KISS Documented Volume One: Great Expectations 1970-1977
By: Scott Parker
Published June 2011, 188 pages

Close, but no cigar.

OK. Time for another book review. This time It’s about Scott Parker’s Kiss Documented Volume One that came out this summer. Scott had written on the Kissfaq.com forums before about what he planned to release and It seemed interesting. The book was supposed to chronicle Kiss on audio and film/video over a couple of volumes. An interesting project since It really had not been done before. And If It had been done in a good way would be a great ‘companion’ to Kiss Alive Forever and the Kiss Album Focus books to all us collectors. A typical ‘must have’ book for me.

So in June the book was published. There is a limited color edition and and a ordinary b/w edition. After reading some negative critique about the quality on the pictures and price of the color edition, I choose to buy the ordinary cheaper version. Not that the price of the color edition scared me from buying It. But I had no real need for the screen shots from videos in color.

I received the book a couple of weeks ago. But just had the time to browse trough It at first. But now I had the time to really sit down and read the book.

First of all I must say that I really admire authors like Scott Parker that releases stuff like this. They really don’t earn any money of It so It’s just a labor of love really. Much work and very little reward beside if they get some praise from other fans. And his dedication really shows through the book. I really enjoyed reading a lot of his descriptions of interviews and videos. And the synopsis of each interview and film/video are quite good.

As you understand I really like some parts of the book. And Scott’s writing is quite well. My problem when reading the book is that Scott really tries to cover to much stuff in the book. Beside the live shows and interviews the book also covers demos. Something that makes the book a little unfocused and takes up to much space. The demo topic is covered much better in all of Julian Gill’s books. So I really don’t see why Scott felt he had to add It to the other content that I feel is interesting and worth reading. Leaving out the demo descriptions would have left a lot more space for the concert and interview stuff. So he would probably have had place for most of if not all of the 70′s stuff, instead of ending the book in the middle of the 70′s.

There is also the cover that is really blurry. No big issue. But I really don’t understand why the cover has so low resolution. The screen shots is one thing. But there is no reason that the text and illustrations should have low resolution. It almost looks like a screen dump in 72dpi.

But all in all I like the book. It’s no must have Kiss book by any means. But If your a Kiss book collector like me It’s a book you should have in your collection. If your just looking for a Kiss book then It’s not the book for you.

Verdict: 6/10