Alive! (Kiss Album) - Overdubbing Controversy

Overdubbing Controversy

There has been considerable debate as to how much use was made of studio overdubs. Simmons states in his autobiography Kiss and Make-Up, that very little corrective work was done in the studio and that most of the studio time was devoted strictly to mixing down the multi-track recordings. He also emphasized that Kiss could not have done extensive overdubbing even if they had wanted to; thanks in no small part to the Johnny Carson album fiasco, the extremely meager budget allotted to the band simply would not allow it.

The original recordings from the July 23, 1975 concert at the Wildwood Convention Center, "Deuce", "Hotter Than Hell", "Firehouse" and "Black Diamond", along with the June 21, 1975 Cleveland Music Hall Concert, "Rock and Roll All Nite", have shown there was very little overdubbing used for the Alive album. According to Dale Sherman's book Black Diamond and Goldmine magazine, in the early 1990s, Eddie Kramer stated there were a few overdubs to correct the most obvious mistakes: strings breaking or off-key notes, for instance. However, in recent years, Kramer has stated that the only original live recording on the album is Peter Criss' drum tracks. Stanley has noted that there is a bass mistake in the choruses of "C'mon and Love Me". He has also made comments that even though there have been live albums recorded later that make Alive! sound like it was recorded in a washroom, he has no qualms about it. Criss has also confirmed, in his 2012 autobiography Makeup to Breakup, that the only original live recordings on the album were his drum tracks.