Thursday
Nov052009
Crazy Nights Vs. Crazy, Crazy Nights
Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 12:01AM
The Loudness and KISS both have songs called "Crazy Nights" (ok, I know the KISS version is called "Crazy, Crazy Nights," but give me a break!)
Which is better? I choose KISS. What say you?
The Loudness
KISS
Crazy Crazy Nights
KISS | MySpace Music Videos
I don't know if I like the KISS version better because of the song or the video. I think it's both. I always liked this KISS video more than some of their others.
Reader Comments (15)
These are both killer songs. Got 'em both in regular rotation on my iTunes. As Steffan notes, there are a lot of other great "Crazy Nites" out there, as well. Must be because we glam metallers live for nights that are crazy!
I like Kiss a little better but that's just because, to me, it's a little more "Hair Metal" and "Glam" than Loudness, which is more straight ahead Hard Rock, tho I still regard it as Metal.
I'm sure there is always great debate on whether Kiss is Metal or not or if Loudness is Glam enough, but they all sure got the make-up caked on, hahaha!!!. Both bands must have cleaned out the cosmetics counters at Saks and the like wherever they came to town.
Personally, I've got Kiss classified as "Rock" and Loudness as "Metal" on iTunes, tho I think Kiss during their 80's period were really more Glam/Hair Metal, which is when "Crazy Crazy Nights" came out. It's funny, but to me, they were way more Glam Metal during this time than they were during the 70's when they were donning 100 times the amount of make-up. This also has a great deal to do with how they "evolved" their sound into more of an L.A. Glsm style.
Yeah, so, supposedly they took off the make-up, but they were still wearin' plenty around this time. Check 'em out in the "Crazy Crazy Nights" vid Al has posted here. Downright scary, tho hilarious. And of course, the running joke is, these dudes need make-up, hahaha!!!
Of course, Loudness is wearin' plenty, too! I did a little Wikipedia research, etc. on these guys. It's interesting to note they recorded their first four records in Japanese, their native language. But they also recorded an English version of their fourth album, "Disillusion", for western release.
What's cool is the lead singer, Minoru Nihara, sang that whole record phonetically. That's right, he didn't know English but sang it in English. So, he had no idea what he was singing, per se, tho one can only speculate about the logistics on how this was achieved. Were the words a direct translation from his lyrics?, etc.
It wasn't until "Unleashed in the East" that Nihara learned English and apparently wrote all of his own lyrics in English.
And check out the guitarist, who is the sole founding leader, Akira Takasaki, Japan's biggest guitar hero, bar none. Geeez, this dude can shred!
The album peaked at #74 in the U.S. on the Billboard charts, which was and is pretty much unheard of for a band from Japan, especially in 1985.
Also, in the song, "Crazy Nights" you'll notice the chant, "N.Z.A.". Band members have always claimed it was meaningless but, speaking of crazy, there continues to be some speculation that it was actually the name of a Japanese crime gang from around that time.
Yikes!
Regardless, both songs rock out like CRAZY!!!
They recorded a third album (twice!) and it's been sittin' on the shelf ever since. What a crime. You know it's just got to sound killer!
By 86 shite bands like warrant, winger and warrant started to pop up who were total corporate puppies.
Plus hardcore Metal started by 86 and that kind of also destroyed the early 80s Metal as the fun kind of went.
Actually, the best one of all, and one that could be the ShipRocked theme song next week, is Lazy Days, Crazy Nights by TESLA.