Music From the Elder is a rather unusual KISS album. It is either loved or hated by the hardcore fans, and ignored by most everyone else. I have always enjoyed it, though even in 1981 I wondered at the idea of a concept album from KISS. The band has mostly dismissed it, and I can understand why. It was not successful, despite being full of some good songs and a mostly coherent story. It did mark the end of the first KISS era, more or less, and it took until the late 90s to find out more about the creation of this album, and everything that was going on in the band at that time as well. I never thought much more about the recording, but after finding Conversations with Phantoms I was led to this book, which I also bought.
After the first couple pages I know I am going to enjoy this book. It is by Tim McPhate and Julian Gill. It has the history of the album- meaning how it was made, how it charted in various countries and even the proposed movie. There are tons of interviews, but of course, nothing from the band. The writers quote Gene and Paul (while citing sources, natch) and those are good. Context is always fun.
The reviews have said this is a book for fans of the album, since it is rather niche. It is still is a great time capsule from that period of music. The musical world was changing then, and KISS had gone eight years by then. I had read a music column where the writer had predicted KISS would be done making music by 1983. Oops.
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