Studio Album Review: Drastic Measures by Kansas

According to the Wikipedia article for Drastic Measures, during Kansas' Vinyl Confessions tour, Christians had been printing lyrics to their songs into religious tracts and handing them out before concerts. This caused Robby Steinhardt to grow even more displeased with the band's new Christian direction, and he left the band after the tour wrapped up. It's worth noting, however, that the article does not source this piece of information, and the liner notes for the CD-reissue say this is a rumor that is going around the internet being presented as fact. Whatever the reason, this was only the beginning of conflicts within the band. Displeased with some of the reviews the band received of Vinyl Confessions being too derivative of the band's earlier material, John Elefante wanted to take the band in an even newer direction that resembled other modern (at the time) bands like Loverboy and Journey. This caused Kerry Livgren to become displeased with the new direction the band took, musically, only contributing three songs to the new album, holding the rest back for his solo projects. John and his brother Dino contributed the rest of the material.

The opening song is Fight Fire With Fire, a blazing rocker using war imagery as a possible analogue for sharing your faith. As Livgren was attempting to be less overt with the evangelistic lyrics this time around it would make sense if there was a double meaning here, although the band certainly has made songs in tribute to America's soldiers before.

Next is Everybody's My Friend, a tongue-in-cheek song about how everyone wants to be your friend when you become famous, wanting to know if you've met other famous people and calling you at all hours of the night.

Third is Mainstream, the first of only three songs penned by Kerry Livgren on the album. The song is a no punches pulled critique of the state of modern American rock music, how it's packaged and sold with very little actual creativity being supported. There's a rumor going around that it has a double meaning of Livgren being frustrated with the more commercial direction Kansas was heading in but in the liner notes of the CD, Elefante says Livgren didn't have it in him to put down his own band, that the song was much more about how the industry was forcing the band to become more commercial. The song does contain a lengthy instrumental section without much of a solo, using various percussion instruments including a moving accompaniment from a marimba. But nothing overtly progressive sounding here.

After that comes Andi, a song that is pretty puzzling on the face of it. If you pay attention to politics at all, you might think this is a song about a transsexual girl who wants to transition to being a boy. But that would be anachronistic, as transsexualism was still uncontroversially considered a mental disorder called gender dysphoria (and it still is today, despite efforts to normalize it). The song is simply about a girl who is a late bloomer, so to speak, and isn't developing as girls her age should. So the other kids mock her for it and the singer is reassuring her that she will be a woman someday. This song is more atmospheric and less guitar-driven than the other material on this album. Of all the material on this and the previous album, this song sounds the most like it was written in the 80s.

Coming up next is Going Through the Motions, a synth-driven song about someone just going through life without doing much living, just "going through the motions", as it were. One could also wonder if this song was eerily prophetic of the band at this time, as Livgren, himself, seemed to believe that Kansas had exhausted itself artistically at this point.

Get Rich is another song about wealth, this time talking about various historical figures of which the prospect of getting rich was a driving force for them, all the while leaving those who didn't benefit from their endeavors to have to scrape around for themselves.

Don't Take Your Love Away is a song that seems to follow the theme of Get Rich. As a rock star singing for a huge rock band, fame and wealth come with the package. Yet the singer is telling God that none of what he has amassed as a rock singer could ever compare to God's love, so he can have it all just so long as he doesn't take his love away from the singer. Musically, the verses have a soft keyboard playing under them which ramps up with drums and heavy guitars during the choruses, as if to underscore the passion with which the singer doesn't want to lose God's love.

End of the Age is the second of Livgren's three songwriting contributions to the album. The song uses apocalyptic imagery to describe the time when "the reign of man" will come to an end. According to Mark Allan Powell in Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music, Livgren would later maintain he was in a songwriting slump at this time and felt that neither this song nor the next deserved to be on the album. That sort of makes sense in a way, as this song does feel like standard Kansas fare, with the organ and bombastic, almost regal, sounding music, which doesn't really fit the lyrics of the end of the age pulled from Revelation. You'd expect something heavier, with more distortion, for a song like this.

The last song on the album is Incident on a Bridge, which ends the album on a peppy note. The song is about divine appointment, that all things happen for a reason, as "life only comes from the one who made it". Looking back on his life, the singer can see all the events that led up to this one encounter, and all the time spent was not wasted.

