IDEAS FOR A "CONSTRICTOR REDUX"

[mr.barlow]

It's been quite a while since I posted here but Kane's being back in the band has piqued my interest.

First off, it's great to see him back on stage and playing some of the "metal" era Alice songs. What would be even greater is to see a full reunion of "The Nightmare Returns" touring band.

I believe all of the guys are still active, with maybe the exception of Devlin 7, whom I think retired from touring. I would bet most would be on board for a full on reunion. If not, maybe get as many of them that are willing to go out on the road or in the studio.

Kane is now getting his groove back and if you want to check out where Ken Mary's abilities are these days just go on youtube and check out his current work with Flotsam & Jetsom. The man is a monster!

While watching a few of Ken Mary's recent performances on youtube it reminded of me how great it would be to have real drums added to Constrictor, or better yet--re-record the whole damn thing. Just imagine the songs of Constrictor sounding as incredible as RYFAY.

So here's an idea as far-fetched as it may sound. Get the Nightmare Returns touring band to re-record Constrictor in full--even including the turd Thrill My Gorilla! If Alice is not interested, I still think it would be a cool idea to do it anyway with guest vocalists performing on each song. Maybe even Alice would agree to sing on a song or two but not the entire album. Also add a new song or two. With today's recording techniques it could be done on a very small budget.

Alice has had many careers within his career and the "Metal Alice" years brought in a whole new slew of fans who came on board with those two albums. The 1986 band was the most important band in the history of Alice's career next to the original band, and it would be great to see them be able to have another go before Alice hits the golf course for good.

Even a limited tour with the 1986 band performing "Metal Alice" would be great!

It's a longshot but I never thought I'd see him ever again playing Freedom--so you never know!

[mestreech]

I love the idea

[Saint&Sinner]

Its a cool idea, a reach but a cool idea.

I'd be less interested in the tour side and more interested in a re record of constrictor with the bite of raise your fist.
I mean to be honest i would love constrictor being re-released and just remixed (like the movie mix of he's back) and included all the demos and especially nobody move (which was a completed song that i am desperate to hear but apparently no one is willing to put it out into the either!!)

Sadly we just are not allowed to get alice cooper deluxe reissues - every other band known to man can do it and make money but apparently alice and his camp are not bothered...........Sorry, its a sore point! hahaha

So yeah any celebration of constrictor and raise your fist and yell, i am down with. They were both great albums with constrictor only suffering due to the "drums" and weaker production.

[Si]

Personally I don`t thing you should completely re-record Constrictor, it is what it is, but I've always liked the idea of getting Ken in to record new drums for it, and remixing the original performances with the new drums to give it more "punch".

You could then do a 'double pack' special edition with both Constrictor and Raise Your Fist together, including both the remixed and original mixes, bonus tracks (Nobody moves, Hard rock Summer etc), B-sides and any demos worth releasing, and maybe a live show recording from each tour. To be really fancy you would add 'The Nightmare Returns' and the RYF rehearsal footage (there's sadly no full show pro-shot recording of the RYF tour) from 'Prime Cuts' on a DVD/Blu-Ray and put it all in a nice box with book/photos, replica tour programs etc.
I'd buy that!

[While Heaven Wept]

Forgive me if i'm wrong, but I did hear something to the affect that the multitrack tapes may have been destroyed in a fire. I've often hoped for a remix, or as Si suggested, just replacing the drums. Some great songs for sure, let down by a thin production.

[Daggers & Contracts]

Forgive me if i'm wrong, but I did hear something to the affect that the multitrack tapes may have been destroyed in a fire. I've often hoped for a remix, or as Si suggested, just replacing the drums. Some great songs for sure, let down by a thin production.

I do remember the fire you refer to but,not sure about Alice material being included.
They lost a lot of great music in that fire. Don't know if there was a full accounting.
Any insurance adjusters out there??

[VinceRaven]

Personally I don`t thing you should completely re-record Constrictor, it is what it is, but I've always liked the idea of getting Ken in to record new drums for it, and remixing the original performances with the new drums to give it more "punch".

You could then do a 'double pack' special edition with both Constrictor and Raise Your Fist together, including both the remixed and original mixes, bonus tracks (Nobody moves, Hard rock Summer etc), B-sides and any demos worth releasing, and maybe a live show recording from each tour. To be really fancy you would add 'The Nightmare Returns' and the RYF rehearsal footage (there's sadly no full show pro-shot recording of the RYF tour) from 'Prime Cuts' on a DVD/Blu-Ray and put it all in a nice box with book/photos, replica tour programs etc.
I'd buy that!

To say I'm not a fan of those two albums would be a massive understatement, but even I'd buy a package like that.

I'd also guess that the people with the most interest in that era are of a suitable age and financial resource to make a potential tidy profit on all that work feasible.

[mestreech]

Personally I don`t thing you should completely re-record Constrictor, it is what it is, but I've always liked the idea of getting Ken in to record new drums for it, and remixing the original performances with the new drums to give it more "punch".

You could then do a 'double pack' special edition with both Constrictor and Raise Your Fist together, including both the remixed and original mixes, bonus tracks (Nobody moves, Hard rock Summer etc), B-sides and any demos worth releasing, and maybe a live show recording from each tour. To be really fancy you would add 'The Nightmare Returns' and the RYF rehearsal footage (there's sadly no full show pro-shot recording of the RYF tour) from 'Prime Cuts' on a DVD/Blu-Ray and put it all in a nice box with book/photos, replica tour programs etc.
I'd buy that!

