We Are Kansas! Kansas Is A Band! (by Pols Voice's request)

[MasterShakezula]

Here, we may talk about the amazing prog band from Kansas: Kansas. 

They are probably my favorite non-Rush prog band of the 70s-early 80s.

I heard the couple of albums they did from the 90s-00s were also pretty good, too, but I've never heard them.

My favorite album's Song For America.

(I'm hoping Orbert has some stories about these guys; I don't know too much about their non-musical history)

[pogoowner]

My favorite band of all-time. And yes, Freaks of Nature and Somewhere to Elsewhere are both good albums. My favorite, however, is Point of Know Return.

[Pols Voice]

Oh great, I'm in the thread title.

I'm a HUGE fan of Kansas. They were the first prog band I really got into, unless you also count The Moody Blues as prog. My favorite album is Point of Know Return, with Leftoverture close behind. Both are in my Top 5 albums of all time. I like all of their studio albums to some extent, although Drastic Measures is an obvious low point.

[MasterShakezula]

To be honest, I haven't heard anything after the Point of Know Return.  Were the ones after it, but before Freaks of Nature any good?

[Nekov]

I got to see them live a couple of years ago  .

[MasterShakezula]

I missed an opportunity to see them this summer at the fair.

Hopefully, they'll hit my fair the next time they do the fairground circuit, preferably next summer. 

[Nekov]

To be honest, I haven't heard anything after the Point of Know Return.  Were the ones after it, but before Freaks of Nature any good?

The answer to this question is yes. I like Power a lot. Steve Morse brought a great sound to the band

[7thHanyou]

I love five of their first six albums.  The exception is Point of Know Return, which, aside from the title track, I can't listen to with much enthusiasm.

I heard they got worse after album number six, so while I have Vinyl Confessions, I've never listened all the way through--and I don't have anything else by them.  May be worth looking into, but I dunno.

My favorite epic of theirs is Apercu, which in my opinion encompasses everything that's great about that band.  My favorite song is Child of Innocence, which isn't prog but is amazing nonetheless.

I love five of Kansas' first six albums so much that I wish I could find more bands that sounded remotely like them--but I guess they don't exist.  Hmph.

[pogoowner]

To be honest, I haven't heard anything after the Point of Know Return.  Were the ones after it, but before Freaks of Nature any good?

It depends what you're looking for, really. Monolith is still a pretty solid album, and so is Audio-Visions, but they really went downhill with Vinyl Confessions and Drastic Measures (their worst album by far). Power is decent, and I enjoy In the Spirit of Things quite a bit, but they both suffer from some major 80's cheese issues at times.

[Pols Voice]

Monolith and Audio-Visions are more patchy than previous albums, but they have some really great songs. I like Vinyl Confessions a lot, but it does have John Elefante instead of Steve Walsh on vocals, which may take some getting used to. Drastic Measures is the first of three albums without violin, and their worst album. Only for hardcore fans, really.

Power and In the Spirit of Things both feature Steve Morse, and are pretty fun. Power is better because ITSOT has too many songs from outside writers.

And yeah, Freaks of Nature and Somewhere to Elsewhere are quite good. There's also Always Never the Same, which is mostly rerecorded classic Kansas songs with an orchestra, which isn't bad.

[7thHanyou]

Monolith and Audio-Visions are more patchy than previous albums, but they have some really great songs.

Monolith patchy?  I've heard that before, but I still don't get it; it sounds every bit as strong to me as their previous albums, and much stronger than Point of Know Return.  It has a very similar vibe to Leftoverture, too, which is a complement.

Glad to see this exchange, though.  It might encourage me to look into some of their subsequent releases.

[AngelBack]

Wow where to start.  I live in Atlanta and most of the band relocated to the south side of the city in the late 70's.  I was still in high school, but my brother played in a band that featured Rich Williams wife on back ground vocals.  And one of my best friends got to know them and sang back up on Drastic Measures. 

They used to play the Fox Theater in Atlanta every Halloween night, OMG, you can hardly imagine, every one in costume.  I got to go with my brother to Phil Eharts house on Lake Spivey and hang a bit, had a basement full of drums.  And Steve Walsh bought some jeans from my girlfriend at South Lake mall. 

Also met Kerry a couple of times, he was getting into Christian rock, so we ended up meeting on several occasions at concerts, and I later got to sit in on some of the recording of his AD albums. 