Perfect Lover was the last song recorded by Kansas with John Elefante as lead singer. It was recorded for a greatest hits collection. The band had already split at this time with only Elefante, Ehart, and Williams left to record the song. So John's brother Dino was brought in to fill out the sound by playing bass and Bryan Duncan (a Christian pop singer) was brought in to supply backing vocals. The song is basically a straight-ahead rocker with no extended musical interludes or solos. The song is essentially about the singer's vision of the ideal lover, someone that everyone keeps telling him doesn't exist but he continues to insist that she's actually real.

Drastic Measures became Kansas' lowest-charting album since their eponymous debut. With nine songs, it's the first Kansas album to have an odd number of tracks, as well as the first to have nine tracks on it. Tensions with the band were at an all-time high and the band ended up disbanding once the tour ended. Livgren and Hope left to form a new band called A.D. According to the liner notes on the CD reissue, after Steinhardt, Livgren, and Hope all left the band, Elefante just didn't feel like it was Kansas anymore. So he ended up forming a band called Mastedon (which I believe was spelled this way on purpose to differentiate from another band called Mastodon that was around at the time), as well as becoming a music producer, producing successful Christian rock acts such as Petra. Before disbanding completely, however, Livgren, Ehart, and Williams stuck around to record a new song for a greatest hits album called The Best of Kansas, which I've included below for the sake of being exhaustive with Kansas' studio material. When The Best of Kansas was re-printed on CD in 1999, Perfect Lover was dropped and three other songs included. So you can't find the song on CD but it has since been made available on a digital-only collection of songs called Wheels and Other Rarities. But Kansas in its current iteration was done. Kansas would resurrect in a few years, however, but returning to its non-religious roots, and many fans believe the spirit of Kansas was carried on in Livgren and Hope's new band, A.D.

Album: Drastic Measures (1983)
Band: Kansas

John Elefante -- vocals & keyboards
Rich Williams -- guitars
Kerry Livgren -- keyboards, guitars
Dave Hope -- bass

Phil Ehart -- drums

Track list:

01. *Fight Fire With Fire (3:40) -- Elefante, Dino Elefante
02. *Everybody's My Friend (4:06) -- Elefante, Dino Elefante
03. Mainstream (6:36) -- Livgren
04. Andi (4:18) -- Elefante
05. Going Through the Motions (5:46) -- Elefante, Dino Elefante
06. Get Rich (3:44) -- Elefante, Dino Elefante
07. Don't Take Your Love Away (3:43) -- Elefante, Dino Elefante
08. End of the Age (4:33) -- Livgren
09. Incident on a Bridge (5:40) -- Livgren

* denotes a single

Album: The Best of Kansas (1984)
Band: Kansas

06. *Perfect Lover (4:19) -- Elefante, Dino Elefante (with bass by Dino Elefante and backing vocals by Bryan Duncan)

* denotes a single

Studio Album Review: Vinyl Confessions by Kansas

The Audio-Visions tour was when Dave Hope gave his life to Christ after Kerry Livgren and Jeff Pollard (while Le Roux was again touring with Kansas) continued to discuss the matter with him. That brought the number of Christians in the band to two. The new songs Livgren brought in for the band were still evangelical, so Steve Walsh quit the band and took his songs with him. This means not only did Kansas need a new lead singer, it also needed someone who could write songs at least of a similar quality to Steve Walsh. The band eventually settled on John Elefante, who had auditioned without even telling them that he was a Christian. Without even trying now, the number of Christians in the band was three, and a fourth, Warren Ham, would join the band on tour playing saxophone, flute, and harmonica. Even though not every member was a Christian, the band had essentially become a Christian band, as the songs were now dealing with topics that would be of interest to many Christians. Walsh can't be faulted for leaving the band over a disagreement in the direction of the lyrics, and the remaining non-Christian members of the band should be commended for playing the songs with as much authority as they ever have (even more than their previous two outings) and for still giving the songs their all, even though they couldn't sign off on the content.

By this point in their career, Kansas was becoming less a progressive rock band and more a power-pop/rock band. The overall theme of Vinyl Confessions has to do with there being a real good and a real evil in the world, and we can't just stay in the middle. We have to choose which path to follow.

The album opens with Play the Game Tonight which, even though the band was now essentially a Christian band, still earned them their third highest placing single on the charts, beaten only by Carry On Wayward Son and Dust in the Wind. This song is the only one on the album (and one of the few in their entire catalog) not to have been written by the band, with the exception of the songs co-written by Dino Elefante, John's brother. As Mark Allen Powell recounts in the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music, this song was originally called Stay With Me Tonight and was pretty sexually-suggestive, so it was vetoed by the three Christian members of the band (Livgren, Hope, and Elefante). However, they still opted to play the song after changing the lyrics around a bit to move from a sexual one night stand to a musical one night stand. The song is essentially about a band that comes out on stage each night to the roaring of the crowd and plays their hearts out. But even after such a performance, will the audience still remember them tomorrow when the morning comes? This song is a straight ahead rocker with a memorable minor-key piano part under the verses.

