#Roland Rockover

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Ace's Solos Vol. 4 - X-Ray Eyes

X-Ray Eyes actually does little other than pick up where Almost Human left off on Love Gun, which is even more true of Ace's wonderfully noisy solo. So kudos to Vini Poncia for recognizing this conciseness as a necessity for the Kiss identity and elevating it on Dynasty to a tradition. And what awaits us this time is nothing less than the acoustic equivalent of the presumably entire fulfilled life of a passionate and devoted steel locksmith, which runs through his mind in just a few seconds before he passes on to the next world with a satisfied smile in his face.

Ace can sometimes be so sensitive and compassionate that it almost brings tears to my eyes. That, dear people, is true poetry.

X-Ray Eyes (1979)

#Kiss #Ace Frehley #Gene Simmons #X-Ray Eyes #Dynasty #1979 #Guitar Solo #Almost Human #Love Gun #1977 #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Cover It Up Vol. 1 - Kissin' Time

To be honest, I've never consciously listened to Bobby Rydell's original before in my life, and Kiss' version was also much more the focus of my ignorance than my appreciation during the longest period of my fan existence. That's what I call a great prerequisite for a completely objective examination of these two more or less wonderful songs. Or not?

But over the past few months, especially since I'm writing this blog, I've turned more and more to the probably rather unloved Kiss songs in the band's catalog (1), and so, of course, I've also got involved to Kiss' Kissin' Time from time to time. And what else can I say, to my great surprise, I'm even somehow into it.

In direct comparison to the '59 version, I would emphasize the '74's radical heaviness, especially in the verses. The catchy vocal melody remains from the original, all the rest has given way to a sometimes almost uncompromisingly boisterously hard rock rearrangement. With an attitude that I would have hoped for on Then She Kissed Me or Any Way You Want It, for example.

But despite my newly developed fondness for this mercilessly underrated Kiss song, I can't recognize much more in it than the bastard son from the debut album and Hotter Than Hell, which doesn't really want to find its home on either album. Not even with a more than halfway successful classic Ace solo in it.

But that shouldn't matter, because Kiss' Kissin' Time has found a new and permanent home in my heart anyway.

Side Note:

(1) Fancy I Finally Found My Place or Nothing Can Keep Me From You? I can help you with that.

Kissin' Time (1974)

Kissin' Time (1959)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Gene Simmons #Peter Criss #Bobby Rydell #1974 #1959 #Debut Album #We Got Love #Ace Solo #Ace Frehley #Roland Rockover #Cover It Up #Youtube

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Reprise Vol. 4 - War Machine & Not For the Innocent

War Machine is hitting the shit a lot harder than just about any other Kiss song before. Not only musically, because of its straight but brute heaviness, but most certainly to the same degree lyrically as well.

These more or less give free rein to a fantasy of violence lead by a call for regency of the fist over society, if of necessity, then even by pure forceful breaking the laws of nature in two. Demons or whatever merely make it in as a side note, but only to demonstrate the pure wickedness of the non-demonic spokesman of this song, who gets pure satisfaction by calling for the release of all demons, and finds pleasure in the midst of the chaos he creates.

So, someone please tell me that this is not hard stuff.

You could ask yourself if this could be a foreshadowing of a planned removal of the make-up for the release of Creatures of the Night, considering that War Machine's title character is only human, and not a demon or anything similar, thus demonstrating that this human protagonist of War Machine, a possibly unmasked Gene, is quite capable of not only competing with demons, but even being superior to them in pure attitude (1). If this were indeed the case, I would find it rather regrettable not to have been true to this line in the following years.

Apart from Lick It Up, of course.

If you wanted it that way you could include Not for the Innocent (2) in this attitude scheme, and more than just the attempt to express that one is dealing with really bad guys here. The world in which we move here is primarily concerned with the law of the jungle in an anarchic world from which there is no escape, because apparently no one is left to protect the innocent from the beasts on the loose. If Kiss were universe-building in their lyrics, one could assume this and the apocalyptic theme of the Lick it up videos was as a direct consequence of the intended world overthrow out of War Machine (3).

This concept would have at least provided a real opportunity for Gene to have a contemporary tough persona for himself during the unmasked era that he could have stayed true to. But I guess that new revolution just didn't work (4) .

And Asylum and that colorful drag were a pretty good concept, too.

Side Note:

(1) After all, War Machine was the legitimate God of Thunder of the 80s for unmasked Kiss.

