#howard marks

https://img.etimg.com/thumb/msid-128336345,width-1200,height-630,imgsize-61733,overlay-etmarkets/articleshow.jpg Veteran investor Howard Marks has long argued that successful investing is less about predicting exact turning points and more about understanding where markets stand in the broader cycle. His core message in his book, “Mastering the Market Cycle” has taken on renewed importance in…

"Let he who is free from sin cast the first stone". Well, I'll be so free then, if nobody minds.

So should the day really have come when I should go off on an innocent member of our favorite band for no reason at all, motivated only by blind eagerness? I hope not, of course, but if that were really the case, I would probably hold good old Big G Simmons responsible for that.

And since his account of not only his demonic but also his musical sins is so heavily loaded anyway, it would hardly matter, would it?

Which brings us straight without much ado to Living in Sin from his first solo album (1978), and its chorus after the second verse. And if those aren't Oogah Chugga-Oogah Chuggas - or at least second-degree descendants thereof, then I don't know what else to say.

And because that's probably less likely to be the case, let's just take an easy look at that cousin, that goes by the name of Hooked on a Feeling (1973) and comes from Blue Suede (1). Ever heard of it?

I mean, I wouldn't be too surprised at all if Big G claimed that his real inspiration for theese very peculiar sounds in Living in Sin actually came from Johnny Preston's Running Bear from 1959. After all, they both sound more or less the same and are probably all interrelated anyway.

And you know what they say, blood is thicker than water... but let's better not make an original sin out of this sticky situation.

Side Note:

(1) At least in this version, which is probably the most familiar to us, because, one could easily assume that it was inspired not less but much more by The Archies' Sugar, Sugar (1969), although of course Blue Suede's version is actually a cover version of B.J. Thomas' Hooked on a Feeling from 1968. Not so easy today, I admit.

Living in Sin (1978)

Hooked on a Feeling (1973)

Running Bear (1959)

Sugar, Sugar (1969)

It seems that the floodgates to the subject of Wicked Lester have definitely been opened and not properly closed again. And you know how it goes with toothpaste, once it's out you can never get it back in the tube. So why not continue with it right away and see what else comes out of it? (1)

Well, if you push it a little more, for example Gene's Charisma from Dynasty (1979) and its somewhat simpler predecessor Simple Type (1972), whose riff is of course 1:1 the one from Charisma, until it just won't budge after the first run through, and a little bit later mutates into something completely different.

If I'm not mistaken, Gene had even used this riff for another song before the Wicked Lester days, I mean, who can remember all that stuff, but obviously for years it just didn't seem significant enough for him to find a use for a proper Kiss album between 1974-77, or even his '78 solo work. And in those days neither he nor Paul were exactly stingy with their tried-and-tested recycling practices.

And here one can see how little Gene must have had up his sleeve in '79, taking the idea for Charisma's lyrics from his manager buddy and spinning them on (2) , and taking the riff from a pre-pre-Kiss predecessor demo that had been omitted until then. But, at least he picked the most interesting, albeit catchiest part.

Luckily for me, because I really love this song.

Side Note:

(1) It won't be too much new though, as the one with Paul's '78 solo album might have been an exception, I guess. But hey, you can't always hit the bull's eye.

(2) You all know the story around Howard Marks, how he more or less put those words in Gene's mouth at a party, and Gene liked it so much that he used it as the basis for Charisma, course.

Charisma (1979)

Simple Type (1972)

“If you’re engaged in an activity that involves decisions with consequences in the future, it seems patently obvious that you’ll act one way if you think the future can be foreseen and a very different way if you think it can’t…. Investing in an unknowable future as an agnostic is a daunting prospect, but if foreknowledge is elusive, investing as if you know what’s coming is close to nuts. Maybe…

“There are few effective rules for investors to follow. Superior investing always comes down to skillful analysis and superior insight, not adherence to formulas and guidelines.” —Howard Marks.