Wicked
Lester was a New York-based rock and roll band formed in 1970, under
the name Rainbow. In 1971 the band changed their name to Wicked
Lester. They
only recorded a studio album and gave two unique concerts: at
the Rivoli
Theatre
in South
Fallsburg,
New
York
on April 23, 1971. The second, in late summer 1971, was at an
Atlantic
City, New Jersey
hotel hosting a B'nai
B'rith
Youth Organization event.
After
that To the group was given the opportunity to record some demos in
late 1971 at Electric Lady Studios with the engineer Ron Johnsen.
This tape was show to Epic Records, who agreed to fund the recording
of a full album. But one of the conditions, however, was that the
guitarist Stephen Coronel, founder member, be fired and replaced by
session musician Ron Leejack. Some songs were completely re-recorded
to accommodate Leejack's different playing style. The recording of
Wicked Lester's album, which began in November 1971 at Electric Lady
Studios in Greenwich Village, took place over multiple sessions and
was finished in July 1972.
The
final mix sessions took place in October. What
is interesting, from the point of KISS Story, is that the audio
engineer at Electric Lady Studios, where the album was recorded, was
one Ron Johnson, later the producer of the Wicked Lester album.
The
album took this final line-up:
Side
A: (18:26)
1
Love Her All I Can (2:34)
2
Sweet Ophelia (3:02)
3
Keep Me Waiting (3:10)
4
Simple Type (Rmk) (2:54)
5
She (3:03)
6
Too Many Mondays (3:40)
"Sweet
Ophelia" and “Too Many Mondays” were songs originally
released on Barry Mann's 1971 LP, "Lay It All Out", and
were covered the same year by Wicked Lester. While Barry did better
as a song writer, usually with his wife Cynthia Weil, or Gerry Goffin
(co-writters on each of the tracks respectively), his own recordings
didn't do so well.
“Simple
Type” was reconstructed, it was the last remixed song for the
album. Here´s the final version from this tune.
Side B:
(15:58)
1
What Happens In The Darkness (3:07)
2
When The Bell Rings (3:19)
3
Molly (2:30)
4
We Want To Shout It Out Loud (2:42)
5
Long. Long Road (4:19)
The
Hollies song "I Wanna Shout" (covered by Wicked Lester as
"We Want To Shout It Out Loud") closed their 1970 album
"Confessions Of The Mind" and is from one of their more
obscure albums.
The
master tape was ready in the middle October, in early November it was
presented to Don Ellis, Epic's A&R director, he stated that he
hated the album and was not going to release it. bit.ly/3Wc72g A few days after,
Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, feeling that the group lacked a
unifying musical vision, forming a new band Kiss in early 1973,
adopting a more straightforward, harder rock sound and an emphasis on
stage theatrics.
CBS
Records, who owned the rights to the album, remixed it and planned to
release it in late 1976 to capitalize on Kiss's popularity at the
time. Kiss and Neil Bogart, the president of their label, Casablanca
Records, purchased the master tapes from CBS for $137,500 and never released
it, because they worried that their hard rock image would be damaged
by these more eclectic recordings. It was also feared that the
release would be accompanied by pictures of Gene Simmons and Paul
Stanley without their trademark makeup.
The
cover art was used for The Laughing Dogs' self-titled debut album in
1979, but the album never was released, only three songs were used by
Kiss on “The Box Set”, a five
CD collection of recordings drawn from the
Kiss
archives reportedly selected by the band. This compilation box
includes 94 tracks, including 30 previously unreleased band and solo
demos, outtakes, live recordings, From Wicked Lester album: “Keep
me waiting”, “She” and “Love her All I Can”.
Ok Folks!.., that's all, enjoy it
and see you soon.
Take care with the motherfucker coronavirus right!.
Take care with the motherfucker coronavirus right!.
