Salvaged from the discard pile, here’s the first of a possible new series of posts (WGD? – “Who Gives a Damn?”) that I evidently abandoned before bringing to fruition. Why? Well, it's because I probably lost faith in the notion that anyone would honestly give a good goddamn about the subject matter.
Here’s one from last August that I pretty much completed, as far as I can tell. Perhaps it needed some sort of kicker, but … again…. Who really cares?
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I stumbled upon the clip below whilst putting that last post (August 2016) together, never knowing that there’d been an original video shot for “Sure Know Something.”
As I mentioned in that older post about the genuine merits of the otherwise roundly maligned Dynasty album from 1979, I do think “Sure Know Something” is one of Paul Stanley’s better contributions to the KISS oeuvre, as ridiculous as that may sound (although he co-wrote it with Dynasty’s producer, Vini Poncia). I mean, the single may lack much of the band’s signature rock bombast, but as a pop song about star-crossed love, I think it’s a fine one. Evidently, according to the song’s own Wikipedia page, there’s a roots reggae cover version out there somewhere.
The video, however, is a different story.
Sure, the notion of the “rock video” may still have been in its infancy, but as pantomime performance clips go, this is pretty difficult to watch, inadvertently showcasing a band falling apart at the garishly sequined seams.
Swapping their comparatively understated outfits from the Love Gun era (themselves only slightly streamlined from the Destroyer days) in favor of bloatedly over-the-top new costumes that recall a messy hybrid of H.R. Puffnstuf and Waylon Flowers & Madame, 1979’s KISS looked frankly more ludicrous than usual. I mean, who really thought capes were a good idea? There’s a fine line between strange and silly (let alone stupid), and this iteration of their look plowed right across it.
But beyond the look, it’s the mannerisms and body-language that really spill the beans. While it’s well documented that shooting videos is a laborious process, these guys have never looked less into it. Say what you will about KISS, but you could never accuse them of not being enthusiastic in their early days. Beyond Paul’s distracting preening, Gene, Ace and Peter are really phoning it in. There’s the requisite tongue-wag and heroic pose-throwing, but boy do these guys look disinterested in proceedings.
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It was at this point that I stopped writing. Several months later, I am at a loss as to what else to add, but here is the video in question. If possible, enjoy...
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