(2) All Hell's Breakin' Loose, And on the 8th Day, Young and Wasted and whatever from Lick It Up also fitted in perfectly.

(3) Incidentally, the substantially longer original entry from which some of these words originate can be found right here.

(4) The apocalyptic theme at least made it onto the back cover of Animalize, but that was it.

War Machine (1982)

Not For the Innocent (1983)

#Kiss #Gene Simmons #Bryan Adams #Jim Vallance #Vinnie Vincent #War Machine #Not For the Innocent #Creatures of the Night #Lick It Up #Michael James Jackson #All Hell's Breakin' Loose #And on the 8th Day #Young and Wasted #1982 #1983 #Demon #Asylum #God of Thunder #80's #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Progression of a Riff (6 of 9)

For me the clearest repetition from the extended motif, but equally clearly also the heaviest. We are still in the realm of variation. I don't know if Eric Carr sat down, studied Kiss' old songs, and set himself the goal of composing a song that the band would accept, or if it just bubbled out of him (1) . Anyway, since I heard and saw it for the first time in a German music show ("Bananas") in ca 1984, it has become and remains one of my favorite Kiss songs today.

Side Note:

(1) Yes, I know, Eric had imagined the song a little differently. If there was such a thing as a demo, I would be the first to put it at the forefront here.

All Hell's Breakin' Loose (1983)

#Youtube #Kiss #All Hell's Breakin' Loose #Eric Carr #Vinnie Vincent #Lick It Up #1983 #Roland Rockover

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Only the Lonely

In the past, sometime in the 17th or 18th century, there were the alchemists who were known above all for trying in vain to transform lead into its neighboring element, gold. Modern science, on the other hand, has shown that at least one particle accelerator is needed to achieve what the alchemists labored to no purpose for years to achieve, whereas in Greek mythology, King Midas only needed a touch of the hand.

I can't say for sure what exactly happens when Gene touches something with his hand, nor can I say for sure whether he is in possession of a particle accelerator, nor whether you need one to achieve the opposite, namely to turn gold into lead. The only thing I can say for certain is that he has managed this special trick more than once, apparently effortlessly.

Oh, it's about Animalize again today, you're probably wondering. That's right, it's once again about Animalize, but also a bit about The Elder. And for that, I think we're more than happy to take another, different look at Only You's standout middle part, which I've already drawn a parallel to a very specific song on Creatures of the Night in a previous entry.

And to fulfill the more unpleasant part of our duty, we'd rather do the same with Lonely Is the Hunter and its rather less shiny middle section. If you don't notice any similarities straight away, I can only recommend setting the Only You Player to triple speed. After that, it should be like scales falling from your eyes.

When you click on the links, they don't turn into gold, but at least they start exactly at the points discussed above. That's quite something:

Only You (1981)

Lonely Is the Hunter (1984)

#Kiss #Gene Simmons #Lonely is the Hunter #Only You #Animalize #Music from The Elder #1984 #1981 #Paul Stanley #Michael James Jackson #Bob Ezrin #17th Century #18th Century #Alchemist #King Midas #Greek Mythology #Particle Accelerator #Creatures of the Night #Roland Rockover #Gold #Lead #Youtube

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Power of the And

80's movies week continues (Two-In-One Edition).

To stay true to Sword and Stone's soundtrack references, I can't resist throwing another OST this time from 1986, taken from the Gremlins riff Critters, into the cheerful movie round not without its raison d'être.

The simple, but by no means bad, contemporary and extremely catchy pop-rock earworm that we are talking about here doesn't really exist outside its own movie universe, but comes along with its own music video which is more or less interwoven into the plot of the movie and is therefore played often enough not to be forgotten so quickly. And what can I mean by that other than Power of the Night by Johnny Steele?

There is this small but succinct passage in Power of the Night, in which the last line of the chorus is melodically and dramatically prolonged, only for the last two words to be delivered with exaggerated masculine determination. The exact same description would also apply to a certain part in Sword and Stone.

(...)

Interestingly, Power of the Night's verse lyrics are not entirely unrelated to those of Gene's While the City Sleeps on Animalize, to put it mildly. But this is probably due to the fact that both While the City Sleeps and Power of the Night know how to make the best use of pseudo-dramatic clichés that would do a ham actor a credit.

In the process, when two stereotypically composed songs collide, something like this can surely happen, but, admittedly, I still like Johnny Steele's much better.

