A review by pascalthehoff
Face the Music: A Life Exposed by Paul Stanley
5.0
I don't know what I expected going into this, but this (audio)book was MUCH more interesting than expected. My personal background with KISS might be kinda relevant for this review:
I used to be really into KISS for about a year or so when I was 15/16 years old (almost ten years ago). Since then, I feel out of love with them pretty hard. The reasons for that were on one hand the misogynistic content of their lyrics and on the other hand my growing (let's just call it) "contemptuous cynicism" for their comparatively simplistic (if not downright stupid) music.
There are still quite a few KISS songs I've always genuinely enjoyed. Songs like 'Detroit Rock City' hardly ever grow old and other songs like 'Love Gun' that lean a bit more on the sexist end of the spectrum have always been somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine. But to think that I ever used to enjoy songs like 'Plaster Caster'... But I digress...
I originally started listening to this audiobook as a tangent to an academic paper I planned to write about misogyny in rock music. Pretty soon, I was extremely surprised by how compelling Paul's retelling of his life's story was.
Maybe I was a bit too cynical writing off about 80% of KISS' song catalogue as trash, often making fun of their style over substance-approach to making music.
Despite being a big fan back then, I never really dug into Paul Stanley, the persona. He appears to be A LOT more sophisticated than I ever would've expected and I respect his sense of showmanship as well as the pride he takes in his music a lot more after listening to this.
I know, he wrote this book himself and he could have basically portrayed himself in whichever way he wanted. But I think there are certain values you simply can't fake, just as there are certain values that wouldn't make any sense to advocate if you didn't truly believe in them.
So if you are somewhat of a jaded KISS fan like me (and if Paul was almost your favourite member of the band – for reasons that should be apparent to anyone) this is the book for you. Lots of interesting insights and great laughs, ESPECIALLY if you see the band from a slightly cynical 'Spinal Tap'-angle nowadays.
I used to be really into KISS for about a year or so when I was 15/16 years old (almost ten years ago). Since then, I feel out of love with them pretty hard. The reasons for that were on one hand the misogynistic content of their lyrics and on the other hand my growing (let's just call it) "contemptuous cynicism" for their comparatively simplistic (if not downright stupid) music.
There are still quite a few KISS songs I've always genuinely enjoyed. Songs like 'Detroit Rock City' hardly ever grow old and other songs like 'Love Gun' that lean a bit more on the sexist end of the spectrum have always been somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine. But to think that I ever used to enjoy songs like 'Plaster Caster'... But I digress...
I originally started listening to this audiobook as a tangent to an academic paper I planned to write about misogyny in rock music. Pretty soon, I was extremely surprised by how compelling Paul's retelling of his life's story was.
Maybe I was a bit too cynical writing off about 80% of KISS' song catalogue as trash, often making fun of their style over substance-approach to making music.
Despite being a big fan back then, I never really dug into Paul Stanley, the persona. He appears to be A LOT more sophisticated than I ever would've expected and I respect his sense of showmanship as well as the pride he takes in his music a lot more after listening to this.
I know, he wrote this book himself and he could have basically portrayed himself in whichever way he wanted. But I think there are certain values you simply can't fake, just as there are certain values that wouldn't make any sense to advocate if you didn't truly believe in them.
So if you are somewhat of a jaded KISS fan like me (and if Paul was almost your favourite member of the band – for reasons that should be apparent to anyone) this is the book for you. Lots of interesting insights and great laughs, ESPECIALLY if you see the band from a slightly cynical 'Spinal Tap'-angle nowadays.