work of the time, Gene's signature bass and Peter's 101 Hard Rock drumming sound.

If you were/are a fan of Kiss...especially the early days...don't pass on this. Just be sure that your expectations are set for a view into the past with the past's picture quality. The performances are 5 stars; the audio is 4 stars; the picture quality is 2 stars. The opportunity to have this set on DVD and the nostalgia the set offers are 5 stars.

This is not a 3 disc set! It is a 2 disc set with (in the first pressing only) a bonus disc. There are 3 different bonus discs. Which one you'll get depends on where you buy it. This should help those who don't feel liking buying this thing 3 times, and those who want to make sure they get all 3. Here is the deal on what you'll get and where.

Bonus Disc 1: Cobo Hall, Detroit 1976. AVAILABLE AT "BEST BUY" ONLY! This was the first of a 3 night stand in Detroit. You already get the second night in the regular 2 disc set. The only difference between the 2 nights is that on night 1 (bonus disc) they do "Laidies in Waiting" in place of "Parasite".

Bonus Disc 2: Madison Square Garden, New York 1977. AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE EXCEPT "BEST BUY" AND "WAL-MART". I got mine at "Virgin Records". While not the entire show, it's still very nice to have 7 of the songs from Kiss' first appearance at the place they'd always dreamed of playing.

Bonus Disc 3: Largo, MD. 1977. AVAILABLE ONLY AT "WAL-MART". My favorite of all 3 bonus discs, because out of all this material, this is the only footage that I've never seen before, and it is awesome. It's almost the entire show. Just a few songs deleted.

We really have Led Zeppelin to thank for this package. It was the successful sales of their brilliant 2 disc DVD that woke Gene & Paul to release their version ... thank you Jimmy Page. Like the Zep set it goes right into the shows without going into the menu first.

With that said, I have the set and its true there are three versions.
Luckily I have the 'other version' not available at Best Buy or Walmart that features the '77 MSG footage that runs 27 mins - its a taste and all three versions feature a short disc. Its the best of the three sets because the show is one of the most energetic performances Ive seen of the band, I too have all of the bootlegs and have seen them all.
Theres also a great goof on Ace's part here where he forgets the solo on Shout it out loud. One of the only times he flubbed his lines.

Its a great set and about time this material was released officially.
I do have my reservations about it though. Being a fan since the 70's my opinion counts here 'people'. I wish they included the '76 Annaheim show, one of the best filmed, Im sure many of you have seen it. Im sorry to have to say that some of the video used isnt as good as some of the boots I have. They could have used better source material for the In Concert footage. The famous B&W Winterland footage isnt cleaned up. The Paul Lynde show is incomplete ... no Beth or Detroit. I wish they had picked the first night of Cobo Hall '76 and the first '77 Summit show, they were better performances. But there are the really good moments: Budokan and Houston look fantastic these are from near perfect video sources and are worth the purchase alone. Plus the British short So It Goes is a rare piece. Also the sound makes up for some of the lack of good video. 5.1, 2.0 and Gene & Paul commentary.

Overall a necessity to any KISS collection for the die hards like myself thats why I give it the 5 star treatment. But dont toss out your old video tapes you're going to want them especially since this set is incompete. I look forward to Vol 2. and hope there is a Dynasty era show.

Un beknowing to alot of people, KISS actually sold the rights to alot of there early Video footage (concerts) decades ago. So the master tapes used for this set were actually copies.
I think they did a great job from what they had to work with, it's just unfortunate they could not have stricken a deal with the (person or company) that owns these master tapes.
I agree with alot of reviewers that some of the bootleg quality is better,
especially if you have copies directly off the master tapes, which I am very fortunate to have.
Never the less, it's a great set. Just wish they would have included the FULL Paul Lynde Halloween special with the other two songs.
If you buy this set, I highly recommend you buy the Wal-Mart Set. The quality is awesome on the Largo show.
Hats off to KISS for giving the people what they want!
Looking forward to all of the next installments in KISSOLOGY!

I don't know what kind of feedback I'll get from this, but this is my honest opinion. I have read most of the reviews on KISSOLOGY, and I understand that many of the bootleg tapes have better video and/or audio quality than much of the footage on this compilation. Not trying to be pious or judgemental here AT ALL, so please don't misunderstand me, but let's face it. People, you are not SUPPOSED to have bootleg videos and this stuff is brand new to fans like me.

As a dyed-in-the-wool KISS fan from WAY back, I have often been envious of people (my friends included) who had bootleg footage of KISS, but I just couldn't do it myself, knowing it wasn't right. Call me a prude or whatever you like, that's just the way I felt/feel. Now that KISS has released this footage of their old shows that have been available for years in bootleg form, I have read some reviews panning the new footage as "worse than the bootleg videos" or "If you have the bootlegs, save your money on this DVD", etc (paraphrasing).

Well, as a huge fan who has never bought nor seen the bootleg stuff, I am VERY pleased with this DVD! It is all new to me, and that makes it even more worth the modest price! I suppose in that respect, I have no idea what is missing or altered in this compilation, but I really don't care at all. It's GREAT to see this old, grainy footage of VINTAGE KISS in the form it is in, and I wouldn't trade this DVD for any other DVD straight up. No way!

So again, please don't think me too judgemental. I really don't mean to be. If you have your bootleg videos, go ahead and enjoy them and more power to you. To each his own, I always say. God knows I often wish I had some of those old boots myself at times, but just couldn't pull the trigger. But NOW, I don't need them! This is the REAL STUFF! And I give it 5 stars. Admittedly, not EVERY aspect of this DVD deserves the 5 star treatment. Grainy video quality on the oldest shows, sub-par audio on those same shows, but hell, this is KISS as KISS was meant to be, and I LOVE it enough to give it 6 stars if I could!

Happy New Year, KISS Army! Peace.

Arrow up until the Kiss logo lights up for the Easter Eggs.