Odyssey: The definitive examination of "Music From The Elder," KISS' cult-classic concept album

This is a really great in depth look into the most bizarre album in the KISS catalog. Some fans love this album, some hate it. Musically it's the most diverse thing they ever did. But it was so out of the realm of what was expected from this band that it fell on deaf ears. There are some amazing interviews with all sorts of people who had a hand in the making, recording and promoting of this album. I personally enjoy this album very much but, at the time, I wish they didn't make it. It was the straw that broke the camels back for Ace Frehley and he left the band soon after. The book is filled with great stories that may have never been known to KISS fans before. It was an intriguing, tumultuous time in the bands history and this book covers it pretty well. My only complaint, and it's more of an observation, is that the band members themselves were not interviewed. An Ace Frehley interview solely about this album would have put this over the top for me. Gene & Paul would have been great but they say the same stuff over and over again anyway. Plus the Bob Ezrin interview desperately needed to be longer and more in depth. However it ends in classic Ezrin fashion. I would say you would need to be a fan of KISS to buy this book, not necessarily a fan of the album. If you were fan and alive through all this in 1981/82 then this book is a must have. It is the perfect companion to an album that was confusing as hell back then.

So, this album to me was of course a huge departure for Kiss, but a masterpiece in my mind. I got it for Christmas by my Aunt and was enthralled by the cover, the sound, and the new band images. Of course, it is no Love Gun, nor Alive (my first two Kiss albums) but it still was an instant classic in my mind. I was at the tender age of 9 when I got it and it made a lasting impression. So much has been said about it, mostly negative, however I still prefer to listen to it over Asylum, Animalize, or Crazy Nights. With that said the book was insightful and full of details I wasn’t aware of. The bad part of the book is its monotony, repetition of the same anecdotes over and over again. The author did a good job really investigating the thought processes and interviewing the cast of characters who aided in the recording process, marketing, and the development of the script that was never made. Let’s hope that someday we get to have a remastered version with that dialogue that was omitted, some of Ace’s outtakes, and the original demoes!

This book goes deep, deep, deep down the "Elder" rabbit hole and I loved every page of this book.The amount of research that was done for this book is amazing, I thought I knew everything there was to know, I was wrong.In the interviews section he even spoke to the guy that built the door pictured on the album cover(!!!), its harder to get much deeper down the rabbit hole than that.I was and still am a huge fan of KISS' most misunderstood album. People/fans have a pre-conceived notion about KISS and what their music sounds like, and unfortunately for KISS "The Elder" wasn't it. One passage from the book pretty much says it all "Recorded under very difficult circumstances by a band in the midst of an identity crisis...."My only complaint about the album is that Ace was pretty much AWOL for this one but he was against doing this album from the beginning.To quote one reviewer  "it's hard to take anything very seriously from four grown men with painted faces and weird costumes"Maybe one day Paul and Gene will release a true collectors expanded edition of The Elder including all the spoken word dialog AND Ace's missing guitar solos orginally recorded for the album.

Clearly, the authors have done the deepest dive possible into the lost masterpiece/piece of junk “The Elder” by KISS. If you’re reading this review, you probably have a good working knowledge of what happened with that ill fated album. I’ll focus on the book, then. This is probably as much information as we’ll ever see on “The Elder” in one place. That said, the book mainly consists by of interviews with the major and minor players (with the notable exception of the members of KISS themselves), and there is lots of repetition. So much so, that the same question is asked over and over to different people, often with very little new information forthcoming. The amount of passion the authors put into the book is clear, though, and for a KISS fan (and I am a fan of both the band and the album), there is some priceless stuff in here.

There was a phenomenal amount of research that went into this book. It is clearly written from a hardcore fan's point-of-view, with an emphasis on leaving no detail out. In reading this tome I relived lots of personal memories from the time, good and bad, I enjoyed it very much. My only pet-peeve is that like all other 'not-so-authorized' biographies it sorely lacks pictures and photos. Some of the photocopy/reproduction stills are near impossible to see clearly, let alone read. I will say the book does not go lightly on some of the darker aspects of the production of 'the Elder' and rightfully so. Perhaps to make this book a more palatable read, the author may want to consider more condensed future editions.

Awesome insight into a great album that unfortunately almost ended the KISS legacy. It was weird when it came out but if you listen to the songs in the intended order you get it and this even delves deeper. Maybe they will make a movie and do it right. It could use some updating but it might just work.

If you bought the album when it first came out and read the music mags of the day (Kerrang was my bible back in the day!) then you will not learn very much more from this. I hoped so much that this was going to be a great read but found it boring, repetitive and patronising. I really struggled to get to the end. They really scraped the bottom of the barrel of people they interviewed and some of the chapters where absolutely nothing to with the album!! Got the Kindle version which was quite expensive for a digital book. Wished I bought something else now. Avoid!

I first heard the Elder not long after it came out and as I was not at that point a big fan of the band (that would change) I took it as I found it.I really enjoyed the album and only later discovered how much it really divided the fans and indeed the band. It has developed its own cult following and if you are one of those fans then this is the book for you. It covers the recording and interviews just about everyone who was involved, even the guy who made the prop door on the cover. Its interesting to read the plans the band had for the Elder tour that never was. Elaborate stage sets, inflatable monsters etc. Its this that got me thinking about whether Kiss did completely lost the plot on this album or given that 1980s rock and metal became full of quasi concept albums and extravagant stage shows (Dio, Maiden etc) were they way ahead of their time................

A great book on the most controversial KISS album they recorded full of interviews with people directly involved in the recording.The authors have carried on with the great books they wrote on the band.

Delighted to have found this and it answers so many of the questions I’ve had for the last 38 years.

Great