Notes:

"I'm the Mad Rock Promoter! Unlike other one-shot Kiss villains I will destroy Kiss once and for all! I just need you to set it up on the Colorforms board!" I have a theory about this Dracula meets Vulcan bad guy, and he may briefly turn up in Easy Catman, They are Serious: The Complete Guide to Kiss Meets the Phantom.

Happy summer 2001. I hope all of you are making inroads nursing your various psychoses that may have developed from some of the recent business actions taken by our heroes.

Kiss has always been intended as a great escape, but as we (meaning their main contingent of fans, age 25 or so to 40) have gotten older, we tend to keep peaking at the guy behind the curtain, and sometimes it ruins all the fun.

When you get mad about the Peter thing, the kasket, the rhinestone pattern on Paul's farewell costume, etc. just do what I do: dive into Kisstory and forget about the behind the scenes stuff. I always go (cue up Paul's "Time Traveler" demo here, which really had nothing to do with sci-fi) to 1978, and adopt the perspective of a kid just takin' it all in ­ and figuring out how to stretch out his allowance. That calendar year, there were not one, two, but five new albums (Double Platinum has always been a must for its packaging); the broken-in Love Gun costumes that Kiss looked good in and those odd solo album photo session variations (Ace in the silver jumpsuit, Paul in the two-tone pants, etc.); interesting toys and merchandise, like the Mego dolls and the second Marvel comic. Then, there's the reason for my forthcoming book (man battle stations, plug-edo) Easy Catman, They are Serious: The Complete Guide to Kiss Meets the Phantom -- if Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park doesn't make you feel like you've left all reality behind, nothing will!

Sometimes, I even mentally wander into 1979, and end up thinking about that Rub 'N' Play set (sooner or later, I will cover that extensively ­ it needs to be done). Picking up on the above retroactive theme, this feature and some future editions together will comprise the (dare I say) Loaded Deck of Kiss Thought Vaults, a collection of mailings from you combined with my replies.

Please note that this isn't going to be a bunch of "While the City Sleeps." This was a long time coming and deservedly so. Many of you have responded to earlier Vaults with tons of information and sometimes visuals, helping to clear up some longstanding Kiss issues (Kissues?) of mine and undoubtedly others. I've just been hanging on to a lot of e-mails for too long... if you sent me something like from when Crazy Nights was released, don't be surprised if it finally tosses and turns up.

Criss Correspondence
In response to: http://www.kissasylum.com/vault/issue7.html

I am a big Kiss fan and I was at Live Aid in Philadelphia. I do not remember Peter Criss performing there. Refresh my memory. I am sure I would have remembered that and so would have all the other people I was with.
Thomas C. Tretter

Ron Responds: Uh, are you putting me on? In the words of our fearless bat-winged face leader, "let me make this perfectly clear": Peter Criss didn't play at Live Aid. The introduction at the beginning of the Out of Control-themed Vault was purely fictitious, to make the point... that I'm a little obsessed?

By summer 1985, the Catman was living in relative obscurity, with occasional bouts of musical curiosity manifesting themselves firstly in the Criss-Penridge Alliance (now, that has to be a NATO-inspired name!) and the L.A-based (and cute-chick singer fronted) Balls of Fire.

Needless to say, neither of those two acts would make Bob Geldoff bump Led Zep, the human Charlie Brown (Phil Collins) or even Men at Work (their "Maria" was an odd choice, eh?) from the concert schedule.

Put on a piece of fake animal fur and follow me into a zebra-striped area of the Thought Vault for some more pure imagination: What if Kiss had performed at Live Aid? Though it may not have benefited starving third-world children, it would have served Kiss well and fed the world some great rock 'n' roll.

At the time, Gene, Paul, Eric and Bruce were in fine live form (I was at the last show of the Animalize tour at the Meadowlands in New Jersey in late March of '85, and it was just awesome).

Their playing was tight and energetic (in a good way; sloppiness would creep up around the second leg of the Asylum tour and remain in effect through the U.S. Crazy Nights run).

In addition, "Heaven's on Fire," a fair amount of press and even the release of Animalize Live and Uncensored were keeping the band in the public eye. Kiss may not have had the highest media profile or biggest sales, but they were decidedly on the upswing, and their name still carried a certain international cache that the then-current band could have lived up to. A two or three song set ­ say "Heaven's...," "Detroit Rock City" and of course the "rock 'n' roll national anthem," would have undoubtedly made the band a surprise highlight of the event.

