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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Oct 20, 2019 18:44:52 GMT
Excellent writing again, Kapitan. I appreciate the historical background and timeline. I didn't know any of that, but I was one of those who thought the album was a soundtrack to a movie. By this time I had bailed on KISS, and I can't say that I'm familiar with any songs from Music From 'The Elder'. I don't think the word "elder" did them any favors either; another questionable album title. I am glad, though, to read that the album as a whole "isn't that bad".
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 20, 2019 18:48:38 GMT
I'd recommend you give a song or two a shot. I linked the live performances of both singles as well as the studio version of the opener, "The Oath." Other tunes to consider are the more typical-for-KISS anthem "I" and maybe Frehley's "Dark Light." Heck, if you're up for the weirdness, try "Just a Boy."
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 20, 2019 20:26:37 GMT
KISS Killers (1982)Not generally included in the proper discography, Killers was hastily assembled at the label’s request in the wake of the artistically confounding commercially disastrous Music From “The Elder”. Killers was a short EP’s worth of new material combined with the group’s second greatest hits collection in four years. Released in June 1982 internationally in a few variations and available in the US as an import, the album abandoned any pretense of disco, soft pop, or art-rock and set the stage for the KISS of the ‘80s: radio-friendly hard rock on the edge of heavy metal. The one member of KISS who had been pushing for this change in style sadly wasn’t around to enjoy it: Ace Frehley was still a member of KISS and appeared on the cover, but he only appears on the old recordings. The fans weren’t told, but all four new songs feature guitarist Bob Kulick, brother of future KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick and occasional studio fill-in for Ace. More polished and versatile a guitarist, Kulick is to Frehley as Eric Carr was to Peter Criss. And then there were two. All four new songs are Stanley’s, and they’re in line with the anthemic sleaze that characterizes especially his work throughout the ‘80s. Every chorus seems well suited to the training scene of a Rocky or Karate Kid movie, vaguely inspirational but somewhat disposable. There is a punching-bag and push-ups montage somewhere there in “I’m a Legend Tonight” and “Nowhere to Run.”“Down On Your Knees” is most notable for yet another strange collaboration, with Canadian pop-rocker Bryan Adams appearing as a co-writer. Despite being touted as a return to form and undeniably showing a heavier sound, the new songs sound more of a piece with the two more recent hits—“I Was Made For Loving You” and “Sure Know Something”—than they do with “Cold Gin” or “Detroit Rock City.” It was a moderate seller in some foreign markets, reaching as high as the 20s in Japan and Australia. (Not officially released in the US, it did not chart domestically.) There were no singles. The new songs aren’t awful for the genre. But as was the case with many of the group’s mid-to-late ‘80s music, they fit it in with the commercial metal of the era rather than stand out from it. To play off of the famous introduction, “You wanted the rest, you got the rest: KISS!"
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Oct 20, 2019 22:56:49 GMT
That is a weird, wild comp!
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 20, 2019 23:22:49 GMT
It would be truly confounding if not for the circumstances, but it seems that Phonogram (the parent company of Casablanca Records) was not happy with their previously dependable moneymakers and made clear it was time to stop fucking around. No vanity solo projects, no disco, no concept albums, no movies: rock. Hard rock. Now.
What's so interesting is that even with their direction more or less set, their direction still was not set. We'll get to that in the coming few albums. But it's clear all was not well. Four new songs and Gene Simmons--possibly the most arrogant self-promoter on Planet Earth--had nothing? Ace Frehley, the star of the recent past (Elder notwithstanding) not only had nothing but was neither obviously in nor out of the band?
One wonders what Eric Carr was thinking at the time. On one hand, it was a steady gig that must have paid better than any bands he'd ever been in before. On the other hand, to be a salaried employee for this mess must have been insane.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 21, 2019 1:04:59 GMT
While online--how lame is it that I'm almost doing research for this?--I came across something that I think really speaks to the identity crisis KISS was facing in this era. Yes, Killers was released halfway through 1982, and this is two years prior. But just imagine, the band introduced Eric Carr as the new drummer in KISS on ... Kids Are People Too!, a self-explanatorily titled Sunday morning ABC kids' show.
Questions are coming from children. Gene Simmons is making double entendres to children. It's weird. By 1980, in their quest to maximize profit (and I'm not judging), KISS was announcing big news on children's television. (And up next was Music From "The Elder.")
