CHAPTER 48 - Carnival Of Souls: The Final Sessions (1997)
“Carnival Of
Souls” Album Notes:
Produced
by Toby Wright, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.
Recorded at Music Grinder Studios,
48.01. Hate
“Hate” had components,
notably the chorus, written in September 1993, but required the input of Scott
Van Zen and Bruce Kulick to bring Gene’s creation to life. Both Bruce and Gene
saw the song as being the album’s “Unholy,” a bone-cruncher track that would
give notice of the album’s sonic intentions. The song was originally demoed in
early 1994, during the long period where KISS members were individually working
on-and-off on the follow-up to “Revenge.” The introduction to “Hate” is:
“Ladies and Gentlemen, from
48.02. Rain
Written
by Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick, and Curt Cuomo.
According to Bruce the track is, “a dark and slippery track that Paul wails on
in the chorus. Nasty guitar work that I love. Trippy time
signature too” (Asylum).
48.03. Master & Slave
Possibly one of the most
accessible tracks on the “Carnival Of Souls” album,
this track was written by Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick, and Curt Cuomo and
released to radio as the second single from the album. Unfortunately, the
single would not repeat the success of the first single, “Jungle.”
48.04. Childhood’s End
One
of the earliest songs for “Carnival Of Souls” that
Gene had demoed, though it was originally untitled. Gene recalled, “We haven’t
decided on a title, maybe ‘Childhood Ends.’ It’s sort of about the loss of
innocence. We’re all born and we don’t think about killing or anything, and
then once the innocence of virginity or the virginity of innocence is gone…
That one’s very dark, sort of like a hymn but again as I started listening
right away you hear a sort of kinship to ‘Revenge,’ so we’re not straying at
all” (KISS Crazy #17). “Childhood’s End” would mark a further collaboration
between Gene Simmons and Tommy Thayer with input from Bruce Kulick. The song
was based on a basic chord signature and melody brought in by Tommy.
According
to Gene, Bruce “Came up with the verse chord patterns and played one of my
favorite solos on the ‘Carnival Of Souls’ record” (Box
Set Liners). The song has caused quite a bit of confusion to some who think it
to be something of an autobiographical piece. According to Gene, “Despite what
people read into it, the title is taken from an Arthur C. Clarke book I love. Nothing more” (GeneSimmons.com). The subject matter was
simply about “two friends, one of whom died before his time, and the other one
who lived and reminisced about his missing friend” (Box Set Liners).
48.05. I Will Be There
This ballad is probably the
most honest track on the “Carnival Of Souls” album
since it doesn’t attempt to be anything but a piece inspired by, and dedicated
to, Paul’s son Evan Shane Stanley.
48.06. Jungle
Written
by Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick, and Curt Cuomo.
Running
48.07. In My Head
“In My Head,” one of the
oddest songs on “Carnival Of Souls,” started out life
in December 1994/January 1995 as a Gene Simmons song idea called “Nest Of
Termites.” It the input of Scott Van Zen and Jamie St. James to bring the song
away from its strange surreal beginnings: “Plastic waters painted red / In my
head, in my head / No one’s here / In my head, in my head // I’m obnoxious /
Cardboard boxes filled with hate / In my head.... // Experimenting with myself
/ In my head, get out of my head / I don’t eat what I don’t like / Till I’ve
had my fill, had my fill /In my head, in my head // I don’t kill what I don’t
eat / I died before I was born / I take the law into my own hands / In my head,
in my head // Looking through my rear view / In my head, in my head // Nest of
termites // Anal retentive / Antiseptic flowing through my veins / In my head,
in my head.” Several elements would remain from the original Simmons’ idea, but
a tremendous amount of work would be done on the arrangement of the song.
48.08. It Never Goes Away
Written
by Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick, and Curt Cuomo.
According to Bruce the song is a, “very moody song from Paul that has a 12
string Rickenbacker solo. Gene got me the Rickenbacker for my B-day” (Asylum). Paul would suggest
that the song “is a pretty cool song that says basically there’s
all kinds of evil stuff that goes on and misery in the world but there’s really
not a whole lot I can do about it. It never changes” (KISSaholics
#13).
48.09. Seduction Of The Innocent
Written
by Gene Simmons and Scott Van Zen. Scott had worked with Ken Tamplin on his “Axe To Grind”
album in 1991, which included Mark St. John on one track. An accomplished
guitarist in his own right, he’d play, write, or co-write 7 of the album’s 15
tracks. This song, along with “Carnival Of Souls,” was
one of the first song titles mentioned by Gene that were being worked on for
the follow-up to “Revenge.”
48.10. I Confess
Co-written by Gene Simmons
and Ken Tamplin, this piece would be an odd
collaboration, to some, dating from the summer of 1994. While Ken and Gene
would work on several songs, this would be the only one to make it on to the
album. It is ironic that the “Demon” would collaborate with Ken, better known
as a former member of the Christian rock band Joshua and a solo artist in his
own right. Ken explains how he got involved with Gene: “Gene heard a demo Scott
and I made through an engineer at A&M Records that Scott knew. So it was
thanks to Scott for that hook up even though I had met Gene a year prior with Lanny Cordola, as Gene wanted to
sign the Magdallan record to his Simmons Records
label of which we declined” (JG). Regardless, the collaboration would work to
provide an interesting piece. Ken recalls, “Gene is a business man and like any
good business man, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.
