Happy Birthday to Eric Singer

Today, May 12th, I wanted to wish an happy birthday to Eric Singer, one of my favorite drummers ever.
He played drums for Gary Moore and in Black Sabbath in the late 1980s, then was part of Kiss' frontman Paul Stanley's solo band during his 1989 solo tour. In 1990/1991, he was the live drummer of Alice Cooper's group before joining Kiss in 1992 (picture) after Eric Carr's death in november 1991, a band he'll be part of until 1996 and the original line-up Reunion. In 1998, he reunites with Alice Cooper for the Rock N Roll Carnival Tour but quits to go tour with Queen's lead guitarist Brian May, only to work with the Coop' again in 2000 for the Brutal Planet album and tours. In 2001, he's back in Kiss as Peter Criss' replacement(and since then, he has worn the Catman make-up when performing in Kiss) but the original Catman would return in 2003 (though more because a 3rd original member next to Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley was required to make the projects of the band come true (concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (recorded and released as Symphony Alive IV) and co-headlining tour with Aerosmith) than because the 2 wanted him back). Since 2004, Eric Mensinger (that's his real name) has been part of both Alice Cooper's band and Kiss, though the masked foursome from New York is his priority and has been his main focus since 2008 with the Alive 35 Tour, the album Sonic Boom in 2009 (first brand new Kiss studio album we've heard since 1998 Psycho Circus) and the tour going along with this new effort.
He also took parts in several side-projects such as Badlands or ESP (Eric Singer Project) in the 1980s et 1990s as well as to numerous tribute albums (Queen, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith or Van Halen).


Discography (partial):
Black Sabbath - Seventh Star (1986)
Black Sabbath - Eternal Idol (1987)
Gary Moore - Wild Frontier (1987)
Badlands - Badlands (1989)
Kiss - Revenge (1992)
Kiss - Alive III (1993)
Kiss - MTV Unplugged (1996)
Kiss - Carnival Of Souls (1997)
VA - Humanary Stew (Alice Cooper tribute album) (1999)
VA - Not The Same Old Song And Dance (Aerosmith tribute album) (1999)
Eric Singer Project - Lost And Spaced (1999)
Alice Cooper - Brutal Planet (2000)
VA - Runnin' With The Devil (Van Halen tribute album)  (2000)
The Cult - Rare Cult (2002)
Alice Cooper - The Eyes Of Alice Cooper (2003)
Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider (2008)
Kiss - Sonic Boom (2009)

Alice Cooper - From The Inside (1978)

A very special album today, in its packaging (as a LP) and in what inspired the songs.

First, the package. The front cover displays Alice's face (with the trademark Alice Cooper make-up on) but when looking closer, one can see a rectangle around each eye and a handle on the right nostril, as well as pictures in the eyes. Yes, it was made to look like a door (actually a double door) and when you open the doors, you see the entrance hall of some hospital with lots of people there, some being representation of songs. In the back, one can see a little door with the words "quiet room" written above it. Now, technically, behind this picture, you have the papersheet containing the record and that papersheet has the songs' lyrics as well as pictures, a small one and a big one and when you put the lyricsheet right, the little pic should appear behind the "quiet room" door when you open it. This little pic displays Alice in his padded cell. I will focus on the rest of the people in this hall later. The other picture I mentionned is to appear behind 2 doors on the back cover, which look like the front cover ones, except they're smaller and don't have Alice's face over them. These doors are a casual entrance with a brick wall around and above them and a pavement at the bottom. Behind these doors, you get the "big" picture I mentionned earlier with Alice and a bunch of people (the ones from the hospital hall) running towards that door holding newspapers reading "RELEASED", which could refer to Alice going out of the hospital (since he's dressed in a red costume and blue jacket). The doors have some credits and the tracklist on the outside while the inside reads more credits (engineers, musicians,....).

Now, the inspiration came from a quite odd source: Alice, being in bad shape due to heavy alcoholism by mid-late 1977 (he had been drinking heavily since 1973 but it had kept going worse and worse (the King Of The Silver Screen tour, first leg of the touring for Lace And Whiskey, saw a really drunken Alice on stage, sometimes he as barely able to sing, as seen in the Alice Cooper & Friends VHS (no, it hasn't been released on DVD and one may doubt it ever will) which is footage from the first sho of this tour (and also the only known video footage from this tour)), had to get to rehab in New York to quit drinking. During this rehab, he "met" various people who were here for various reasons (not alcoholism, but other kind of problems) and these people inspired most of the song, along with events happened to Alice.

The tracklisting of this albums goes:

A1. From The Inside

A2. Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills

A3. The Quiet Room

A4. Nurse Rozetta

A5. Millie And Billie

B1. Serious

B2. How You Gonna See Me Now

B3. For Veronica's Sake

B4. Jackknife Johnny

B5. Inmates (We're All Crazy)

As I said, the songs have visual matches in the gatefold picture.