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 22, 2019 13:47:36 GMT
In keeping with the accelerated pace, Creatures of the Night probably goes up this evening. Be sure to catch up on the past few albums, and I’d recommend at least sampling the linked tunes to help follow the progression of the sound over this awful-selling but important transitional period of ’78-’82.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 22, 2019 22:34:13 GMT
KISS, Creatures of the Night (1982)A remarkably strong album, considering the state of the band. Er, the “band.” In the fall of 1982, KISS finally “returned” to hard rock. No disco, no power pop, no pop, no art-rock. That said, it is no return: it sounds nothing like their earlier hard rock and roll, but rather the polished heavy metal that was becoming dominant in the 1980s. And the band wasn’t much of a band by this point. Peter Criss, of course, had been officially gone for an album and a half by this time and unofficially gone for nearly twice that. And speaking of “unofficially gone,” Ace Frehley was found not he initial album cover and was credited as a band member, but he had no role in this music (as hardcore fans had always suspected by the playing, which was, uh, proficient). Notably, when a second cover was released in the early post-makeup era, it was Bruce Kulick, who also had no role in the album and was the third post-Frehley lead guitarist, shown with the group. KISS at this point was Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley; Eric Carr was on board as drummer and a non-voting member; and a rotating series of studio guitarists handled the leads. And even Simmons wasn’t a full participant: somewhere from two to six songs apparently featured studio bassists, reportedly because Simmons was upset after his breakup from Diana Ross. The material, produced by Simmons, Stanley, and Michael James Jackson, is even heavier than the new songs from Killers. Two key reasons are Gene Simmons co-writing five of the nine songs, and session guitarist Vinnie Vincent co-writing three (two with Simmons, one with Stanley). Vincent went on to become KISS’s lead guitarist for the subsequent tour and was a major factor in their updated sound. A dazzling and dizzying guitarist closer to Randy Rhodes or Yngwie Malmsteen than to Pete Townshend (or Ace Frehley, for that matter), Vincent was the stereotypical guitarist of the era almost to the point of parody. Unusually, all of Paul Stanley’s contributions similarly heavy to Simmons’: there is no power pop or even rock and roll here. Even the one ballad, Stanley’s and Vincent’s “I Still Love You,” is more a thunderous, Led Zeppelin-inspired (copycat?) minor blues than it is the sort of power ballad they’d release as the decade wore on. Its guitar solo would be startlingly, atypically tasteful for Vincent … if it were Vincent: jazz and fusion guitarist Robben Ford contributed both it and the solo from Simmons’s “Rock and Roll Hell.” “I Love It Loud,” co-written with Vincent, is emblematic of that Simmons sneer, yet another ode to (very hard) rock and roll with any subtlety of music stripped away. The album’s only domestic single, it was not successful on radio (peaking at #102) but did receive some MTV airplay. (The video included Frehley, still technically the band’s guitarist.) The other standouts are Stanley’s title track and Simmons’s “War Machine.” The pair of songs also perfectly represent the new dichotomy of the KISS principals. Gone are the ‘50s and ‘60s influenced harmonies and slightly swinging rock and roll. The contrast between Stanley and Simmons here and henceforth is mostly about speed: Stanley runs roughshod over you and Simmons brutally plods over the remains. As with most legacy acts, KISS has focused on its early, hits-heavy years for its live shows as the decades wore on. But three songs from Creatures remained over the years: “I Love It Loud,” “War Machine,” and the title track. The new directly brought results, if not the return to the commercial heights of five years earlier. Creatures of the Night charted at #45 domestically, was highly rated by hard-rock magazines, and eventually went gold. It remains a favorite of KISS fans among the post-peak output, and is often considered their best heavy album.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Oct 23, 2019 11:51:03 GMT
It was really strange the way the Ace Frehley situation was handled - was he in or out? I didn't know any of that, including the different album covers. I just listened to "I Love It Loud" and I know that song, except I'm not sure why. I didn't recognize the video. Maybe I just had MTV playing in the background, or maybe my local radio station gave it some airplay back in the day. Again, they veered in and out and up and down, but it sounds like KISS never failed to rock, and rock hard.
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Post by kds on Oct 23, 2019 12:28:28 GMT
I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think the heaviness on Creatures was affected by the rise of heavy metal that was going on in the early 80s. Possibly inspired by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, bands like Scorpions and Judas Priest were streamlining their sound for radio with great success. Veteran rockers Blue Oyster Cult had had just released a pair of Martin Birch produced albums. Black Sabbath had just released two very successful albums with Ronnie James Dio (also produced by Birch) just as their old frontman Ozzy Osbourne released two classic solo albums on his way to becoming a mega star on his own. Iron Maiden, with their new singer Bruce Dickinson, had just hit paydirt with The Number of the Beast album (Martin Birch again, busy guy).
By 1982, KISS was more willing to ride with current trends, as we saw with disco infused songs previously, and as we'll see later with very glam metal influenced material. But, Creatures is a fine almost heavy metal album. The title track is on par with the material a lot the bands I mentioned were releasing.
I Love It Loud is interesting because Eric Carr's drums are the lead instrument here. The guitars and bass provide a bed while Carr plays a drum riff.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 23, 2019 12:39:36 GMT
I think you’re right about the influence of NWOBHM.