That’s all part of life. Hey, I got to write and hang out with one of the
greatest rock bands in the world. Another great feather in the cap of life” (RockUnited). Ken has also commented about Gene, “he is a
hard person to crack the shell because I’m not sure if there is anything
underneath except greed and a lust for power” (kentamplin.com).
48.11. In The Mirror
Written by Paul Stanley,
Bruce Kulick, and Curt Cuomo.
48.12. I Walk Alone
This track would see Bruce
Kulick make his lead vocal debut on a KISS album. Ironically, like Eric Carr,
his vocal debut would come on his final studio album with the band. Initially,
Bruce had brought the demo of the song to the sessions and had asked Gene if he
could attempt the vocal. Gene and co-producer Toby Wright were agreeable to
Bruce giving it a shot since it would add an interesting twist to the album if
it worked out.
48.13. Outromental
Technically, there is no
KISS song called “Outromental.” The instrumental coda
which would eventually gain that name was originally an instrumental ending
piece to the song “Childhood’s End.” While the piece would be cut from the
song, it was initially planned to have the album close with this short
instrumental piece which came in some time after the end of the final track on
the album, “I Walk Alone.” In an interview Bruce explained the track and its’
omission, “I think that was probably just an oversight from the people at the
plant that were transferring what they call the part, and didn’t realize that
30 seconds later there was gonna be an unindexed song ‘teaser,’ you know, just 30 seconds of a
tag, which originally belonged to ‘Childhood’s End’” (495/KISS Asylum w/ Bruce
Kulick, 1997).
The reasoning behind the
song’s placement was somewhat similar to the “Rock And Roll Party” outro piece that the band (more Bob Ezrin)
had done on the 1976 album “Destroyer,” though in that case it was more a
matter of making the album longer. Unfortunately, when the album was sent for
pressing, because the song was not noted in any way, it was not included on the
masters for the album. Only on the first copies of the Advance Cassette of the
album would it appear, not even being included on later promotional cassette
copies of the album. Catalog consultant, Robert V. Conte, came up with the name
for the piece so as to have a name to refer to it as. It runs
“
By the time firm reports
about the next studio album started circulating in late 1995, no song with this
title was mentioned, instead “Carnival Of Souls” would be listed so it is
possible that the song had transformed or been consigned to the garbage can for
future recycling. One of Gene’s lyric books includes the title “Carnival Of Lost Souls” indicating that this may have been the case.
48.15. Carnival Of Souls
“Carnival Of Souls” may have been an offshoot of the earlier demo “
48.16. Rain Keeps Fallin’
While a song with “Rain” in
the title would appear on “Carnival Of Souls,” Gene
Simmons had been writing “Rain Keeps Fallin” in
September 1993 and a song of the same title had been demoed by Gene and members
of Silent Rage during the “Revenge” era. With interesting lyrics such as
“Burning crosses in my own back yard” and “My name’s on a cool headstone with a
pretty rose,” little seems to have come from the song and it is not clear if it
was demoed or simply a lyric.
48.17. Liar
An instrumental idea
written by Bruce during the “Carnival Of Souls”
sessions, the piece was used as a foundation to build other ideas for the
album. They didn’t make it either. With a bit of development “Liar” grew into a
full instrumental which Bruce and Brent Fitz recorded
for the “Return Of The Comet” tribute album. This song
has been played numerous times at Expos and Bruce’s clinics.
48.18. Machine
48.19. Seeing Is Believing
Following the end of KISS’
road support of “Revenge” Gene and Jesse continued their writing relationship.
According to Jesse, “I was back co-writing songs with Gene at his house, and in
the studio. We wrote about three songs, one of which is in the vain of ‘Hate,’
off the ‘Carnival Of Souls’ album, the title’s I won’t
mention right now. In the studio where we demo’d the
songs, I played guitar, Gene was on bass, and both Eric
Singer, or Kevin Valentine would play drums. At this time these sessions
were for possible songs for the ‘Carnival Of Soul’ CD”
(JG). These two songs would be two of the three that were worked on. The third
song is currently unknown, but could simply have been untitled.
48.20. Vengeance Is Mine
Song which was one written
by Gene Simmons for the follow-up to “Revenge” which had been demoed by early
1994. This song was being mentioned by Gene, and in the fan press, from
mid-1993.
48.21. Dead In Your Tracks
48.22. Sleep Until You Die
48.23. Closed Doors Welcome No One
48.24. I Can’t Forgive What I Can’t Forget
48.25. Blister
48.26. Save Myself
Entries 48.21-26 are
song-titles of alleged songs/demo for the album which would become “Carnival Of Souls.” These tracks were not necessarily recorded, and
may simply have been songs written or partially recycled, but not used.
48.27. So Lame
Song-title of alleged demo
for the album which would become “Carnival Of Souls.”
This title has often appeared as “Hate/So Lame” which may indicate that the two
are really one with “So Lame” referring to the lyrics of “Hate.”
48.28. Rain
48.29. Seduction Of The Innocent
Both “Rain” (48.28,
48.30. Credibility
A Gene
written song, not clear whether it was demoed.
48.31. Psycho Punk
48.32. Judgment Day
48.31 & 48.32 are Gene
Simmons song title ideas.
48.33. Jungle (Single Edit)
Released
as a promotional CD single. Shortens the
song by two minutes to