All links are highlighted:

Sword and Stone (1986)

Power of the Night (1986)

While the City Sleeps (1984)

Power of the Night (1986)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Bruce Kulick #Desmond Child #Sword and Stone #1986 #Critters #Johnny Steele #Terrence Mann #Stephen Ferek #Power of the Night #Gene Simmons #While the City Sleeps #Animalize #1984 #Mitch Weissmann #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Paul and the Cheese Drama Pt. 1 of 5

In some ways, you could say that Tonight You Belong to Me represents the beginning of what I call the cheese in Paul's voice, and in his songwriting. Aside from the fact that I consider this song to be one of his best, I really think there couldn't possibly be more schmaltz, pathos, or cheese in the verses. But hey, if you want to get to the sweet fruit, you have to bite through the indigestible shell first, don't you? Ok. Then we better get started, but I warn you, it remains only with the shell in this case. I imagine Paul standing in front of the woman from the song we're talking about here. Of course, with one hand on his heart and the other gesticulating like a suffering poet trying to explain himself, and really hitting the shit out of it. After all, this lady is supposed to be his for the night, no matter how things look for both of them during the day. That would make him pretty much the nemesis of any married man, or at least of any man in a relationship.

2.5 out of 5 cheese points.

Just press play and let this cheese fly around your ears:

Tonight You Belong to Me (1978)

Let's move on to defendant number two. Also a fan favorite and coincidentally yet again not one of his worst songs, which I learned to appreciate quite late: A Million to One. The reason for the delayed appreciation? The cheese, the schmaltz and the over-the-top pathos in the verses. That comes along in this case with some extra Bayyy-beah's in the form of fistfuls of gluey sugar-honey syrup drops poured viscously on top of the cheese. I tell you, no matter how good it is with the health of the listener of these lines, after that one would be better served with a proper dose of insulin. But that is by no means the only thing they have in common. If the verses of these two songs were to visit the same club separately, you can bet they would be permanently confused with each other. You don't believe that? Listen to it yourself!

3 out of 5 cheese points.

Just press cheese and let the play fly around your ears:

A Million to One (1983)

Paul and the Cheese Drama Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 & Part 5.

#Paul Stanley #Solo Album #1978 #Bob Kulick #Tonight You Belong To Me #Cheese #Schmaltz #Pathos #Kiss #Lick It Up #1983 #A Million To One #Vinnie Vincent #Eric Carr #Sugar #Honey #Syrup #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Flaming Gin

This one I can only categorize as extraordinary or remarkable, or perhaps even extraordinarily remarkable, if only because I still have no idea about the origins of the phenomenon about which I may readily write a few words. But as you might guess, the less you know about the background, the more fun it is to write.

Of course, I think it would be appropriate to once again mention my acquired knowledge from another attentive Kiss fan at this point, which I intend to rely on a little today. It said that the opening riff of Flaming You was merely an enhanced version of the opening and main riff of Cold Gin. I can't really argue much with that, except that this statement must also be an enhanced version of the matter, at least as I see it.

I think it would be more accurate to call Flaming Youth's riff a regression rather than a further development, or literally a mirror image of Cold Gin's. And by that I don't mean this as running backwards, like a record that you let run backwards in order to possibly read some nonsense out of it, but rather to take the single chords from Cold Gin and let them result in a new riff more or less in reverse order, namely that of Flaming Youth.

Unfortunately, to my great regret, this is not so much an isolated case in Kisstory, but I feel unable to even remotely guess whether this was done out of pure congenial intent or whether it was just a clumsy coincidence.

The only idea I can't get out of my head is that of Ace's well documented, rather limited work ethic in the making of Destroyer, and how he must have been having fun at the poker table with his friends.

Flaming Youth (1976)

Cold Gin (1974)

#Kiss #Ace Frehley #Paul Stanley #Gene Simmons #Bob Ezrin #Destroyer #1976 #Debut #1974 #Kenny Kerner #Richie Wise #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Communication Glove

Actually, I had planned to write about elephants again, but because it can't always go on like this whenever I have something to write about Fits Like a Glove, I've decided to just let it go with the elephants. I would like to ask all elephant fans for their understanding.

So let's forget about the elephants.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy, because the passage in Fits Like a Glove I'm talking about today sounds not unlike an elephant, or rather an elephant blessed with an overlong trunk, which people in the pedestrian zone step on as they walk past and whose sounds of pain are painfully suppressed, causing it to slowly get into serious trouble.