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Post by kds on Oct 23, 2019 13:16:00 GMT
I think you’re right about the influence of NWOBHM. The NWOBHM movement is one of the biggest movements in rock history that almost never gets mentioned outside of the heavy metal circles, but it has a long lasting affect on heavy rock for much of the 1980s. Of course, that could be because, for the most part, the bands that were inspired by the NWOBHM wound up having more success.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 23, 2019 15:35:26 GMT
SJS mentioned the strange Frehley situation, and I thought I’d expand on that. There are a million people who have told a billion stories about all of this, and I’m not treating it seriously enough to do research: I’m just sharing stories. So please take it in that spirit and don’t consider this definitive. KISS knew they needed a new guitarist already. Ace Frehley had basically stopped doing recording sessions with the band a year prior, and was mostly just being brought in to make public appearances, as necessary. (That continued briefly even after Creatures of the Night was released, as in the video of “I Love it Loud.”) The band was seeking new lead guitarists simultaneously to the recording for Creatures of the Night. The latter wasn’t such a challenge, in that they had recorded without Frehley on and off for years. Session guitarists often wound up providing solos, overdubs, or even whole guitar parts. Some of those players present on Killers and Creatures were at least considered, if not auditioned for the band. But this was a formal, broad search for a replacement player. (The advertisement is available online. The band was seeking not just a good guitarist—and obviously looking to update the style from Frehley’s power chords-and-pentatonics based playing—but someone at least 6 feet tall and with long, black hair who could sing and write. They wanted the total package. Among the session musicians: - Bob Kulick, who had been Frehley’s ghost-player for years, believes he never was seriously considered because he was bald. (His brother Bruce became KISS’s guitarist later in the ‘80s and remained until the first reunion.) - Robben Ford, who contributed solos to Creatures, has said he wasn’t a fan of the music and doesn’t seem to have been seriously considered. - Steve Farris of Mr. Mister also contributed to the Creatures album and was reportedly recommended by Eddie Van Halen, per Paul Stanley, but “the fit hadn’t been right.” Several prominent guitarists have been reported as auditioning, but seem to have only been considered or discussed the job: - Eddie Van Halen, according to Gene Simmons, begged to be let in the band, already fed up with David Lee Roth. Simmons claims to have convinced Van Halen to remain in his own band, saying there wasn’t enough space for such a massive figure in KISS. It warrants mention that at this point, KISS was still in makeup and was otherwise anonymous: how an international superstar guitarist with the most identifiable sound in rock and roll would have slipped in unnoticed is hard to figure. - Slash, 16 at the time, had been considered and received a phone call from Stanley. However, once they realized how young he was—half of Simmons’s age—Stanley claims to have passed. - Roger Fisher (Heart) was reportedly approached via the band’s management, but not being into that style of music he turned it down and basically left music instead. - Yngwie Malmsteen was one of at least two guitarists recommended by shredders-only label Shrapnel Records headman Mike Varney. While Malmsteen says someone from KISS did call him while he was in Sweden, it did not proceed beyond the phone call. (He also claims communications were a problem due to the language and cultural differences.) Then there are those who actually did audition: - Richie Sambora, later of Bon Jovi, was flown from New Jersey to California to audition. Sambora has claimed he didn’t know or like their music and basically blew them off because they wanted a KISS-worshipper while he was a serious, artistic, blues player. Stanley has mentioned that KISS wasn’t about to fly in an uninterested guitarist for an audition that everyone acknowledges having happened (as well as the fact that Sambora’s next band, Bon Jovi, wasn’t exactly oozing authentic blues). - Doug Aldrich, later of Dio and Whitesnake (as well as lesser known bands Hurricane and Lion), says that he was too young and starstruck to perform in the presence of superstars—superstars whom he was seeing without their makeup for the first time. He says the experience helped him become more serious. - Robben Ford, later of Ratt, joked that he might have been “too tall (6-4) and too blonde.” It does appear that he was strongly considered, however, having been brought in for a second audition. He has since died of a heroin overdose and had been suffering from complications of HIV. - Marq Torien, later of the moderately successful Bulletboys, was apparently well liked by Simmons and Stanley but was brought in after they had begun writing songs and feeling more comfortable with Vinnie Vincent. - Adam Bomb, who went on to play with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and Michael Monroe of Hanoi Rocks as well as releasing solo albums, says he auditioned but was heavily into drugs at the time and knew he was not a fit. - Punky Meadows of Angel (a band discovered by Simmons). - Donnie Dacus of Chicago. - Michael Angelo (a shredder from Shrapnel), who also claims to have been terrified and only a teenager. Of course all the while, KISS already knew of, and was writing and recording with, Vinnie Vincent. After he was fired, Stanley and Simmons have consistently claimed to have been hesitant to hire Vincent, thinking him too egotistical and considering his style too over the top to be in KISS. (He was also short, for what that’s worth…) The history does seem to back this up: it’s possible they considered him more appropriate as a Bob Kulick-style behind-the-scenes collaborator than a band member. Even his eventual status, which was not as a full (but not voting) band member a la Eric Carr, but rather a contract employee, hints at the unease. Vincent eventually was, of course, hired, put in the Egyptian ankh makeup, on board for the unmasking, and critical to the relative success of Lick It Up in 1983. But it was far from a smooth ride with Vincent. More on that when we hit Lick It Up.
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Post by kds on Oct 23, 2019 15:44:43 GMT
I don't know how Yngwie would've fit in, but I'm sure his tenure would've made for great drama. I don't know if he had that massive ego yet, but I couldn't imagine a band with him, Gene and Paul.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 23, 2019 15:49:50 GMT
Probably a lot like it did with Vinnie!
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