Gene Simmons lesson from Carol Kaye

Anybody else think that today's Gene Simmons looks like the world's shortest Andre the Giant impressionist?

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Jbird said:
I don't think his playing is all that bad, personally.

Gene plays bass in what is basically a glam rock band. His playing in that context is ok. He's never had to do all that funky R&B stuff Kaye is showing him (other than 'I Was Made For Loving You' :grin: )
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I am far from a fan of Kiss, but I have to agree with this. The same could be said of Dee Dee Ramone, Nikki Sixx, Michael Anthony, and a boatload of other bass players who stuck to simple bass lines that worked within the context of the music their bands were playing.
 
Danhedonia said:
This! I was thinking "wow, there's absolutely NO musicality there ...."

For a very long tme, I've been 100% sure that Gene Simmons did not / does not actually play much on their recordings. This does little to disabuse me of that notion.
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I have heard from some fairly reliable sources that they ghosted a lot of his parts on the studio recordings. I imagine it happens a lot more than we would like to think, and most probably happens without the band members knowledge in some cases.
 
bsman said:
I am far from a fan of Kiss, but I have to agree with this. The same could be said of Dee Dee Ramone, Nikki Sixx, Michael Anthony, and a boatload of other bass players who stuck to simple bass lines that worked within the context of the music their bands were playing.
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I don't know if it is a matter of those players sticking with simple bass lines but I have listened to many an Eddie Van Halen fan talk sh!t about Michael Anthony saying that he sucked when he was limited to the style that he played by Eddie to accentuate the over-the-top style of Eddie's playing.

Even way back before Michael Anthony was in Van Halen, one witness (as recounted in The Van Halen Story) stated that Eddie saw Michael Anthony's band playing and said of Mike "whoah, does that guy play guitar?".

Every time Eddie has a problem with his own ego getting too massive to get along with other humans, he has to get on the trash talk express - first Dave, then Sam & Dave, then just Dave again, then Sam & Dave again and now Sam & Mike (with his 'sauce Sobeleski' comments) but if pressed would probably spout about Dave too. I am sure that I missed a phase here or there in that.

Point being that Michael Anthony can really play and he was never afforded the space to do it in Van Halen (which may not be against your point but I had to rant it out anyway) . I also agree that Gene's playing isn't so bad though it isn't hard to find clips of him playing poorly as shown in this thread.

...and the Andre similarity is pretty striking.
 
I'm not at all criticizing what I hear on Kiss albums - I like Kiss. A lot.

I just doubt Gene plays those parts. On one of those YT links, he was dorking around on-stage (typical later era, with tons of ancillary musicians on stage w/them), and I could see that he was mugging while there was a bass run. So, at least for one moment (cough), he was being 'supported' by a 2nd player live.

Then I listened to the iso track of the bass on Detroit Rock City. It's good - and I just had this sense of "this can't be Gene."

It's easy to imagine him plunking out the throb beneath "Christine, Sixteen" but nothing that requires more.
 
Who's wig is worse, Gene Simmons or Michael Angelo Batio?

That could be a thread in its own right...celebrities with bad wigs :tongue:
 
jp_nyc said:
It’s funny, every time I watch a Carol Kaye video she’s got a different instrument. But they’ll usually cheap ones. I’m amazed that nobody has hooked her up with a high end sig model. I know she’s an old lady in Florida now, but still, a Carol Kaybe p-bass would be pretty cool.
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The Carol Kaye sig would be a '62 P-bass with "FUNK" carved into it. I mean, she claims Jamerson's parts, why not his bass, too?

Danhedonia said:
As we know, Dick Wagner played many a "Joe Perry: Lead Guitar" track back in the day. Do we know who played the competent bass parts on Kiss records?
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You just mentioned him.
 
Im thinking he rarely plays Bass anyway in his day to day life

Too busy entertaining da ladies and running his vast business empire or whatever.

Oh and being the baddy in Tom Seleck films.
 
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