logan

C&L's Late Nite Music Club with Kiss

Title: Black Diamond, Winterland (San Francisco) 1975
Artist: Kiss

(h/t Logan)

A YouTube user recently uploaded this complete Kiss show from 1975 in San Francisco from the Kissology set. You can watch the whole thing here.

I've always had a mixed relationship with Kiss, as have a lot of music fans who can't divorce them from the blatant commercialism and megalomania that they've embodied for most of their career. This set is a million miles away from that -- merely four guys from New York with something to prove. Peter Criss gets his first line a half-step sharp, and from there delivers a charged vocal performance somewhere in the big space between James Brown and Iggy Pop. "I Was Made for Lovin' You" it ain't. The 1950s style black and white footage just adds to the mystique.

"Black Diamond" is the night's closer. There's something about hearing one of the most polished, manicured acts in rock history start a song with an out of tune guitar and an uncertain melody that makes you wish they fell victim to such accidents more often. Watch the whole show if you have some time.



Title: Brain Stew vs. 25 or 6 to 4
Artist: Green Day vs. Chicago

Chicago - 25 or 6 to 4


Green Day - Brain Stew

This is the third post in a series called Friday Night Ripoffs(?). Here's the deal: every Friday, two songs, where one of them might very well be a gigantic ripoff of the other.

Commenter Uncle Joe McCarthy and C+L blogger Logan Murphy both piped up about this one. Did Green Day lift the riff for "Brain Stew" from Chicago, or is 5th fret, 3rd fret, 2nd fret, 1st fret, open something that just exists in the air? And what about Papa Roach?

Tell us what you think, and leave some suggestions for next week's plagiarism investigation in the comments.