It's surprising that the Kiss Company didn't actively pursue being a part of Live Aid. Who knows? Maybe they did, and the usual industry bias against the group proved insurmountable. Perhaps Gene and Paul wanted to steer clear of Live Aid and its loose political ramifications, though they would presumably suspend their personal feelings to advance Kiss. Being holed up in Electric Lady preparing Asylum may have precluded participation, but again, schedules could have been massaged for such an opportunity.

After all, Paul managed to attend the show, as mentioned in CK Lendt's Kiss and Sell.

Also, MTV interviewed him (when he was stuck outside, waiting to get in?), and he spoke about Kiss' forthcoming album. It was made into a quick clip, which was briefly used for music news updates.

Paul looked cool, tanned and wearing wrap-around shades (think Bon Jovi) and a turquoise (think Miami Vice) tank top (the shot was from the waist up). He rambled through the following:

"The next album is real good, it's called Asylum. It's a lot better than the last album, which I thought was better than the one before it, so this one should be amazing."

I may off by a syllable or two (I have lost my taped copy) but it was that silly.

The following two mails are related to the "Touching on the Criss Crisis" Thought Vault, found at: http://www.kissasylum.com/vault/issue14.html

Voice Over Cat
I thoroughly enjoyed your comments on Peter and Eric and I agree with you. I tend to like Eric Singer a little more than you do, but I absolutely agree regarding Peter's style. Peter may not be the best drummer in the world, or even in Kiss for that matter, but he was the sound of Kiss. I did the narration for the Eric Carr story for Jack Sawyers and have always speculated what would have happened if Eric Carr hadn't died, in reference to the reunion and such.I think Peter deserves a lot of credit for giving Kiss it's soul and hope to see him when they take their final bow in America.
Jim Romanovich

Ron Responds: "The sound of Kiss," or more specifically, the sound of Criss, is something that has been chronically underrated. I'll never stop telling this to everyone, either. Someday hostile Neptunians may capture me and just before they banish me to a penal colony on Despina, one of Neptune's moons, my last words will be, "Peter's drumming was the great unsung part of the classic Kiss sound."

His snare pop and high-hat work from Kiss through Peter Criss gave Kiss' music a bounce and bop that kept much of it from plodding along. Gene and Paul may not realize it (or hate to admit it), but much of their 1970's material was best served by Peter's drumming style. "See You in Your Dreams" would not have worked with double bass, triplets and other forms of forced bombast. Plus, I don't think the guy ever really thought out his parts, he just "felt" them. I think that almost everything on Hotter than Hell was improvised, whereas if Eric Singer had done the original studio track to "Watchin' You," he would have charted triplets right before every one of Gene's "oooooohhhhhs," which are numerous: celebrate the fact with me that the business-lizard could always bend and put more meaning into a vowel (in this case it's phonetically "u") like no other singer.

It certainly looks as though Peter is gone for good from the Kiss fold, though I hope I am in gross error.

A walk-on goodbye from him, or something, is in order ­ if only to spare millions of us extended family therapy.

Speaking of film, someone should do an editing thing where they take Eric footage from the 1980 Aussie tour or even Animalize Live and Uncensored, and cut it into some pro-shot stuff from the reunion. It would be interesting (and yes, strange) to splice together the Fox's intensity with Kiss' 1996 energy. Jim, you have voiced yourself well ­ occasionally on DVD.

Here's Paul from the 1979 Colorforms set, which of course was based on the 1977-'78 costumes. As such, I lump it in with the'78 merchandise onslaught. While everyone else's aura/power color was correct, Paul's aura/power color here was orange, the conjectured designated shade of Eric Carr (was it rust?).

Jake and the Catman
I have read all of your Thought Vaults and must say I enjoy them a great deal. With the Singer-in, Criss-out stunt that Gene and Paul pulled, I finally came to the conclusion that Gene will never understand why the band was successful. Kiss will always be Paul, Gene, Ace and Peter. Everything else is just filler. After Love Gun, Kiss turned into a band that tried to fit into every new fad. It was Peter's jazz background and Ace's love of classic rock that "made" Kiss' sound. Gene and Paul wrote solid songs and the four of them together as a band made good music. I have just begun learning the bass guitar and I have a much higher respect for Peter and his jazz background. I hope Gene gets his head out of his bank vault, and brings Peter in for the last big show.