A 100% buy for me

[Saint&Sinner]

You could then do a 'double pack' special edition with both Constrictor and Raise Your Fist together, including both the remixed and original mixes, bonus tracks (Nobody moves, Hard rock Summer etc), B-sides and any demos worth releasing, and maybe a live show recording from each tour. To be really fancy you would add 'The Nightmare Returns' and the RYF rehearsal footage (there's sadly no full show pro-shot recording of the RYF tour) from 'Prime Cuts' on a DVD/Blu-Ray and put it all in a nice box with book/photos, replica tour programs etc.

What that guy said!!! 100% on board with that, it would seriously be a dream come true. Kiss charged £250 for their creatures of the night box set, which was less successful than constrictor. I would merrily pay £200 for a box set of cool stuff including everything si mentions above (and some ancillary bonuses like tour programs/posters etc.)
a guy can dream!

[mestreech]

Give me a vinyl/cd and maybe blu ray/dvd and a nice book in a box. I don't need posters etc anymore as I'm too old for that and don't care.

[del]

Not sure about Creatures of the Night being less successful as it got a Gold Cert in the mid nineties and I don’t think Constrictor has made it yet over 25 years later. Is the big point though that the core Kiss fanbase is much larger globally than Alice’s and therefore the numbers will always work better for them?

I do think this period needs a revisit as it was a rebirth of sorts and I’d buy Si’s suggestion. I would struggle badly at any package remotely close to £200 though. I’d rather spend some of that on his next album/tour and help keep the show on the road as long as possible.

[RemarkablyInsincere]

The difference between Creatures and Constrictor is that Creatures has been touted by both band and fans as being among their best albums. Nobody says that about Constrictor. If anything, RYFAY is the vastly superior album from that era.

I would love to see something along the lines of what's mentioned, but there's pretty much zero chance anyone would spend the kind of money necessary for the kinds of things being mentioned.

[patrick]

I would love to see something along the lines of what's mentioned, but there's pretty much zero chance anyone would spend the kind of money necessary for the kinds of things being mentioned.
[/quote]
If anything, a compilation with best songs from those two albums would make a better chance imho, but as there probably would not be enough "return on investment", I don't think it's going to happen . Constrictor was special as it meant the return of AC, but that effect has faded now and Alice has moved in other directions since then..
I doubt if Alice would support the initiative ( as not living in the past, as he says.. )

[del]

The difference between Creatures and Constrictor is that Creatures has been touted by both band and fans as being among their best albums. Nobody says that about Constrictor. If anything, RYFAY is the vastly superior album from that era.

I would love to see something along the lines of what's mentioned, but there's pretty much zero chance anyone would spend the kind of money necessary for the kinds of things being mentioned.

Suppose you are correct which underlines the potential commercials point really. Smaller fanbase AND insufficient interest from within it. Who would go for that?

[Saint&Sinner]

Remixing (ideally) or just remastering the album wouldn't cost much (assuming they still had the original tapes) and chucking the demos/lost tracks etc onto the package would be easy with a handful of liner notes. Putting it together with raise your fist or separate doesn't matter much as both would work (or maybe sell a deluxe reissue of raise your fist separately....)
As Si already mentioned there are easy additions like live shows and the rehearsal footage (which is crying out for a proper release) would easily pad out the £ value without adding much to the bottom line.

But it is easy to flesh it out for minimal outlay which you could easily charge anywhere from £20-70 depending on how much you want to put into it. It doesn't help Alice could care less about anything in the past as if he was actively engaged in it i imagine it would come together easier and quicker.

As i have mentioned before its frustrating that small bands up to big bands seem to be able to put out these deluxe reissues of varying sizes and costs but Alice is just a vacuum. We seem to see parades of bog standard reissues with zero extras but we never get anything of consequence. so frustrating.

[Si]

As i have mentioned before its frustrating that small bands up to big bands seem to be able to put out these deluxe reissues of varying sizes and costs but Alice is just a vacuum. We seem to see parades of bog standard reissues with zero extras but we never get anything of consequence. so frustrating.

As has been said before, a lot of this I think is down to who owns the rights to any given recordings (Alice/Shep generally don't) and how much of a cut they want to allow things to happen vs any perceived profit margin.

Simple fact is that anything beyond WTMN/1975 has a distinctly smaller market, and so less of a financial pot to go around to make it viable. Of course that also probably means that anything later costs less to license (hence the endless vinyl reissues of later albums)... but only they know how the books would balance when all the extra work is added in to the equation to make a really good box set/reissue.

[Mr. Misdemeanor]

I really wish more bands would revisit more of their old material like this. There are so many (potentially) great rock albums from the 70s and 80s that really suffered from poor production. Black Sabbath's Born Again or AC/DC's non-Mutt Lange produced 80s albums for example.

One thing that struck me about the songs off of the Constrictor and RYFAY albums is how awesome they sound live with modern equipment. The World Needs Guts is fantastic live, and He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask) is lightyears ahead of the studio version, imo. I would love to see a release containing live versions of Simple Disobedience, Give It Up and more.