Black Diamond: Excerpts
Excerpt from Chapter Four, "We'll Always Have Paris":
"Reflections on "The Elder'"

The band still had another crisis on its hands. "THE ELDER" album had barely managed to reach #56 on the charts before sliding quickly out of public view. By April it was well known that KISS needed to get back into the studio to work on a followup album that would help the band's image. Any future plans dealing with the film or albums dealing with the ELDER mythology, including performing songs in concert, were scrapped for good. And while fans have come around to appreciate the album, some even to the point as exclaiming that it was the best the band had ever produced over the years, it has led a tarnished life in the eyes of the two KISS members who were the most enthusiastic for its creation. In fact, and somewhat ironically, both Gene and Paul rated the album lower in retrospect than either Ace or Eric -- the two members who thought the album was a mistake to do. In GOLDMINE issue #345 (October 15, 1993, page 20 & 24) Gene gave MUSIC FROM "THE ELDER" zero stars (out of five possible), claiming: "As a bad GENESIS record I'd give it a two. There's just not enough songs on there and it's a bit pompous from the opening. We actually did that one for the critics." Paul went on to give the album a question mark instead of stars, claiming that the album might had deserved stars if it had been someone else's album. Ace, meanwhile, gave the album two stars, simply stating that it would have gotten more if his solos had not been tampered with.

Eric looked back at the album in 1990 in probably the most sincere terms out of the four who worked on it: "We never intended to release [MFTE] on CD, but the fans wanted it so we finally allowed them to release it. It's a really good album. My biggest objection to that album is that I don't think it sounded great. I think the sound is really flat and dead-sounding. If it was produced with a bright, crisp contemporary sound . . .if that album could be remixed and remastered -- I mean seriously, a couple of months to do it, not just a quick job -- I think it would sound phenomenal. My perception of the sound on that album doesn't equal the quality of the material on it."

As to the dismissal of all the other ELDER-related projects, Eric also honestly spoke of that time period: "What happened was that when DYNASTY came out, the music started getting poppish. I know a lot of the KISS fans were starting to get discouraged. 'What's happening to them?'

"The merchandising was getting bigger and bigger, they were being considered less and less of a rock band, and the music was getting poppier. So that scared things. When UNMASKED came out, they took it a step further. The fans were getting more discouraged, and the band was losing more fans. Then, of course, Peter leaves. 'Oh no! This is the end! The band's over.' That cost even more fans. And then the fans that did stick around, or the people that were curious if KISS was going to happen. . .if we had come back with CREATURES, all would have been fine again.

"'Holy Shit! The sky's better than ever, and the band's tougher than ever.' But we go and do 'THE ELDER', and if I were a long-time fan, I would have said, 'These guys have had it. What are they doing? That's the end of KISS! It's finished.'

"The recording of 'THE ELDER' . . .the way the whole thing was done -- it was not a pleasant experience. It's a great album. The problem was that I think it turned out exactly the way we wanted it to. That's the problem with it -- it's too good and too different."

As to performing any of the material live, the band had never even attempted to practice any of the songs for a possible slot on a tour. Gene absent-mindedly mentioned in one interview that "we just never got to the rehearsal stage with the material," while Eric looked at such talk was just a projection of what the band hoped for the album, and when it fell through nothing further was done with the material. Paul explained in more detail his feelings about performing the songs in concert to Ken Sharp in GOLDMINE #259 (June 29, 1990, page 20): "I like the album. It's always interesting to me if somebody says, 'Here's a guitar and play these songs or you're dead.' I'd probably be dead. I can't remember any of that music; it was real foreign to us. It was us pushing ourselves to be different. Once in a while we'd play some of that stuff and never make it four or five bars into it."