Keep up the good work. I am looking forward to the...Phantom book. I have my copy of the...Phantom on VHS and will read your book while watching the movie.
Jake Campbell

Ron Responds: Jake, things did change after Love Gun, in terms of a further dissolution of the already-fickle brotherhood in the band. Still, I hold 1978 in particular high regard, since it really was just a carryover of '77, in terms of capitalizing on momentum generated the previous year.

The two years differ in that Love Gun Kiss was pretty much a straight-forward machine (read as: hamsters on a Holiday Inn wheel) whereas the following year, the band incorporated many new marketing tricks, branching out further into different and greasepaint-friendly avenues of entertainment. A sporadic touring itinerary (though impressive; that second sneak attack of Japan was cool) was augmented by (again) the toys, a second comic, getting thanked on Sean Delaney's Highway, the solo albums and of course, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.

I'm glad you're excited about the forthcoming Easy Catman, They are Serious: The Complete Guide to Kiss Meets the Phantom. The way you say you'll read it is exactly the way I hope many of you will. My book will be designed to enhance the Phantom viewing experience, and functioning as a true companion to the film.

It'll be your own talisman, providing you with viewing superpowers previously unavailable to ordinary human beings -- you'll see things in this film that you wouldn't otherwise, and now understand...

Understand that the park was just fine before Kiss appeared there... just fine with the Freddy the Fox exhibit... that a consistent and appropriate amount of Research and Development funds must be provided... That kids like apes that do the "herky jerky."

Yeah, there will be all sorts of wacky things in there too, like Sam's yearly salary as a Deveraux lackey, in 1978 and 2003 dollars. Only kidding... Continue to whet your appetite for Easy Catman, by reading my...Phantom diaries here on KISS ASYLUM beginning (probably) in late summer.

Ron Rambles: Here's a side note about Japan 1978: I have always wondered about this tour, mostly since it seems to be overshadowed by the group's first, high-profile Far East run. Barring the second all-Kiss issue of the Japanese Music Life and the megabucks-fetching tourbook, there has never been much coverage of this trip. Gene, Paul and the rest have never really spoken of this tour in detail.

The legendary Bill Aucoin generously gave me one of his business cards from the'70s, and I'm not even a member of Piper!

Upon meeting with Bill Aucoin this past March (for an Easy Catman... conversation, by the way) I seized the opportunity and inquired about the '78 Japan tour: How did it feel from the inside of the Kiss machine? Were any of the shows filmed?

Aucoin replied that from his vantage point, the tour was essentially an uneventful money grab of sorts, crammed into the beginning of an anticipated empire-building phase. The answer to one of everyone's $64,000 question about any concerts being committed to celluloid was essentially "I don't think so," followed by Bill making an allusion that the shows were slightly sub-par. I should have asked about the merchandising at the shows, as I've often wondered what kind of T-shirts were for sale. The Alive II tour one? Double Platinum ? (If you have one in size small or medium for sale, please e-mail me) That reminds me ­ could we technically call the early-1978 Kiss concerts as a whole the Double Platinum tour?

A Little Repeat on Repaint
Read my body at: http://www.kissasylum.com/vault/issue4.html

The Euro Animalize Stage is actually the Euro Unmasked stage, repainted and without the pyrotechnics. I've been there, and didn't notice it until I saw some good pictures of the European Unmasked Tour in the late '80s.
Danny Bonthuis

Ron Responds: That Vault in which I heavily discussed the European Animalize stage has curiously been receiving many hits -- two years after I wrote it! We Kiss fans love a good mystery, I suppose (why Eric Singer? Why Eric Singer?) -- But hey, I'm not complaining!

The stage is not only enigmatic for its usage (half a tour), but since it was a repaint of a fairly memorable stage that traveled through already had traveled through European countries: The Unmasked stage! Now, I know what you're thinking: that 1980 live environment was simply the '79 Dynasty set! Well yes, it was, but I think it was a replica - the shipping costs on that thing would be enormous! Then again, given those still-heady days of 1980, it is possible that the band did send their U.S. stage all over the world like it was a postcard.

Those fake dog/wolf heads on Eric's drums were a little lame, too. They looked about as ferocious as Gene did during that run ­ maybe he should have worn one during his solo.

I wanted to include some shots of the stage here, but I couldn't find the site that has them.

