KISS - (Music From) The Elder... thoughts?

I rather like "Asylum". It has its moments.

 

And compared to the previous ones I rather like Hot in the shade. Apart from the absolutely horrid Forever it was kind of a step in the right direction.

 

I thought I would ressurrect this thread, as I found the remastered cd for cheap recently and surprisingly to me, l like most of it.

Also saw on the news today that a certain Mr. Blackwell the fashion designer died. Is he the same Mr. Blackwell that KISS didn't like?

 

Yes.

 

Man, this is a great record. I have been checking out some of the promotional stuff on You Tube for this album, and it really does have good songs on it.

 

I agree. There is some really stellar, and IMO, very overlooked gems on this.

I wish the proposed tour for this would've happened. From what I've read, they had some interesting ideas!

 

I think it would have been more like a Broadway play than a concert, but yeah, it would have been interesting, to say the least.

I guess we're lucky to have those live performances from the old Fridays show, as they were the only Elder performances from that era.

Interestingly, the original US mix/track sequence has been out of print since 1997 when the remasters came out. Thank Gawd I read on the internets that they used the international version for the remaster -- I probably would have traded in my original CD!!

 

Yeah, that's one old CD that could be replaced. Those Fridays shows do rule.

 

This is something that I haven't seen for years...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFbWfKoHHCM

 

Wow, that takes me back. I was really intrigued by this album back then.

Then, I heard it.

 

I became a fan in 1988 and was really intrigued as it was out of print for several years at that point. You couldn't even find a vinyl or cassette copy used anywhere. I know Casablanca was less than happy when they first heard it so they probbaly pressed as few copies as possible. I don't think it was ever cutout or discounted either. I remember losing my mind when I saw it on CD in May 1989....then I heard it. I realized why it was buried for so long. It's better than Trans though!

 

I just got this CD in the mail yesterday. I really like it. It is the only pre-Creatures, non-compilation Kiss album that I own. It is not properly representated on greatest hits albums like the other albums are.

The current remaster's track listing makes a LOT more sense than the original US LP. It helps the storyline and the album builds rather than being erratic.

I do think this album could have been successful, but after the lunchboxes, make-up kits, comic books, TV movie, solo albums, and disco songs, the original fans were gone and the new fans did not know what to make of a concept album. It is not the debacle that it has been made out to be. It was just the final straw. You can only push a fanbase so far.

Too bad Styx wasn't paying attention.

 

The Elder is pretty bad, I mean they were attempting their version of The Wall for crying out loud. I don't know how coked up Ezrin, mgmt and the Casablanca boss' were at this point but there's no way this album had a chance given the competition that was around in 1981.

these are my ratings for KISS studio related releases, if it has the KISS logo on it, it qualifies, odds and ends are compiled under scraps.


HOTTER THAN HELL 90.6%
ACE FREHLEY 90.2%
PAUL STANLEY 83.9%
KISS 78.8%
DESTROYER 78.0%
DYNASTY 76.3%
CREATURES OF THE NIGHT 75.2%
DRESSED TO KILL 74.3%
ROCK N ROLL OVER 73.7%
CARNIVAL OF SOULS 69.2%
LOVE GUN 69.2%
REVENGE 66.6%
LICK IT UP 63.9%
SCRAPS 58.7%
ASYLUM 58.0%
UNMASKED 54.0%
SONIC BOOM 53.1%
CRAZY NIGHTS 50.5%
ANIMALIZE 47.3%
THE ELDER 44.3%
PSYCHO CIRCUS 41.0%
HOT IN THE SHADE 36.2%
PETER CRISS 28.5%
GENE SIMMONS 24.9%

 

I became a fan a year earlier and also was intrigued about the album. I wonder why it was hard to find, only sold as a Japanese import, among other things. Then a friend of mine borrowed me the LP. I found the album very different to the other KISS songs/albums I had heard until that time, but I liked it. I taped it from the LP and became one of my precious possessions.

A day before we got our first cd player (in 1990) I bought "Music from The Elder" on CD. I was blown away by the sound after listening to records and tapes for so long. I still have that copy as it was my first CD ever.

 

Here's my Facebook status...

"I'm gonna do it...listening to Kiss - Music From "The Elder" from beginning to end for the very first time. This is the crazy concept album that alienated many fans. Most consider this and Kiss Meet The Phantom Of The Park the nadir of their entire career but there's a small core of fans who consider Elder one of their best. We'll see. Wish me luck."

 

Ok first sounds are wind, a faraway train, etc...is this an Orb record?

 

Holy crap...30 seconds in and I'm being bombarded with fanfare horns and Gregorian chants...this is gonna be awesome!

 

On a mountain high somewhere
Where only heroes dare
Stand the stallion and the mare
We have been and we shall be each other's destiny
One another's odyssey

 

Sounding like Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell wrecking into the London Philharmonic Symphony with EPIC Manowar lyrics.

 

Now "Only You" is sounding pretty awesome although I actually heard the lyric "man child" in there somewhere.

 

‎"Under The Rose" sounds good too. This is where Bob Ezrin's influence is clearly heard as this sounds like it could have came off side 30 4 of Pink Floyd's The Wall. It also includes one of Ace's few guitar solos on the album as most were left on the cutting room floor.

 

I love The Elder. My 5th favorite Kiss album.

 

I've always liked this album...been listening to it since 1981.

 

Love it start to finish. I'd have actually liked to hear a few more KISS records like this.

And, though I've said it before, I still can't help but wonder how the record would have been received by U.S. critics/fans if it had been originally released with the "international" tracklisting as intended. The re-ordered US original just sounds like a mess to me, and it's easy to understand why people were so thrown by it. It'd be like listening to Dark Side of the Moon on shuffle.

 

I heard the Jaws theme for a bit. They should have heavied that up. ‎"A World Without Heroes"--->sucks.