The Creatures in Exile
Hello Kiddies,
Well the winds of Sandy kept us landlocked today but all pathways will be open tomorrow leading us back out to the outside world to serve the imbibing masses.
We were left relatively unscathed this time around for which I am profoundly grateful. So let's spin a tale from the Pete files of Way back when.
30 years ago this month, KISS released one of the strongest and most prolific albums of their career, Creatures of the Night. It's probably one of my personal favorites, and I could wax all day and write a great essay on it. That's not what we're here for today however, you can click the preceding link for historical perspectives, this one's more personal.
I actually remember when Creatures came out, and seeing it that fall day in 1982 at the record store. I had some money saved up and as was usually the case when I had more than a week's allowance, I was stoked to get an actual album instead of just a few 45RPM singles. I remember my Dad taking me to the store and me looking around at the racks when I saw the ominous blue cover with glowing eyes staring back at me. I picked it up and looked at it, wanting nothing more than to take it home. But I could not. (I think I ended up getting a Go-Go's album.) This was the beginning of an odd period in my life called the 'KISS Exile.' When it came to things like music, books, TV, and various forms of entertainment, my parents really didn't pay much attention to it. I had already started the KISS obsession at a young age, so they were used to all manner of noise emanating from the stereo in my room. I had by this time already graduated to other music and my little box of 45's was growing quicker and quirkier. Still, there was KISS standing above it all and my parents just accepted it as my thing and tuned it out. Unfortunately, we were about to get very different for the next few years.
My Mom had always been a fairly observant Catholic, but aside from the holidays and obligatory services (we went to Catholic school) we did not live in a religious household. We were taught good, upright, and most importantly, practical values. The things that were about what you did rather than what you read or listened to. Around this time, a new bunch of people had come into our social sphere and they were...different. Nice folks but a little on the weird side but whatever. They had gone to our parish, and eventually broke off to a new and interesting 'Non denominational' congregation. My Mom started spending more and more time around them and eventually started going to their church, a large and impressive building dubbed 'The International Christian Center' and while innocuous at first, it started to seep in. She began going to these very loud and bizarre 'prayer meetings' and it was telling when a member of our parish recommended against attending. This was full blown religious fervor at it's finest, and it was enveloping us slowly but surely.
These wonderful new people behaved very strangely when 'praying' and generally just acted weird. Some of their kids were cool, and they had an Atari so I really didn't pay it any mind. A few months into this love affair, we went for a typical evening at someone's house and other than being excited to play a few rounds of Pac-Man, I didn't think much of it. Then my Mom told me she wanted to bring my KISS records. All my KISS records (which in truth probably wasn't more than a half dozen at this point). Why? Well they wanted to listen to them backwards or something and they thought that KISS stood for something about Satan's Service or whatever. The main prayer guy/leader looked through my albums and proceeded to tell me what certain things meant and how evil it was and so forth. Now even at 10 years old, I knew this was just bullshit but I played along and figured ok, he'll babble on we'll say thank you and go. Apparently for the survival of my immortal soul, we had to break all the records and therefore exorcise Satan's influence from our lives.
Alas, divine intervention was notably absent that day.
My Mom's religious revelation would last a few years until her gaggle of Holy Rollers rolled off (they shockingly revealed themselves to be very phony and insincere people) and she went back to the parish and our life back to normal. Despite how we spun the tale, it would be inaccurate to characterize that era as a horrific time, just a strange one. Music was still very prevalent in my life and my little box of 45's still got additions every week. As a matter of fact, not too long after this happened a little record came out that would fill the vacuum quite well for the next few years as my musical mainstay.
On a cold January day in 1985, just a little over two years later, I went to the record store and bought three KISS albums. I brought them home and nothing was said, but when they hit the turntable it was a happy day. Here's a clip from that time to let you know the kind of crazy we were up against.
Well the winds of Sandy kept us landlocked today but all pathways will be open tomorrow leading us back out to the outside world to serve the imbibing masses.
We were left relatively unscathed this time around for which I am profoundly grateful. So let's spin a tale from the Pete files of Way back when.
30 years ago this month, KISS released one of the strongest and most prolific albums of their career, Creatures of the Night. It's probably one of my personal favorites, and I could wax all day and write a great essay on it. That's not what we're here for today however, you can click the preceding link for historical perspectives, this one's more personal.
I actually remember when Creatures came out, and seeing it that fall day in 1982 at the record store. I had some money saved up and as was usually the case when I had more than a week's allowance, I was stoked to get an actual album instead of just a few 45RPM singles. I remember my Dad taking me to the store and me looking around at the racks when I saw the ominous blue cover with glowing eyes staring back at me. I picked it up and looked at it, wanting nothing more than to take it home. But I could not. (I think I ended up getting a Go-Go's album.) This was the beginning of an odd period in my life called the 'KISS Exile.' When it came to things like music, books, TV, and various forms of entertainment, my parents really didn't pay much attention to it. I had already started the KISS obsession at a young age, so they were used to all manner of noise emanating from the stereo in my room. I had by this time already graduated to other music and my little box of 45's was growing quicker and quirkier. Still, there was KISS standing above it all and my parents just accepted it as my thing and tuned it out. Unfortunately, we were about to get very different for the next few years.
My Mom had always been a fairly observant Catholic, but aside from the holidays and obligatory services (we went to Catholic school) we did not live in a religious household. We were taught good, upright, and most importantly, practical values. The things that were about what you did rather than what you read or listened to. Around this time, a new bunch of people had come into our social sphere and they were...different. Nice folks but a little on the weird side but whatever. They had gone to our parish, and eventually broke off to a new and interesting 'Non denominational' congregation. My Mom started spending more and more time around them and eventually started going to their church, a large and impressive building dubbed 'The International Christian Center' and while innocuous at first, it started to seep in. She began going to these very loud and bizarre 'prayer meetings' and it was telling when a member of our parish recommended against attending. This was full blown religious fervor at it's finest, and it was enveloping us slowly but surely.
These wonderful new people behaved very strangely when 'praying' and generally just acted weird. Some of their kids were cool, and they had an Atari so I really didn't pay it any mind. A few months into this love affair, we went for a typical evening at someone's house and other than being excited to play a few rounds of Pac-Man, I didn't think much of it. Then my Mom told me she wanted to bring my KISS records. All my KISS records (which in truth probably wasn't more than a half dozen at this point). Why? Well they wanted to listen to them backwards or something and they thought that KISS stood for something about Satan's Service or whatever. The main prayer guy/leader looked through my albums and proceeded to tell me what certain things meant and how evil it was and so forth. Now even at 10 years old, I knew this was just bullshit but I played along and figured ok, he'll babble on we'll say thank you and go. Apparently for the survival of my immortal soul, we had to break all the records and therefore exorcise Satan's influence from our lives.
Alas, divine intervention was notably absent that day.
My Mom's religious revelation would last a few years until her gaggle of Holy Rollers rolled off (they shockingly revealed themselves to be very phony and insincere people) and she went back to the parish and our life back to normal. Despite how we spun the tale, it would be inaccurate to characterize that era as a horrific time, just a strange one. Music was still very prevalent in my life and my little box of 45's still got additions every week. As a matter of fact, not too long after this happened a little record came out that would fill the vacuum quite well for the next few years as my musical mainstay.
On a cold January day in 1985, just a little over two years later, I went to the record store and bought three KISS albums. I brought them home and nothing was said, but when they hit the turntable it was a happy day. Here's a clip from that time to let you know the kind of crazy we were up against.
Click to view