Do you know which part I mean? Of course this Well It Must Be Love, It Must Be Love, this crooked bridge to the legendary scream refrain. Or was that already the refrain? Be that as it may, coincidentally, the guitar refrain of Led Zeppelin's Communication Breakdown sounds more or less identical.

Only a little less like an elephant with a blocked trunk who tries to sneeze, but just as urgent.

Fits Like a Glove (1983)

Communication Breakdown (1969)

#Kiss #Gene Simmons #John Bonham #John Paul Jones #Jimmy Page #Fits Like a Glove #Communication Breakdown #1983 #1969 #Led Zeppelin #Elephant #Lick It Up #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Beth²

Oh, Beth, What I Can Do?

I believe that it is this little line that forms the crux of my chosen matter today and, to my ears, gets to the heart of my concerns most clearly.

Based on the fact that it is precisely the casually carefree simplicity of a Peter Criss, carried by the timbre of his rough but nonetheless emotional voice, that makes the song, and is also carried by an orchestra that ensures his very own little vocal melody the necessary confirmation and self-worth to be able to fully unfold in its nakedness.

I guess that Eric Carr certainly didn't have that kind of advantage. On the contrary, we can certainly assume that the opposite value is conducive to unfavorability. In other words, the boss is causing stress and the employee has unfortunately lost out. I see it as something like trying to compensate for love with professionalism, which would only be possible if the recipient were unable to recognize love or differentiate it from anything else.

And since I consider Eric Carr to be the better singer overall, of course, I can only explain his failure on this lyric line, far from any lightness and filled with too much artificial all-american pathos, by going exclusively with my gut feeling. And this clearly suggests to me that Eric had to try to do something that didn't come from his heart, and that this must have been just the best result of a series of attempts, all of which must have led in the wrong direction, and that in the end they settled for this compromise. But that's nothing new, is it?

I still wanted to be able to understand the whole thing emotionally through the music alone.

Side Note:

(1) What is it actually? A bridge or the chorus? Or even both?

Beth (1976)

Beth (1988)

#Kiss #Peter Criss #Eric Carr #Beth #Destroyer #1976 #Smashes Thrashes & Hits #1988 #Bob Ezrin #Stan Penridge #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Reprise Vol. 3 - All Hell's Breakin' Loose (1)

Here we have one of my favorites that I'm convinced deserves a few more words than I've given it so far, and also quite long overdue.

When I had freely hypotized a while ago that Eric Carr might have written All Hell's Breakin' Loose with other, older Kiss songs in mind, because of its obvious similarities between certain Kiss riffs, I of course promptly got a well-meaning reminder that Eric's vision of the riff went in a completely different, Zeppelinesque direction than Gene and Vinnie but mostly Paul had ultimately bent it towards. One could now diligently ponder what exactly the riff written by Eric Carr sounded like, but since no demo or anything else has surfaced to date, I'd better save my hopes for the next life.

And that of course gives me the necessary incentive to concentrate on what I usually prefer to do, namely writing about what I can hear with my ears. And that works for me in a similar way to a Terminator, which can best be compared with its red light vision when it scans persons or objects and compares them with each other until it finds a match. And when I hear All Hell's Breakin' Loose, or just imagine it, I have several, with Torpedo Girl and Almost Human standing out most.

Translated into my language, this roughly means that the werewolf from Almost Human and the Torpedo Girl dated and fell in love, got married and had a child of love who fits the description Supermutant much better, because it was boosted with steroids from the Creatures of the Night stable and developed a fondness for hanging out on the streets at night with its supermutant friends and practicing rapping.

Apart from the rapping, could this be more klassik Kiss in any way? And except that the dick lyrics are still missing, but I personally think every once in a while it works quite well without them.

But better not spread the word, too much confusion.

Side Note:

(1) The title should actually be Almost All Human Girls Break Torpedos. In Hell, but since it's a reprise of an old entry, I've changed my mind. However, I didn't want to withhold this convulsively created construct from anyone.

