Ace was very unhappy
with the band's choice of Bob Ezriin for producer for the album as he was
with the new direction the band had decided to take. Ace thought that KISS
needed to do another heavy metal record to get themselves back on track, but
Ezrin pushed them to do the concept album. Eric Carr agreed with Ace, but
was not given a vote since he was not part of the original band, so Ace was
outvoted two to one. Because of this, Ace felt more alienated from the band
than he already had. Because of this he had little to do with the recording
other than the two tracks he wrote and recorded himself. Ace was also reported
to be unhappy with the final mix of the album which downplayed the guitar
work.
Ace and Anton
Fig perform all of the instruments on 'Dark Light,' while Ace and Eric Carr
perform everything on 'Escape From The Island," two of the album's best
tracks.
-' The Elder'
was the first studio album which Eric Carr appeared on.
-When The Elder was released in Japan, the record company designed a cover
showing the band in their costumes and makeup that slid over the original
cover. It was also not called Music From The Elder; instead it was given the
title "Great Decisive Battle of The Underworld." "Escape From
The Island" isn't on the Japanese version of 'The Elder,' instead it
was released 7 months later on the 'Killers' album.
-
The hand on the cover is actually Paul Stanley's.
-
The door on the cover belongs to a Methodist church on Park Avenue in New
York City.
-The
Elder was an original story for a film written by Gene Simmons. The movie
never was produced despite the fact that the soundtrack was written for it.
-
KISS hoped that The Elder would translate into a string of albums that would
be connected by a common thread--this concept of a boy chosen to fight against
evil. The Elder would have an immediate follow-up album
(tentatively titled 'War of The Gods') that would continue the story line
and then a third album of the film's score. Of course, this never happened
due to abysmal sales of The Elder. At the time, Pink
Floyd was very successful
with their concept album, The Wall, and KISS believed that The Elder could
do the same for them after the disappointing Unmasked album.
-
The Elder quickly went out of print and became a hot collector's item in the
80's until it was released on cd by Mercury in 1989. It was the last Kiss
album to see re-issue apparently because both Paul and Gene did not
want it to be released. Apparently they bowed to fan pressure and the album
was released in May of 1989.
-The
band refined their look for the album as they wanted to be taken seriously.
Paul cut his hair short and wore a headband; Gene tied his hair back in a
strange-looking ponytail, and Ace also cut his hair into a shag.
Oddly enough, Eric Carr was the only member to keep his long hair. Other changes
included the nixing of the infamous blood-spitting and wild antics, no more
platform shoes and a toning down of the outfits. Needless to say,
this hurt the band's image rather than helping it.
-
An untitled demo was recorded by Ace and Eric at this time and it wouldn't
be released until 1992. The song was released as an instrumental on "Hot
in the Shade" and called "Carr Jam 1981." According to the
liner notes of Revenge, this song was meant to showcase Eric Carr with a 2
to 3 minute drum solo in the middle; ssentially it was to be his Moby Dick.
Ace first reworked the song for his 1987 album Frehley's
Comet and called it "Breakout" with Anton Fig performing the
drums. Eric was given writting credits on the Comet album.
-Lou
Reed co-wrote "Dark Light," "A World Without Heroes,"
and "Mr. Blackwell."
-"Dark
Light" was originally titled "Don't Run" and had different
lyrics.
-
"A World Without Heroes" was originally titled "Every Little
Bit of Your Heart."
-"Only
Yo"u was originally performed as Eskimo Sun by Wicked Lester around 1970,
and was a love song.
-
The stage show for The Elder was to be very elaborate, featuring the band
as Keepers of the Light of Truth, protecting a damsel in distress with a freeze
gun in a three-act play. KISS was going Broadway, but alas it never
came to be. The entire tour was scraped because of poor album sales.
-
Two videos were produced for the album: "A World Without Heroes"
and "I."
-The
only live performance of material from The Elder was on the Friday show on
January 15, 1982 as KISS played The Oath, I, and A World Without Heroes. Rumor
has it that W.A.S.P.'s Blackie Lawless
was in the audience (as a fan) for KISS' appearance on the Friday show.
-
An appearance on January 28, 1982 at Studio 54 in New York City is significant
because Ace did not perform with the band. He was home sick with "stomach
problems". It was later revealed that Ace's unhappiness had
been driven to the point of not even wanting to appear with KISS any longer.
- Eric Carr would receive songwriting credit on "Escape From The Island"
and "Under The Rose."
-Talk
of removing the make-up was first brought up during the making of The Elder.
-The
Elder peaked at a new low for the band on Billboard's album charts--# 75.
-The
1997 Remasters series features the track listing that the band originally
wanted:
1. "Fanfare" (1:21)
2. "Just a Boy" (2:25)
3. "Odyssey" (5:36)
4. "Only You" (4:17)
5. "Under the Rose" (4:51)
6. "Dark Light" (4:18)
7. "World without Heroes" (2:40)
8. "Oath" (4:31)
9. "Mr. Blackwell" (4:52)
10. "Escape from the Island" -instrumental (2:52 )
11. "I" (5:03)
One listen and you can see that the album is more cohesive this
way. Also of note, the remastered CD has a lot of dialogue and background
sounds that were previously inaudible. The artwork on the cover, unlike some
of the earlier albums, is poorly reproduced.