Kiss - God Gave Rock and Roll To You II - Solo

This article is part 42 of 52 in the 2022 music project series.

I'm not a particularly big fan of Kiss, but I own one of their tab books, so here I am. I was amused by the "II" suffix of this song; I figured it was a case of a band ripping off their own music like Metallica did with The Unforgiven. But apparently it's a cover of a song by the band Argent so Kiss wrote some more lyrics and then tacked a "II" to the end of it to differentiate it from the original.¹

Comically, this was all done for the soundtrack of the cinematic masterpiece Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.

god-gave-rock-and-roll-to-you-ii-book.jpeg (image/jpeg, 853x480, 72,434 bytes) — Transcription of the solo from *God Gave Rock & Roll To You II* from the 1991 movie *Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey*

Even more amusingly, the world's hardest rocking Christian band Petra also covered it. I can only imagine the new connotations they added to it to make it sufficiently religious.

Anyway, the solo has some harmony and I like that. So here's a cover.

Recording

This video is pretty bad. I should have turned my light on. I compensated by jacking up the brightness in post but it looks pretty awful.

god-gave-rock-and-roll-to-you-ii-solo-480p.mp4

Cover of Bruce Kulick's solo from God Gave Rock & Roll To You II (or maybe it was Ace Frehley or Paul Stanley I don't know who actually played it this song isn't worth that much research)

ardour-god-gave-rock-and-roll-to-you-ii-thumb.jpeg (image/jpeg, 960x270, 43,062 bytes) — Screenshot of my Ardour/Hydrogen setup

I just listened to Argent's version on YouTube, and frankly it's way better than Kiss's version. Kiss just changed some lyrics, changed the guitar solo, added a key change, and removed the organ solo. They also tuned down a half step. I can't believe they were allowed to put their names on it as writers, since it's basically a rip off. I feel betrayed. I can't believe I covered an inferior cover. Even Kiss's guitar solo was worse. What a waste.