The links are not highlighted, except for Torpedo Girl, which starts directly with its bass line, which is particularly important to me:

All Hell's Breakin' Loose (1983)

Torpedo Girl (1980)

Almost Human (1977)

#Kiss #Eric Carr #Paul Stanley #Gene Simmons #Vinnie Vincent #Ace Frehley #Vini Poncia #Michael James Jackson #Eddie Kramer #All Hell's Breakin' Loose #Torpedo Girl #Almost Human #1983 #1980 #1977 #Terminator #Arnold Schwarzenegger #Creatures of the Night #1982 #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Anything for Shout It Out Loud

I think it is well known that Dressed to Kill was written and recorded in no time at all. That this is true for better part of the first six studio albums is not hard to imagine, but it is especially true for Dressed to Kill, and you can hear it. And yet there are still good songs and ideas on it, which have remained a landmark for the band's classic Kiss sound for decades. Crazy Nights, Carnival of Souls or Sonic Boom spontaneously come to mind as albums worth mentioning, just to spread it out colorfully over the decades. And somehow also Destroyer.

Well, sort of.

And since Sweet Pain and Love Her All I Can are a completely different story, let's just talk about Shout It Out Loud and Anything For My Baby today. And that concerns the first verse line of both songs, sung by Paul. The one of Shout It Out Loud is, of course, not at all dissimilar by chance, right up to the point where it takes the first exit and moves into direction super anthem. This is clearly less of a rip-off and more of something that is due to the over-accelerated songwriting and the resulting immaturity of the songs on Dressed to Kill.

Whether this one line must have been particularly close to his heart and he felt obliged to himself to make more of it, or whether it simply flowed out of his mouth spontaneously while composing with Gene and Bob Ezrin at the piano without much thought, is a matter of pure speculation. One thing, however, is quite certain, namely that they impressively managed to make a lot more out of it.

The magic of the early phase. You just have to love it.

Simply click on the highlighted links and dive in:

Anything For My Baby (1975)

Shout It Out Loud (1976)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Gene Simmons #Bob Ezrin #Neil Bogart #Anything For My Baby #Shout It Out Loud #Dressed to Kill #Destroyer #1975 #1976 #Crazy Nights #Carnival of Souls #Sonic Boom #1987 #1997 #2009 #Sweet Pain #Love Her All I Can #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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No Easy Come Down

80's movies week, still.

That little intro to When Your Walls Come Down always sounded to me like No Easy Way Out by John Tepper from the Rocky IV soundtrack (1). You know, from the sequence where Sylvester Stallone, quite agitated, races through the streets in his Lamborghini Jalpa 3500 and reflects in a wonderful video montage deeply about the past.

There was also this little middle sequence in which he apparently finds himself in a certain limbo for a few moments after this strainful rollercoaster of emotions, accompanied by this with that catchy playful echo picking, or whatever real musicians call it (2).

No matter how far-fetched this may sound, I know this stylistic device was already popularized at the time by Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979), but also, and lo and behold, by Survivor's Eye of the Tiger (1982) for a presumably even wider audience, which gives us the second accurate reference to a Rocky movie. Add Sword and Stone's more than coincidental similarities to Survivor's Burning Heart from the Rocky IV soundtrack, and I think with probabability itself I've gained a loyal ally on my side.

And I'm not even mentioning the similarity in meaning between the two song titles, if you just think about it in a broader context.

Side Note:

(1) Let's all be honest for a moment, it can't be that I'm the only person on this planet who has thought this thought for the past 30 years and more? Isn't it terrible to have a notion in your head over such a long period of time while listening to a particular piece of music and never ever pronounce it?

(2) I have no idea what it's called, I do make music occasionally and play one instrument or another, but I'm pretty sure I'm a lifetime away from being able to call myself a musician.

Highlighted links should be as natural as Rocky's swollen eyes after a fight:

When Your Walls Come Down (1987)

No Easy Way Out (1985)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Adam Mitchell #Bruce Kulick #When Your Walls Come Down #Crazy Nights #1987 #Ron Nevison #Robert Tepper #No Easy Way Out #Rocky IV #Rocky IV OST #1985 #Pink Floyd #Another Brick in the Wall #1979 #Survivor #Eye of the Tiger #1982 #Rocky III #Picking #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Poiser

And the 80's movies week enters its third round.

Today with the Dudes of Wrath. For those Kiss fans still unfamiliar with the Dudes of Wrath, let me tell you that they were an all-star band, or rather a buddy project between Paul Stanley, Desmond Child and Jean Beauvoir, who were joined by a few other not unillustrious names within the hard rock scene to record the theme song for the latest, lively Wes Craven horror film at the time (1).