Kansas was my first experience with progressive rock and so much of their music is still just timeless.

[Pols Voice]

Monolith and Audio-Visions are more patchy than previous albums, but they have some really great songs.

Monolith patchy?  I've heard that before, but I still don't get it; it sounds every bit as strong to me as their previous albums, and much stronger than Point of Know Return.  It has a very similar vibe to Leftoverture, too, which is a complement.

Glad to see this exchange, though.  It might encourage me to look into some of their subsequent releases.

I think How My Soul Cries Out for You and Stay Out of Trouble are kind of weaker than usual Kansas songs. Also, People of the South Wind is somewhat goofy. You can really hear a rift developing between Livgren's and Walsh's songwriting styles, and the violin, which I think is crucial to the Kansas sound, is becoming marginalized. That said, On the Other Side, Angels Have Fallen, and A Glimpse of Home are great.

[pogoowner]

Monolith and Audio-Visions are more patchy than previous albums, but they have some really great songs.

Monolith patchy?  I've heard that before, but I still don't get it; it sounds every bit as strong to me as their previous albums, and much stronger than Point of Know Return.  It has a very similar vibe to Leftoverture, too, which is a complement.

Glad to see this exchange, though.  It might encourage me to look into some of their subsequent releases.

I think How My Soul Cries Out for You and Stay Out of Trouble are kind of weaker than usual Kansas songs. Also, People of the South Wind is somewhat goofy. You can really hear a rift developing between Livgren's and Walsh's songwriting styles, and the violin, which I think is crucial to the Kansas sound, is becoming marginalized. That said, On the Other Side, Angels Have Fallen, and A Glimpse of Home are great.

I agree with Pols Voice's assessment. On the other hand, every song on Point of Know Return is great, in my opinion.

[Jaq]

Ah, Kansas. BRB while I put on their masterpiece, Song For America.

I saw Kansas on the ITSOT tour, awesome concert even if it was at a club that held maybe 800 people if that. Opened with the "Howling At The Moon" section of Magnum Opus and just kept rocking from there. This was one of the more memorable concerts I ever went to not because of the bands (Night Ranger was opening. Think about that for a moment. One of the biggest bands of the 80s opening for one of the biggest bands of the 70s-and they had to play a club that held 800 people. The 80s were kind of sad sometimes) but because of this guy who'd sneaked in a bottle of tequila despite being able to buy drinks there. He was WASTED, and he thought I was a friend of his from other concerts. I didn't argue when he started offering me the tequila bottle. We drank most of it before Kansas took the stage, and at the start of the set the guy vanished. I didn't care, fucking Kansas was playing! About 20 minutes into the set, the guy reappears, holding the two largest cups of beer the place sold-I swear to God they were 32 ounces easy-and hands one to me. "They took the tequila" he told me sadly.

I have no idea who that guy was, but man he was a load of fun.

Back to Kansas-man I love that band. Song For America, Masque, Leftoverture-I'd put that run up against any three albums you could name by ANY progressive rock band. One of the reasons I fell hard for Haken was because the start of "Streams" just screams "Kansas." Off to listen to Song For America 

[Nel]

Kansas is awesome. Hell, even Somewhere to Elsewhere has "Look At The Time", which is a great track.

I actually started with the debut album, moved from that to Leftoverture and Point Of Know Return. "Magnum Opus" is probably one of my favorite tracks of all time. Their 80s and 90s albums don't do much for me, though I do like "Fight Fire With Fire". Great band. It sucks that Steve's voice has gone down over the years, but I do admire the man for adapting to it and still doing some amazing work.

Plus one of the members has an eyepatch. And that's just cool.

[pogoowner]

Plus one of the members has an eyepatch. And that's just cool.

Homemade fireworks FTW!

[KevShmev]

Amazing band; one of my all-time favorites.

Steve Walsh is the best rock singer ever (in his heyday), and Leftoverture is still one of the five best rock records ever.

[AngelBack]

Amazing band; one of my all-time favorites.

Steve Walsh is the best rock singer ever (in his heyday), and Leftoverture is still one of the five best rock records ever.

Steve Walsh had a combination of range and depth of character/quality like no one else.  Bono has character w/out range.  Vocalists like Sebastian Bach had range with no real quality.  Steve was amazing.

