i remember thinking this song was really lame when i first heard it back like in 86. then again i was only 10 years old and my tastes in music weren't quite that developed.

i swear to god-i was 13 and there was a preview on'no limits'-i was alrerady a prince fan but i have NEVER heard anything so weird..when it came out it was so so different to anything that i had EVER heard that its strange it became a hit(these days it is so familiar to everyone that the "odd"factor has been lost)

i rememebr jenny powell the presenter being freaked out!

and the video?/ so minimilistic..so weird

I never really liked Kiss and I'm one of the mans biggest fans, to this day I cant get into it but I can't really explain why. 4 me it's overrated.

The very first time I really listened to it my initial impression was
" Christ , thats high " , the level of the falsetto totally stunned me .

I can see now why its a 'classic': because its surprising minimalism, like he succeeded in making funk even more 'bare' sounding then James Brown did.

But when it was released it just did sound TOO bare IMO, but i loved the part of the song beginning with the razorsharp guitarsolo and the funky riffing after that.

By the way i have read somewhere that its Wendy playing that solo, is that correct? Or is it Prince, or Miko even?

I loved "Kiss" the very first time I heard it. I thought to myself (and a lot of other people thought so too)..."The Old Prince is back!". It's when I bought the album that I got pissed.

A friend, Margaret, who knew I was a huge fan, told me she had heard it on the radio.

"It's a blues song, but it's a dance song, but it's stripped bare." she said - or something like that. She described it very well.

She loved it.

I was amazed how accurately she had described it.

I loved it too and made sure I had bought and taped the 12" to play to her on our first date.

.

I always think off Kiss being onet of his 3 'stripped down' classics

The first being When doves cry, the second being Kiss, the third being Sign of The Times.

He has tried this kind of minimalism after that (Thieves in the temple, Black Sweat), but IMO he has never reached the peaks of those first 3.

common where are the Anti Christs when you need them...damn!

Great song; produced, arranged and programmed by DZ

Riverpoet31 said:

I wouldnt call Thieves a minimalist track , but youre right those other 3 songs pretty much define Prince's genius at minimalism .

Kiss = at first sight..

I still don't like "Kiss" to this day, but I can understand why so many people do.

i remember in my very first wave of P fandom when i was hunting down the hits, i was so overwhelmed by songs like SOTT and Adore and Alphabet St and Purple Rain and Raspberry Beret, that i kind of overlooked Kiss - "meh, not much happenin in this one. no bother. let's blast some Soft&Wet instead!"

ironically, it was thanks to some of the non-P-fans, u know the sort who only know Kiss and PR, that i finally re-evaluated it:
me: hey, guess what, i'm listenin to Prince now.
a friend: oh really? i like that Kiss thing, it's cool.
me: uhmmm... which one was it again?

2 such conversations with 2 different friends was nuff 4 me to give it a 2nd and 3rd listen, and once i paid some attention of course i started diggin it immediately.

memories.

I wouldn't say that I disliked it when I first heard Kiss way back in 86, however it confused me somewhat!!! Here was a tune so funky that I did not have the balls to attempt to dance to it! Why? I guess I needed to become comfortable with the 'stripped' down funk that I was hearing, I mean if your gonna get up and dance to something so bare U gotta nail it or you would be found out!!! (when doves cry is a masterpeice in this stripped down approach but I for 1 still feel uncomfortable dancing to this!!)

I've always loved it!

I've always liked Kiss...I think it's kind of funny to not like it.

wlcm2thdwn said:

me too

jonylawson said:

I was in the same exact boat. Couldn't get into this song much. Still really can't. I guess any just dues I give it is based on the fact that it's a staple song for prince, i don't know. I just never really did it for me.

i still dont really like kiss

it

esp the vid when wendy screws up her face "u gotta not talk dirty babe- if u wanna impress me

KISS ROCKED MY WORLD WHEN I 1ST HEARD IT!!!!!
i was like 12 years old.
it just came out on radio.
it was so funky.
the sparse beat.
the badd ass falsetto vocal performance.
it was the funkiest thing i had ever heard.
i was in the back seat of my father's car and couldn't contain myself.
i literally went crazy.
i'll never forget that day.
i ran to the store everyday looking for the single.
and finally i got the 12 inch.
so i got the extended version.
and then there's the b-side "love or money".
probably one of his best singles.
i know it got all played out and all.
but to me that's one of the funkiest recordings ever.....

I remember first seeing the video in the mid 90's when I was about 13 and I thought it was 'so gay' and thought he was copying mj cause I was madly in love and hated anyone else in the way (good thing I got over that little phase though I'm still a fan) but over the years I've come to appreciate it, though his soprano voice is not as good as it was in the late 70's. The ending of it with the shrieking still makes me cringe though now I think it's kind of sexy and silly, and in the words of my little sis, 'like a constipated chicken' :p

I think I might have heard it when I was really young and forgot about it as well cause I felt like something about it was familiar
[Edited 7/29/07 10:53am]
[Edited 7/29/07 10:54am]