It just registered: You saw one of the Euro-Animalize shows? Lucky guy. Thanks for reading and writing, and giving me the chance to go off on another tangent.

Wait! This Euro-Animalize Thing Gets Stranger!
I've just read your article on the KISS ASYLUM site, regarding the puzzle of the European Animalize Stage set. Well, just to add confusion here, while I was at college, (1989-1992, Northbrook College of Art and Design, West Sussex, UK), taking a theatre design course, one of the tutors there (whose name was Malvern something) noticed a Kiss badge on my jacket. He casually mentioned, "Oh, I designed a stage for them a few years ago. I don't remember too much about it," he said, "but I remember it was all animal print." I assumed it was the European tour stage. He seemed genuine enough, like he was the last person you'd expect to pipe-up with a false claim.

The only other thing he could remember was "they used to break guitars up at the end of the show," and "I saw in the case they used to carry them in, they were all really top-quality instruments." That was all that he said about it.
Cheers,
Nathan (UK)

Ron Responds: Nathan, we have to find this guy. How many people do we know of (albeit vaguely) who painted a Kiss stage? Track him down, and tell him the Thought Vault is his canvas (sic) on which to share his painting tale. Did he use flat paint? Egg shell? Semi-gloss? We need to know. If you have a number or link to that university, I'll contact him.

Fun Tuning Talk About "Dirty Livin'"
The "mama, sister, brutha" to this mail: http://www.kissasylum.com/vault/issue11.html
About your "Dirty Livin'" thing: Did you mention how the F sharp chord in the chorus, which was minor in the demo version, was major in the Kiss version, with the vocal harmonies making it into F sharp 9? A jolly good point, don't you agree?

Ron Responds: Oh, okay. You're saying that the "Dirty..." demo was recorded in the key of E flat? For me, it's kind of hard to tell; the copy of the demo I have is quite the bootleg, in terms of not only sound quality, but also speed. But E flat would be a good guess, as it was the tuning de riguer for the group during the '70s, on record as well as live. I believe that around Dynasty, the band started recording songs for records in the key of E, which is standard tuning (I'd have to check the solo albums - off the top of my head, I'm certain that Paul's is in E flat, but I'm not sure about the others). A half step up from the E flat setting, this key would make things sound a little brighter, which is something that Kiss was certainly trying to do at the time. So in regard to "Dirty Livin'," not only was it recorded a couple of times, it was done in a couple of different keys! A jolly good point, indeed. Here's some more about tunings:

For those of you that don't know about guitar/bass tunings, I'll give you a couple of basics: E tuning is standard. What Kiss has done traditionally (i.e. throughout their career, any era, any lineup) is for concerts tune their instruments to E flat. By going down a half step (notes have sharps and flats), the band can sing a little easier, i.e. not worry as much about struggling to hit high notes.

Starting with Dynasty, Kiss pretty much steadily recorded in E through the '80s.

To my knowledge, except for Revenge or the embarrassing Carnival of Souls, the band has never recorded below E, in a D tuning or any silly settings like that. Some bands who are more artistic record in many different tunings; There's open G (for acoustic guitars, mostly), and others. But thankfully, Kiss has always stuck to the basics - and we've been spared an open G acoustic version of "Sweet Pain." Technically, Kiss has used a G tuning; In the past, Paul has employed something known as a capo (no, this doesn't mean the head of a Mafia crime family). Fastened to a fret, this device will make a guitar play in the key it is attached to. For example, on the Animalize tour, Paul would employ a capo during the lightning-speed "Creatures of the Night." Since during the verses he was simply chugging along (and they are in G), Paul was able to have one hand free to point with, to lower his mike stand, etc. He most recently used one during the reunion (and farewell?), for "Shandi."

As a side note, I must say that because of Paul's using of this thing for "Creatures..." (and, for no reason other than showmanship!) I ran out and bought one when I first bought a guitar back in '86. In fact, all of my friends did. We couldn't even play "Uh! All Night," but we all had our capos, at the ready.

Now, as for Tommy Thayer, I don't know if he's ever used one.

dah-nah-nah, dah-nah-nah, nah-nah-nah, naa-ah....

Remember Union? Here's something I have absolutely no recollection of writing: http://www.unionasylum.com/vault/issue1.shtml

Coming Next: Italian pinball, "Paul the Song Crasher," and more!

Your feedback is welcome, and always enjoyed. Send it to: ralbanese@webexpert.net