A1, A3 and B2: the padded cell with Alice in it (the songs revolve around Alice or the "quiet room")

A2: a lady wearing a blue dress

A4: a nurse fixing a picture on the wall and a guy behind her, trying to look up her skirt

A5: a couple sitting on a bench

B1: a guy in a wheelchair holding playing cards in front of the couple

B3: a dog (actually, the song is about a guy who wants to go out so he can take care of his dog, who is named Veronica) 

B4: a soldier standing, holding a umbrella and looking sad

B5: some people in the upper right corner 

I'd say that it's a really good album, not a very heavy one, but the songs are really nice, some being really intimate (The Quiet Room, without a surprise) others being a bit hard (Serious) or others being very moving and touching (Millie And Billie, Jackknife Johnny). I can't really get the words to fully describe my feelings towards it, but I can tell you I really like this album, one of my very favorite of Alice Cooper. Great packaging (in a LP form, the CD couldn't get it that good) and very good music, way underrated (sadly) but it's an album many fans list among their favorite.

Little fact:

Alice claimed that it was his favorite in his discography, likely because it's the most personal.

Kiss - Destroyer (1976)

Destroyer or the first successful studio album by the infamous four New-Yorkers in make-up and high heels.

After getting a smash hit with the live version of Rock And Roll All Nite off the album Alive!, a classic that should be reviewed here soon, the band headed back to the studios, working with producer Bob Ezrin, producer of Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, and who will later produce Pink Floyd's classic The Wall. The first single to be released, before the album comes out, is the classic Kiss anthem Detroit Rock City, with a little Peter Criss' song as the B-Side, Beth, a song just thrown there to make Peter happy but which will turn out being the actual hit single. Other classics on this album are God Of Thunder (which was to become the Demon's anthem, having him perform his bass solo with blood drolling/spitting before the song during concerts), the anthemic Shout It Out Loud and Do You Love Me (which Nirvana covered during their MTV Unplugged performance), but some hidden gems are to be found on this one as well, like Flaming Youth, Great Expectations (featuring a children's choir), King Of The Night Time World, which has rarely been heard separated from Detroit Rock City, or Sweet Pain which had Hollywood Vampyres' guitarist Dick Wagner on lead instead of Ace Frehley, who was quite unhappy with working with Ezrin. Tracklisting goes:

A1. Detroit Rock City

A2. King Of The Night Time World

A3. God Of Thunder

A4. Great Expectations

B1. Flaming Youth

B2. Sweet Pain

B3. Shout It Out Loud

B4. Beth

B5. Do You Love Me ?

Out of all the Kiss albums, this one could be the most influential and is often mentionned as a big favorite of the Kiss Army, along with Alive! (1975), Rock And Roll Over (1976) or Creatures Of The Night (1982), which I may discuss soon here as well. Personally, I think it's among the best albums Kiss has ever recorded, a very essential piece of music. I do own 2 copies of this one: a french pressing by Vogue and a german pressing by EMI Electrola which has an altered logo (see picture).

King Crimson - Starless And Bible Black (1974)

When it comes to progressive rock, one of the biggest names has to be King Crimson. Robert Fripp (guitarist and only member who remained a member of the band) and his friends are clearly one of the greatest bands of all times. 

Starless And Bible Black is the 6th album by the Crim', the second with John Wetton on lead vocals after Larks' Tongues In Aspic released the year before and before Red released later the same year (1974), Red being the last album by King Crimson before the group splits before Fripp starts using the name again in 1981 for his Discipline project.

The line-up on this album is composed of David Cross (violin, viola and keyboards), Robert Fripp (guitar, mellotron and devices (?)), John Wetton (bass guitar, vocals) and William "Bill" Brudford (drums). The tracklisting goes:

A1. The Great Deceiver

A2. Lament

A3. We'll Let You Know

A4. The Night Watch

A5. Trio

A6. The Mincer

B1. Starless And Bible Black

B2. Fracture

Some trivia regarding this album:

most of this album was recorded "live" with some studio overdubs, most of the live stuff being from a show played in Amsterdam in 1973 and which has been released on CD (well, a 2-CD set) in 1997 as The Night Watch. 

A 4-CD set (now 2 2-CD sets) featuring live material from the Wetton era (1972-1974) was released in 1992 under the title The Great Deceiver.

While the titletrack of this album is an instrumental, the line "Starless and bible black" can be heard in another King Crimson song (Starless, from the album Red)

Personally, I'd say this masterpiece is among my very favorite King Crimson albums along with Lizard (1970), Red (1974), In The Court Of The Crimson King (1974) and In The Wake Of Poseidon (1970). The first side has some very nice tracks, The Great Deceiver, Lament or The Night Watch, the only songs with lead vocals are solid material, The Night Watch being one of my very favorite King Crimson songs with a very moving motive (the song almost makes me cry, that can tell alot) while Lament has really beautiful harmonies and The Great Deceiver is merrier, with a jazzy feel. The rest of the album has good instrumentals, We'll Let You Know being a pretty good prelude to The Night Watch while Trio, which is made up of bass, guitar and violin has its moments. The Mincer is probably my least favorite track, it's dark and not really thrilling but the 2 pieces off side B are also quite dark, though more interesting. Fracture is a very long and complex instrumental, having some parts which are reminiscent of the instrumental pieces Larks' Tongues In Aspic off the album of the same title.

