Monday, September 7, 2015

Neil DANIELS: "Live To Win – a casual guide to the music of Kiss frontman Paul Stanley"


Review by The Bailey Brothers

Paul Stanley is Kiss through and through so its hard to imagine him doing anything else. This book pays homage to his solo work (1978‟s self-titled offering and 2006‟s Live To Win) and there are also many good reminders in here of why Kiss are a global brand. 

There are interviews and quotes from  the likes of Steve Buslowe, Alex Gibson, Richie Fontana, Corky James, Bob Kulick, Bruce Kulick, Don Powell, Kane Roberts which give a good insight as to what it was like to record, hang or play live with Stanley. 

Its not often you get a negative book foreword but SHANDON SAHM (MEAT PUPPETS) doesn’t hold back as he fires a few low punches. 

As books go its probably not as riveting as a biography but as a Kiss fan theres still plenty to discover about Paul Stanley. Both his solo albums are very credible but after all this time your prospective on music can change; you hear some albums and think, wow did I used to play that? So it was interesting and necessary to have up to date interviews with the musicians who helped record those songs and hear their side of the story to not make this book one dimensional. 

Stanley comes out as someone who really looks after the artiste he worked with on the writing and recording sessions, so even if you know the Kiss history stick with this because its like a good horse, it knows when to canter and went to sprint to the finish line. Paul Stanley is a rock icon and this book is a fitting account of the solo artiste behind the Kiss mask.

No comments:

Post a Comment