Two chicks walk into a bar

It's a sad statement of fact that this is mostly true :


"After watching their reign atop the late-’70s arena rock scene disappear in a puff of disco smoke, Kiss knew they had to do something big and bold to get back in the game. Unfortunately, 1981′s ‘Music from the Elder’ was an even bigger misstep.
Producer Bob Ezrin, fresh off the success of Pink Floyd‘s ambitious concept album ‘The Wall,’ decided that the facepainted marvels, whose lyrical depth typically topped out with tracks like ‘Love Gun’ and ‘Christine Sixteen,’ should tackle an album-length suite of songs about a young medieval warrior’s epic quest to save the world… or something. The end product, while admirably daring, is one of the most universally panned and mocked records in rock history. To their credit, they righted their creative ship the next year."

...From Ultimate Classic Rock entry "Albums That Almost Killed A Bands Career" ..  The Elder was a strange set no doubt..  When you also figure that they just got a new drummer and their lead guitarist was skating away from the band as well KISS was nearing joke status as Gene was also looking to  a career change in going to Hollywood to make movies.  But the elder was not really a horrible album which is the saddest  part.. Had it been done by Emerson, Lake and Palmer it might have been viewed as a career resurrector rather than the career ender.. When KISS made Alive II I was not really that impressed with the side 4 studio tracks.. To me a live album should be full "live".. After Alive II they faded a little and started to splinter.. With the solo albums release it was writing on the wall time.. With Dynasty being released and having a disco song on it they lost me for a while.. Although I bought Unmasked it was such a crappy record overall.. Unmasked and Dynasty were "plastic" in their sound.. To me they were no longer KISS the hungry hard rockers, but they were now kiss the do what everyone else was doing.. The Elder was different and to me very much the concept album but should have been a marketing shot.. They could have done more with it.. And still could.. Either try a movie version or a stop animaton idea.. These have likely been proposed but as well likely been panned by the band (Gene and Paul)  and might be something that gets done on YouTube as a independent short or something.. I have thought they should do a sequel to that album somehow..  It's a cult favorite, not on most fans top albums list but most people would like to hear them play something from that album..  Probably won't never happen, but you never know..

Badge Henry