• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Opinion on Gene Simmons

Opinion on Gene Simmons

  • He's Awesome

    Votes: 41 8.4%
  • He's Ok

    Votes: 182 37.1%
  • He's Absolutely Horrible

    Votes: 191 38.9%
  • No Opinion

    Votes: 77 15.7%

  • Total voters
    491
  • Poll closed .
a friend of mine lent me a box set of kiss live. it was about 6 hours long and it took me about a half an hour to go through it. not gene simmons specifically, but the whole band are just unbelievably average. i like a few songs by kiss but for the most part if it wasn't for the makeup and costumes they would've been just another bar band trying to play their way across the usa until they got fed up and got real jobs. i voted he was okay, that's about as positive as i can be.
However... peope still listened & enjoyed the music of kIss. Although not a fan, I can't help but :bassist: on some songs.
 
Hey, he dresses in tights, uses lipstick, has his hair up in a bun, sticks his tongue out and plays for teens with outrageous looking guitars. Every gig is like halloween, lol. Isn't he to old for that stuff?

I saw Kiss once back in '75 and probably was the only one in the audience that dug the back-up band (Uriah Heep). But kids dig the theatrical stuff and he (they) have that aspect aced.

As far as his playing goes, he holds down the bottom line just fine which is his job as a bassist.
 
I never got the whole Kiss thing on any level, but a lot of friends and other musicians I respect started playing because of Kiss, for that they get props from me.;)
 
He's no Geddy Lee, that's for sure. But he's no slouch, either.

I liked the tunes on the first four albums. They had an edge. "Destroyer" is a great record with some decent bass playing on it. Then they jumped the shark.


You MUST be kidding. Gene IS the shark. Don't get me wrong, I'm a KISS fan, but their whole career has been one jump after another. KISS are the Evel Knievel of the music business. From the very beginning, it's been one stunt after another... with some good, memorable (but certainly not virtuosic) music along the way (at least in the 70's). Gene Simmons is the P.T. Barnum of rock.
 
I don't like Kiss at all.. however 2 points

1 - he isn't totally useless and played/wrote some catcy parts.

2 - he probably got more people to pick up a bass than anyone else in history.

3 - he made a lot of people aware that the bass player doesn't have to be in the background.
 
Regardless of what you think about KISS (im not a fan), he is a great singing bass player. He has great rock vocals. And for those of you who dont sing and play bass, it aint easy. To understand my point you need to hear the early stuff he did.
 
You MUST be kidding. Gene IS the shark. Don't get me wrong, I'm a KISS fan, but their whole career has been one jump after another. KISS are the Evel Knievel of the music business. From the very beginning, it's been one stunt after another... with some good, memorable (but certainly not virtuosic) music along the way (at least in the 70's). Gene Simmons is the P.T. Barnum of rock.

Gene is the shark? that makes no sense.
 

Latest posts