Kiss – ‘Feel Like Heaven’ (1994) – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

I have been doing a Kiss Bootleg Series for years. You get a review every time I add a new one to the collection. Well, after buying 38 Bootleg CDs from John Humphrey’s personal collection,… More

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Kiss – ‘Feel Like Heaven’ (1994) – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

I have been doing a Kiss Bootleg Series for years. You get a review every time I add a new one to the collection. Well, after buying 38 Bootleg CDs from John Humphrey’s personal collection, I figured let’s jump right back in and do a whole lot of reviews on the Bootlegs. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…and I did wind up with some things.

This time the bootleg we have contains a bunch of remixes and demos from throughout the years. It was released in 1994 and this one was actually originally purchased at Starship Records & Tapes on June 11, 1995 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It only cost $21.99. How do I know all this? Well, the receipt was inside the booklet in the case. Now, I don’t know if this receipt was when John Humphrey bought it or not…but either way, cool to have the receipt.

This particular disc contains 17 tracks and they consist of several remixes and a bunch of demos including some from Ace Frehley and Peter Criss. However, I don’t think these were Kiss demos as the Ace ones were from 1985 so it would place them during Frehley’s Comet. And also, the Peter ones are from 1982 which places the two songs outside of his time with Kiss as well. The rest of the demos are from various band members from 1976 up to 1990 so it has songs that Gene, Paul, Ace & Peter as well as Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick.

The album kicks off with 3 remixes. First up is “Let’s Put The X in Sex” and this remix was actually released as the “X-cessive Mix” on a 12″ Promotional single. And if you thought the original song was bad, wait til you hear this one. Kiss and dance mixes don’t mix. Then we get the “Dirty Livin’ Remix” from 1979. If I have the right one, this was the Jim Burgess Mix and only released in Germany on a 12″ Single. And yes, it is another dance, disco track.

The last remix (thank God) is “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” also from 1979. Yes, Paul you can write a disco song…now please stop it. Then we jump all the way to 1990 for an acoustic version of “Hide Your Heart” and NO, that does not make the song any better…sadly. I hate this song to begin with and this does nothing to change that. It sounds like it was either a demo or on a radio show. Ugh!!

We now fall back to 1987 and to one of the coolest demos we can get and that is “Sword And Stone”. This was written by Desmond Child, Paul Stanley and Bruce Kulick and was a demo for the “Crazy Nights” album. They offered the song to Loverboy, but instead Paul Dean covered it for his own solo album. Bonfire also covered as well in 1989 on their “Shocker” album. “We Won’t Take It Anymore” is said to be a Gene demo from ‘Asylum’ but The Vault I believe says it was from 1983 and has Eric Carr on guitar and recorded in a hotel room. Either way, pretty cool song. It sounds rough, but it is a demo so what do you expect. We get a better, cleaner version the Vault.

Then it is 3 Ace demos all from 1985 and the sound quality isn’t great. I little flat and sound hollow, but they are still cool. First up is “Rock To Be Rocked” which needs some work, but got a great chorus, a good solo and could’ve been a great rock anthem with some work. Next is “Back Into My Arms” which is almost a ballad. Very poppy and another one that isn’t too bad. The last Ace demo is “The Girl Can’t Dance” and after hearing this the girl probably jumped off the roof the dance hall this played in. Holy crap, Ace doing a pop, new wave dance song. Satan does exist!! It feels like a Duran Duran song…a bad Duran Duran song, but still Duran Duran.

Now it is Peter’s turn and we get two demos of the same song. It is “Jenilee” who is Peter’s daughter and I believe this was done shortly after her birth. It is rough, definitely recorded from a worn out tape. It is a sweet song, not a Kiss song for sure. The second version is a little heavier, more developed song and probably a little better than the first one. Honestly, not a bad track for a Peter solo album.

Next is a demo from ‘The Elder’ for the song “Don’t Run” by Ace Frehley. When you hear it, you know this would become “Dark Light” on the final album. Great Ace song!! Paul brings us a demo finally with “Deadly Weapons” and this demo is from 1980 and you know it as “Love’s a Deadly Weapon” which it became on the 1985 album ‘Asylum’. It has more balls and bite on the final album version, but this isn’t bad. Gene brings us “It’s Gonna Be Alright” from 1978. Pretty good song and you can hear on the “Creatures of the Night” 40th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set.

We are on to the final three songs. Gene, the kind of demos, has another treat for us and this one is “Love Came to Me” from 1978. This sounds like it could’ve been used on his solo album as it has that same 70’s vibe as those. You can hear this on the Vault if you have it, it is on Disc 10. Peter then brings us a killer one with “None of Your Business” from the Destroyer sessions. I like this one and think it would’ve been great for ‘Destroyer’, but Peter already had “Beth”. I would’ve been cool to have a more rocking song with him as well. The final track on here is the raunchy ass song “Feel Like Heaven”. A more polished, cleaner version would wind up on a Peter Criss solo album. This one feels incomplete and fades in what feels like the middle of the song. Gene says some nasty things. I could pass on this one. There is a more complete Gene version on The Vault.

And that is it. I will get the bad out of the way, the sound isn’t great as you can tell this was take from a tape as there is a lot of background hiss at times. But, sadly, I love demos so I really like this. I could do a hard pass on the first four songs which were dance remixes and that horrid song “Hide Your Heart. After that, I’m all in for these. A fun listen if you like this sort of stuff. A pass if you aren’t. My Overall Score is a 3.0 out of 5.0 Stars. Some cool stuff and some not so cool, but it is Kiss and that is good enough for me.