[KevShmev]

I disagree about Bono, as I think he had good (but not great) range in his prime, but he definitely has as much character in his voice as anyone.  But like you said, Walsh had the best of both worlds: amazing range AND tons of character.  Even though his voice ain't what it used to be, there are moments on both Somewhere to Elsewhere and Freaks of Nature where I get goosebumps because of how awesome his delivery of a particular line or even just word is. 

[Pols Voice]

Yeah, Walsh is my favorite singer of all time. One of his best moments is the "I close my eyes, I go far away" part of Closet Chronicles.

[pogoowner]

Another thing that I love about Walsh is when he would occasionally sing high-pitched "oohs" along with instrumental sections. He used to do it a lot during live shows in the 70's. And that high part he does in "It's You" is awesome. Not one of my favorite songs, but holy cow.

[Lowdz]

To be honest, I haven't heard anything after the Point of Know Return.  Were the ones after it, but before Freaks of Nature any good?

The answer to this question is yes. I like Power a lot. Steve Morse brought a great sound to the band

My favourite Kansas album but I'm more of a casual fan really. Need to check some more out.

[KevShmev]

Another thing that I love about Walsh is when he would occasionally sing high-pitched "oohs" along with instrumental sections.

The end of Journey from Mariabronn was the first thing I thought of when I read your post.

[Tick]

Huge fan of Kansas. Seen them 7 times going back to 1979.
There album, "Two For The Show" is my favorite live album of all time!
As far as the last couple albums go.

I loved "Feaks Of Nature".

 "Somewhere To Elsewhere" kind of missed the mark for me although Icarus 2 is quite a gem!

"Power" was a great and underrated album, imo. Then again, Steve Morse is one of my all time favorite guitarists.

[KevShmev]

See now, I think Somewhere to Elsewhere harkens back to their classic era (which makes sense since Livgren wrote the bulk of it).  Almost every song is, at worst, really good, except for Grand Fun Alley. I'd put Distant Vision, Myriad, The Coming Dawn and Byzantium up there with any songs they have released post-POKR. 

[pogoowner]

See now, I think Somewhere to Elsewhere harkens back to their classic era (which makes sense since Livgren wrote the bulk of it).  Almost every song is, at worst, really good, except for Grand Fun Alley. I'd put Distant Vision, Myriad, The Coming Dawn and Byzantium up there with any songs they have released post-POKR. 

Agreed. Somewhere to Elsewhere is a damn good album. It's essential that all Kansas fans own it.

[Pols Voice]

Icarus II and Distant Vision are classics.

There album, "Two For The Show" is my favorite live album of all time!

You have great taste.

[ytserush]

Like them a lot.

I've only seen them once a few years back and they were great. Much better than I thought they'd be at this stage in their career.

I've got the Sail On box and all of the albums except for Somewhere to Elsewhere and the most recent live CD/DVD (I've got Device Voice Drum from 2002 which I think was the last live album before the most recent one).


I listened to the King Biscuit show from the Tower Theater in 1989 last week.

Another very inspiring band...

[hefdaddy42]

Icarus II and Distant Vision are classics.

I agree, both are awesome.

[LudwigVan]

Probably my 2nd favorite band. 

I'm not a religious person, but something about Kansas' music is so very 'spiritual' in feel.  I frequently get a sense of 'uplift' when I listen to them.   

I can't quite explain it and I know it might sound crazy, but I find their music to be 'precious'...to the point where I don't want to listen to on an everyday casual sort of basis.   As if the music is just so good that I don't want to waste a single drop of it on an occasion in which I can't give it my complete and undivided attention.

[a51502112]

Love "Point of Know Return" and "Leftoverture".

When JLB announced that he was releasing a solo album, "Mullmuzzler", I was hoping (and expected) that it would sound like Kansas... but not so.

[KevShmev]

Icarus II is great, but it always bugs me during the first vocal section when Walsh belts out that line that he is seemingly incapable of hitting anymore.

"I was dreaming of home..."

In his heyday, he would have slayed that line, but in 2000, it was more of an oof.

[Gadough]

I'm seeing them live on May 26th with my parents. Never been to a concert with the parents before, so....should be interesting.

[splent]

Top 5 Kansas songs:
1. Song For America
2. Point of Know Return
3. Carry On Wayward Son
4. Portrait (He Knew)
5. Icarus/Icarus II