Author Topic: We Are Kansas! Kansas Is A Band! (by Pols Voice's request)  (Read 5890 times)

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Offline Pols Voice

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Re: We Are Kansas! Kansas Is A Band! (by Pols Voice's request)
« Reply #35 on: April 22, 2012, 06:43:53 PM »
My top ten would be something like:

1. Icarus - Borne on Wings of Steel
2. Closet Chronicles
3. Miracles Out of Nowhere
4. Carry On Wayward Son
5. Cheyenne Anthem
6. Portrait (He Knew)
7. Dust in the Wind
8. The Wall
9. Mysteries and Mayhem
10. A Glimpse of Home

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

They're still really good live. Have fun.
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Offline Orbert

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Re: We Are Kansas! Kansas Is A Band! (by Pols Voice's request)
« Reply #36 on: April 22, 2012, 06:48:40 PM »
"Carry On Wayward Son" was their big radio hit, and I distinctly remember hearing a keyboard solo once or twice, but at 5:23 it was too long for regular rotation in those days, so the "AM version" cut out half the break and shortened the opening and closing jams as well.  The local FM station would play the long version, but they prided themselves in playing a lot of album cuts and not just the hits, so you rarely heard it anyway.  That's okay, I was more into buying albums than singles, but I was getting more into prog by this point and this song was a pretty straight-on rocker.  Good tune, though.  The guys obviously had some chops.  Maybe I'd check them out sometime.

She was amazing.  Beautiful voice, beautiful face, long red hair, and the most magnificent pair of breasts I had ever seen in my life.  Okay, this was 10th grade, so my experience was somewhat limited, but she was quite possibly the perfect woman.  Her name was LeAnn, a senior and actually a friend of my sister's, but she wanted me to accompany her on piano as she sang some song in the school talent show.

She was amazing.  I thought I did pretty well, too, but the important thing is that in appreciation, rather than a Thank-You card with a gift card or something, she gave me a copy of Leftoverture.  Brand, still in its shrink wrap.  What a cool gift!  I put it on and totally dug the fact that I now had the long version of that song with the cool breaks!  The rest of the album... oh my gosh.  These guys are great!  Rockin' for sure, but with one foot firmly planted in prog.  Over the next year or so, I hunted down every Kansas album I could find.  Eventually I had the first four albums as well, and by then Point of Know Return had come out, and I grabbed that, too.

Two for the Show, I have to be honest, was great but slightly disappointing.  Shortened version of "Song for America".  "Carry On Wayward Son" minus the awesome a capella intro and instead led into via medley.  I hate live medleys!  I picked up Monolith when it came out, but I think my love affair with Kansas was over by then.  I'd moved on into full-blown prog -- Yes, Genesis, ELP -- and Kansas seemed to be leaving the prog behind and going more mainstream.  To me, that was the kiss of death.

But man, those first five albums are all gold.  Thank You, LeAnn.

Offline Gadough

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Re: We Are Kansas! Kansas Is A Band! (by Pols Voice's request)
« Reply #37 on: April 22, 2012, 07:48:27 PM »
Ticketmaster says that the event is ages 21 and over only. I was worried about that since they're playing in a casino.

At age 20, I'm legally an adult but I can't step foot into a casino, even though I won't be drinking or gambling?

Well, I guess they don't want my business. $110 they would have gotten from us. Bullshit morality laws in this country...
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Offline The Letter M

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Re: We Are Kansas! Kansas Is A Band! (by Pols Voice's request)
« Reply #38 on: April 23, 2012, 08:30:19 AM »
A Kansas thread?! Yes! I love the first 5 albums, but I don't really listen to any of their albums past POKR (at least, with some regularity). I only recall listening to anything past Drastic Measures (I appreciate the music pun) back when I first got into the band.

I was listening to some Kansas a couple of weeks ago and realized just how GOOD the first three albums are. This is a band that came out of the gate at nearly full-speed, even though they had two nearly separate styles - the longer, proggy songs, and the shorter pieces, but it made for an interesting combination of music in the early albums.

-Marc.
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Offline KevShmev

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Re: We Are Kansas! Kansas Is A Band! (by Pols Voice's request)
« Reply #39 on: April 23, 2012, 09:34:55 AM »
Monolith was definitely a bit of a decline, as it had a few average tunes, but songs like A Glimpse of Home, On the Other Side, Away from You and Angels Have Fallen are all great.  Same with Audio-Visions, which also had a bunch of average tunes amongst some great ones like Relentless, No One Together, Hold On and Loner.

And great story there, Orbert! :tup :tup

Offline Orbert

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Re: We Are Kansas! Kansas Is A Band! (by Pols Voice's request)
« Reply #40 on: April 23, 2012, 11:10:23 AM »
Sometimes I think that my entire life is just a series of stories and vignettes involving babes.  Then I realize that of course it is, what else is there to life?  Well... music obviously, but the best music stories involve babes anyway, so there you go.

Offline kirksnosehair

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Re: We Are Kansas! Kansas Is A Band! (by Pols Voice's request)
« Reply #41 on: April 24, 2012, 11:52:53 AM »
Saw them live in 1978 in Providence, RI.  Still, to this day, one of my favorite bands of all time.

Offline pg1067

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Re: We Are Kansas! Kansas Is A Band! (by Pols Voice's request)
« Reply #42 on: March 21, 2019, 10:06:20 AM »
I just watched "The Big Interview with Dan Rather" a couple of days ago.  He interviewed Richard Williams, Phil Ehart and the guy who replaced Steve Walsh.  It's only the second "Big Interview" I've ever seen, but damn!  It's a good show.  Rather really pulls some good stuff out of his subjects.  I did, however, find his question to Phil Ehart about his son's autism to be a bit awkward/inappropriate since Phil apparently wasn't prepared that the question was coming.

I also DVR'd "Miracles Out of Nowhere" but haven't watched it yet.  Really looking forward to that.  Kansas was such a uniquely talented band.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2019, 12:30:47 PM by pg1067 »
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Online King Postwhore

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Re: We Are Kansas! Kansas Is A Band! (by Pols Voice's request)
« Reply #43 on: March 21, 2019, 10:28:49 AM »
It's an excellent rock doc but doesn't go through their downslide in the 80's.
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