Noel Monk book out 13th June

[DavidLeeNatra]

Yeah that's a great 10 word review, sums it up.

There's a lot of Tronald Dump voters around here...so I tried to keep it simple.

[twonabomber]

There's a lot of Tronald Dump voters around here...so I tried to keep it simple.

Von will thank you!

[Coyote]

Finished the book. What a bunch of idiots...good read.

My copy's in the mail, can't wait.

[Terry]

I skipped that entire first half of Stanley's book....

From what I remember, about a third to half of the book is Stanley's formative years before KISS formed. And, honestly, that was the most interesting part of the book. At least to me. Stanley manages to convey, quite effectively, the relative lack of self-worth he felt during his childhood and teenage years. And he does so in a manner that is almost embarrassing to read because he is very candid about those years, and usually a Stanley interview is just a pastiche of mundane rock interview clichés so the frankness he exhibits in his book of his early years was pretty uncharacteristic for him.

After KISS becomes successful, the rest of the book is very average rock auto bio stuff. The biggest sense I got from what he had to say is that he approached songwriting entirely as an exercise of putting together musical ideas in an effort to sell records, and writing rock music for him is solely a purpose of putting out stuff for people to buy. And I'm sure Stanley is far from the only rock musician who approaches what he does with that overriding concern, but it was somewhat disconcerting to never hear him once mention any sort of joy he felt as an artist when coming up with a particular tune. It was all just strictly commerce for him. Simmons has that same attitude.

[DavidLeeNatra]

I read the Ian Gillan bio right now. It's not that interesting.

Gesendet von meinem SM-G850F mit Tapatalk

[Igosplut]

Them saying anything, would require them to remove their heads from the sand.

Some things are better left to memory......

[Igosplut]

More like the radios you could buy at Western Auto - we called em Crapomatics.

REAL cheap shit.

[Terry]

I read the Ian Gillan bio right now. It's not that interesting.

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Probably 95% of those rock bios/autobios really aren't that interesting.

They're either written by an author who didn't know the subject and does a sensationalized, tabloid-style hatchet job, or they're sanctioned by the subject and turn out to be puff pieces. Or, even worse, they're actually written by the subject with the assistance of a 2nd author (who does the actual writing) and the tone is one-sided in favor of the subject.

And, to be fair, 99% of rock musicians aren't writers (much less readers) to begin with, so it only follows that the autobios they produce end up being drivel. Most of these same musicians can't even give an interview worth reading or listening to, so it stands to reason they're not gonna get any better in book form.

Which only sort of stands to reason: just because someone is prolific at writing rock music doesn't mean they are necessarily a genius at everything (or anything) else.

[twonabomber]

The fun thing about the KISS books was seeing if the stories lined up.

Billy Idol's book was okay. Rod Stewart's, not so great.

[Terry]

The fun thing about the KISS books was seeing if the stories lined up.

Billy Idol's book was okay. Rod Stewart's, not so great.

The KISS autobios were a bit of a mixed bag.

Gene's was about what I expected. Fairly brief, a bit light on substance in terms of insight or inside dirt and very self-aggrandizing. Very little of what was in Gene's book were stories that he hadn't talked about before in interviews.

Paul's was decent for the first half, mundane for the second half.

Ace's was a fun read. Clearly not written by him, but more of Ace telling whatever boozy, druggy tales he could remember during the heyday of KISS to the co-author.

Peter's was the most interesting, to me. I mean, a frankness that was kind of stunning, in terms of him not being afraid to say things that happened of such a private nature that they made me wince at the level of honesty on display. Put it this way...Criss certainly wasn't trying to make himself look good by hiding things.

Overall, though, all of the four autobios basically expanded on the elements of the KISS history all four original band members had already spoken of in interviews.

I'll have to check out the Billy Idol one. He's actually had an interesting career, going back to the mid-to-late 1970s punk scene in London, and I'd imagine he had more than a few tales of excess during his high water mark in the 1980s.

[Jetstream]

Anthony's net worth is said to be around $60 million, last time I checked Dave was like $30...

Now Dave is listed at $60, reunions are nice...

I take these 'net' worth assumptions made public with a grain of salt... the only people who really know how much money they have are the people themselves because there is a lot of monies which are not made public

[private parts]

Not sure if this was posted but here you go. Biggest news from this interview.......no live footage out there cause they spent all their money shooting MTV videos.

[private parts]

Well Hell........

https://youtu.be/0r1sysXYOr0

[Seshmeister]

Well Hell........

https://youtu.be/0r1sysXYOr0

Nice to hear Noel rip Trunk a new one on Van Hagar from 38:00 ...

[DLR Bridge]

Nice to hear Noel rip Trunk a new one on Van Hagar from 38:00 ...

"...Sammy wants to be with David so he could cement his Van Halenness. Pile a shit."


Yep.