Which unfortunately flopped, and therefore did not quite live up to expectations as the successor to Freddy Krueger and the A Nightmare on Elm Street series associated with it. And somehow this also applies to its title track, despite hit guarantor Desmond Child. And despite Shocker's undeniable proximity to Alice Cooper's Poison from the latter's mega-seller Trash, on which Desmond famously had nine of his ten fingers in the pie.

Just compare the verses and choruses of both songs without obligation and in a relaxed manner. And perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to also listen to Alice's Spark in the Dark afterwards.

Side Note:

(1) Who would have wanted to miss such an opportunity? Even Vinnie Vincent was once on board one year earlier for The Dream Master soundtrack in '88.

Shocker (1989)

Poison (1989)

Spark in the Dark (1989)

#Dudes of Wrath #Desmond Child #Paul Stanley #Jean Beauvior #Alice Cooper #Shocker #Poison #1989 #OST #Trash #Wes Craven #Horace Pinker #Mitch Pileggi #Roland Rockover #Freddy Krueger #A Nightmare on Elm Street #Youtube #The Dream Master #Vinnie Vincent Invasion #1988

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Paul's Balls-in-the-Zipper Voice Pt. 3 of 10

Even if Heaven's on Fire's yodel intro was, as we know, only a small vocal exercise before the actual recordings, it does a wonderful job of getting you in the mood for what's to come.

I am of course talking about Paul's squeaky loudmouth voice, which in his defense could be considered essential in the hard rock and metal scene in the 80s, and therefore not fundamentally bad, but just the norm of the time. And with Paul Stanley, Kiss did much better, sonically speaking, to have him in the band than, for example, Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil, whose peak performance consists more or less of creating the timbre of a laughing bag caught in the constant spin cycle of a broken washing machine. Just to establish a relation.

In fact, I see Animalize as an important stage, or even a milestone, in Paul's ongoing climb to establish the retread of his own vocal identity. And we mustn't forget that he was working on several fronts at that time.

Heaven's on Fire represents a kind of middle ground in this case, and keeps the high-pitched revelations of the new Paul relatively in check, but when it does, it does so all the more, while at the same time keeping his old, classic 70's voice under control better than ever. But the pressure with which Paul virtually squeezes out the bridges, no matter how uncomplex the musical material, is unparalleled, and despite all my mockery, he must be given credit to a not too small extent. This key naturally continues unperturbed in the refrain, where it is supported by a multitude of other vocal registers to form a simple and dynamically harmonious sound of a perfectly saturated rainbow. It's simply everything you could wish for and borders on perfection. Possibly Kiss' best chorus, or probably their best produced chorus of the 80s. Live they never even came close to the studio version.

But you Can’t Always Get What You Want (1)

Side Note:

(1) That fits perfectly, because the upcoming episode of Paul's Balls-in-the-Zipper Voice will be all about Get All You Can Take.

Heaven's on Fire (1984)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Desmond Child #Heaven's on Fire #Animalize #Gene Simmons #Michael James Jackson #Vince Neil #Mötley Crüe #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Blackin' the Void Well

I can't say for sure whether Kiss had a master plan to do everything in their power to give Psycho Circus a proper The Elder touch, only that quite a few clues could give that impression to no small degree.

And I don't know if Gene could have possibly foisted some old vocal verses on Ace, or if it was just a little Fuck You from Ace himself that he smuggled in because he wasn't exactly happy with the process of recording Psycho Circus. Whether these are just figments of my imagination or whether one of these little scenarios could possibly have taken place will probably remain a mystery forever.

After all, I only suspect this because once you notice that Mr. Blackwell and Into the Void inextricably share almost identical vocal verses, then such guesses inevitably and almost automatically arise. What makes Into the Void the fourth notch on Psycho Circus's Elder tally stick, thus Psycho Circus takes the leading position of all Kiss albums with Elder references. At least as far as I can see.

The only thing that is certain to me is that, no matter how the stars may have aligned for Kiss with Psycho Circus, it seems that all roads must have always led them to The Elder.

Kis(s)met?

And like a star in the dark night, I have illuminated your way to the verses and highlighted both links.

Into the Void (1998)

Mr. Blackwell (1981)

#Kiss #Ace Frehley #Karl Cochran #Bruce Fairbairn #Gene Simmons #Lou Reed #Bob Ezrin #Into the Void #Mr. Blackwell #1998 #1981 #Psycho Circus #Music from The Elder #Roland Rockover #Reunion #Youtube