Kiss - Dynasty (1979)

Dynasty or the beginning of the end for the original line-up of Kiss. The band had become a big sensation in the US in 1977/1978 yet, like every trend, Kiss was to fade away... There were some problems in the band, linked to drugs, alcohol and ego and to avoid a departure of Peter Criss, who felt, after the success of Beth (from Destroyer, an album I'll discuss later), he could be a successful solo artist, each member did a "solo album". These 4 albums, which I'll discuss later as well, had still a Kiss logo on it and were named after the member performing. They were released in september 1978.

Anyway, it's in this "egoes at stake" situation that Kiss entered the studio and "reunited" to record their 7th studio album (excluding the studio side of Alive II and the solo albums). The problems with Peter Criss kept going though, and Kiss had to hire a session drummer, Anton Fig who had appeared on Ace Frehley's album, to record the album while Peter Criss only contributed to one song, Dirty Livin' while Paul Stanley had 3 songs (Sure Know Something, Magic touch and the disco-rock hit I Was Made For Lovin' You), Ace Frehley 3 songs as well (Hard Times, Save Your Love and a cover of The Rolling Stones' 2,000 Man) and Gene Simmons 2 songs (Charisma and X-Ray Eyes). The album was produced by Viny Poncia, who produced Peter's album the year before. The following tour wasn't much better: problems with Peter Criss were more and more important, and one could never tell whether the night would be good, bad (irregular tempo, Beth badly done, see the Largo 1979 concert) or if Peter wouldn't cause trouble, causing a fight after throwing sticks at Gene or simply stopping playing in the middle of the concert. Needless to say, Peter left the band at the end of this tour, in december 1979 though it was made official only in may 1980.

The album itself now: it was released in may 1979 and had nice features: a merchandise order form and a poster with Kiss in black straightjackets with a grey background on which one could see a Kiss logo. The out of North America pressings had only a poster, though the Japanese pressing had a booklet with credits in japanese, the poster and the lyrics in english and japanese.

Interestingly, the back cover had the titles in alphabetical order rather than in the running order.

It has 9 tracks:

A1. I Was Made For Lovin' You

A2. 2,000 Man

A3. Sure Know Something

A4. Dirty Livin' 

B1. Charisma

B2. Magic Touch

B3. Hard Times

B4. X-Ray Eyes

B5. Save Your Love

Personally, I'd say it's a pretty good album, though I sometimes get sick of I Was Made For Lovin' You, which isn't really the best song Kiss has done nor the most representative of their catalogue. The other tracks are hidden gems though, too bad only IWMFLY and 2,000 Man were played live on a regular basis (though Sure Know Something was played on the MTV Unplugged and Paul played Magic Touch during the Live To Win Tour in 2006/2007). I do own 3 copies of this album: a french pressing without the poster, a complete US copy and a Japanese pressing with the booklets.

Genesis - Three Sides Live (1982)

Okay, here's the first record off my (huge) collection I will discuss.

It's a live album by Genesis, recorded during the Abacab Tour in 1981 and released in 1982. Two versions exist, one 100% live album (with 3 tracks from 1976 on side 4 and this one is the only version available on CD) and a version with a studio side, which is the pressing I own (according to wikipedia, this one were a US tracklist as opposed to the 100% live album which were a UK release).

The line-up performing here is composed of Phil Collins (drums, vocals), Tony Banks (keyboards) and Mike Rutherford (guitar, bass guitar) on the studio material with Daryl Stuermer (guitar, bass guitar) and Chester Thompson (drums) being added to the previous 3 on the live material.

The tracklisting of the LP I have (with the studio material on side 4) goes as such:

A1. Turn It On Again

A2. Dodo

A3. Abacab

B1. Behind The Lines

B2. Duchess

B3. Me & Sarah Jane

B4. Follow You, Follow Me

C1. Misunderstanding

C2. In The Cage/Cinema Show/Slippermen (medley)

C3. Afterglow

D1. Paperlate

D2. You Might Recall

D3. Me And Virgil

D4. Evidence Of Autumn

D5. Open Door

D1-D3 were recorded in 1981 (they are Abacab outtakes) while D4 and D5 were recorded in 1979.

It's a great album if you ask me, with a solid musicianship and great lead vocals. The song choice is really nice and I would recommend this one to people who wanna discover Genesis, though several other albums by Genesis could also be very well-suited.

Welcome

Welcome to Paul's Records Collection, a blog I've decided to create to talk of the (many) records I own. By records, I mean LP albums.

Important: I don't plan and won't post any download link.