KISS and The Ramones

I was recently in a conversation with people online about how there are some people who seem to get great joy in hating on the band KISS. Someone said to me that he didn't like KISS because he liked The Ramones, just like he liked reading MAD magazine so he didn't read superhero comics. This really got me thinking about the two bands and what they did musically, image wise and commercially. Putting aside the silliness of saying you like one thing so you can't possibly like another, it occurred to me that the gentleman in question has missed the mark on his analogy. I see the appeal in  likening KISS to superhero comics. They each took on a persona, wore costumes and make-up, essentially had secret identities. They even made a bad movie where they had super powers (which barely came into play in said movie) and famously had a limited series comic book run at Marvel. But I think the more apt comparison is MAD versus Cracked, as I think the two bands took very different approaches to doing basically the same thing. (For the record I read MAD, Cracked and superhero comics. I love it all.)

Of course, the main thing KISS is known for is their presentation. They wore Kabuki style makeup. They came with with characters to portray. They had outrageous costumes with lots of leather and platform boots. They had lights and smoke and fire and blood. They really took a page out of the Alice Cooper book of theatricality and made their show a SHOW. This is actually what causes a lot of the backlash against them, as critics contend if they were any good they wouldn't need all the gimmicks. (For the record I've never purchased an album based on whether the artist was wearing makeup or not. I have bought an album based on a great cover, but if the album sucked I didn't keep buying albums from that artist/band.) Now of course the kneejerk reaction is that of course The Ramones were more pure in this. Granted the band didn't wear outrageous makeup, but they created a "band look" and characters to play all the same. While t-shirts, jeans, leather jackets and Keds may not be quite as elaborate a costume as the ones the guys in KISS wore, it was still a costume. Johnny Ramone even admitted it was a mistake when they allowed themselves to be photographed without the signature jackets.

Speaking of Johnny Ramone (and Joey Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone, Tommy Ramone, Marky Ramone, et al) another point to be made in the presentation of the band is that they were obviously not all named Ramone. They famously took the name from a pseudonym used by Beatle Paul McCartney when he checked into hotels. So while the "characters" portrayed by the Ramones may have been less sci-fi influenced and more closely aligned with their real life personae, they were characters none the less. In fact, when you look at the rock bands that have been translated into cartoon form, The Ramones join the ranks of KISS and the Beatles as having had that honor. Not all bands lend themselves to the form, but for this band it was a natural thing. And it's not like the band were totally divorced from Sci-fi and comic book frivolities. They had the comic book inspired song Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (for the record I named one of my dogs Sheena after this song), did a cover of the Spider-Man theme song from the cheesy 60's cartoon version, and recorded Pet Sematary for the movie based on the Stephen King novel. Granted this very low key compared to KISS, whose characters were so outlandish that it made perfect sense when Marvel Comics did a limited series with them. But then, compared to KISS, everything is low key.

Now of course when it comes to bands the most important thing is the music. Like I said before, no one ever sold millions of albums based on what they were wearing. The music has to be at least kind of good. Of course what makes music good is subjective. People will point out that the guys in KISS weren't great instrumentalists, that their songs were simple and kind of dumb. I won't even argue against that. I'll just point out that the exact same thing can be said about the Ramones. Both bands were doing music that was a throwback to the late 50's/early 60's rock and roll they grew up on, played faster with lots of distortion on the guitars. Neither band relied on much musical intricacy (although KISS has a slightly larger claim to complex composition with songs like Black Diamond and 100,000 Years, those kinds of songs quickly became the exception rather than the norm giving way to fare like Dr. Love and Rocket Ride), relying instead on catchy hooks and energy to grab their audience. The Ramones were slightly more frenetic, KISS slightly more melodic, but I don't see their styles as having that much of a gulf between them. I could easily see the Ramones playing a song like Parasite, and I could as easily see KISS playing I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend. 

At the end of the day, I don't expect to change anyone's mind about either band, though. I love them both. Others. may agree, or only like one or the other, or hate them both. What I don't understand is the seeming need some feel to go out of their way to voice how much they don't like KISS. And when you dig into why, it usually comes down to one of two things. It's usually the make-up, or it's the merchandising. They will tack on, "Well they don't even play that good", but I already addressed that. The make-up is just something fun they did to liven up their shows. No one dogs Alice Cooper for wearing make-up and chopping off his own head during his shows. As for the merchandising, I agree it was pretty bad and actually made the music industry worse than it was. But for me the music has always had to stand apart from everything else, it's why I can still be a fan of a band like Led Zeppelin or not vomit in disgust when Cat Scratch Fever or Stranglehold come on the radio. And at the end of the day I find many of KISS' songs to be both catchy and fun. That may not seem like a high bar, but at the end of the day it's the same bar that The Ramones meet. And if we are to impose some sort of arbitrary intellectual litmus test to our music we would lose a lot of great stuff. I'll end with a quote from a silly movie that I love that encapsulates my love for both these bands. A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men.