Coming up next we have Right Away, a straight-ahead rocker. It's a love song where the singer pleads to the woman of his affections that he needs her to love him right away and not to leave him, remembering all the good times they've shared. For the first song on the album penned by Elefante, it gets the album off to a strong start, as the album is pretty fast-paced from here on out, picking up speed from Play the Game Tonight into Right Away.

Third comes Fair Exchange, a song about a totalitarian society where people are willing to exchange their freedom for safety. Clocking in at five minutes and one second, it's the second longest song on the album. This song is a bit of a heavy rocker and contains a harmonica solo on top of the guitar solo provided by Rich Williams.

Chasing Shadows is next, a tender ballad which asks questions about whether or not the words the singer sings will be heeded by the listener and whether or not they will run from the light, chasing shadows as their legs get tired. This is the only real slow song on the album, being driven by acoustic guitar and soft piano, with a violin solo slightly reminiscent of Dust in the Wind's violin part.

After that comes Diamonds and Pearls, a song about the wealth that comes with success and how riches are ultimately unfulfilling. Only love will last and will not be in vain. This song starts off with a pretty standard Kansas-style intro before moving into bouncier keyboard parts for the verse, providing us with a violin and saxophone solo. Kansas has always been notable for its inclusion of Robby Steinhardt on violin but this album provides some sonic diversity with the inclusion of other instruments, such as a group of horn players called Heart Attack Horns providing some extra instrumentation on this song.

Sixth on the tracklist is Face It, a song that could be about either the singer appealing to his lover that things between them have gotten bad and they can't continue as they are, or a song with a more evangelistic bent about how people need to change their sinful ways and stop "playin' this fool's game". The song starts off with the piano accompanying a violin solo before breaking into a more rock-oriented keyboard-driven song, making this track very reminiscent of Billy Joel's song The Stranger.

Windows is the next song, and offers one of the album's most progressive moments with a violin solo in 5/4 after the second chorus. It's a straight-ahead rocker that doesn't let up from start to finish. It's not exactly very clear what they mean by the "windows of the world", except to say that they're looking through it and these windows are never open all the way. The singer does say seeing is believing but knowing is to get a better view. So perhaps he's simply talking about how one views the world and if one views the world through the lens of faith in God (and Scripture has a lot to say about the world), you'll be able to understand it better than simply by looking at the world from the lens of the world, itself.

Borderline is another straight-ahead rocker that doesn't let up through the whole of the song. This one continues the themes of Diamonds and Pearls, that wealth can never completely satisfy. But this time, the rich man in the song is straddling the fence in the middle. The singer pleads to the man that he can't stay there, he has to make a decision of which way he will go. Until he does, he'll continue to be going nowhere with his life.

Play On is the second-to-last song on the album. It's penned by both Kerry Livgren and John Elefante and is essentially an autobiographical song about why they play music. As Mark Allan Powell mentioned in Encyclopedia of Christian Music, it's almost a worship song to their "Morning Star" who lifts them up, leads them through life, and sets their hearts on fire. Musically, the song starts off relentless (no pun intended) with a powerful drum intro, followed by descending eighth-note triplets in the synth and chords in the piano. The song lets up a bit in the bridge but then kicks back into high gear again for the chorus and guitar solo.

Finally, Crossfire closes out the album. The song is primarily about there being two worlds, a world of darkness and a world of greater love than man has ever known. You're caught in the crossfire between them and have to decide which world you'll be a part of. It's the only song on the entire album which features lead vocals from Robby Steinhardt, and is the only song to even come close to the length of their other progressive numbers. There is a lengthy guitar solo where the band breaks into bars of 6/4 (or perhaps bars of 4/4 with bars of 2/4 between them) for the violin solo.

Audio-Visions really started Kerry Livgren's evangelistic Christian offerings for the band but Vinyl Confessions is evangelistic all the way through. They would tone down this theme of their lyrics for their next album but the Christian nature of the songs would continue to be a source of conflict for the band, leading to Robby Steinhardt quitting and Kansas continuing without a violin for the first time in their career.

Album: Vinyl Confessions (1982)
Band: Kansas

Phil Ehart -- drums
John Elefante -- keyboards, vocals
Dave Hope -- bass
Kerry Livgren -- keyboards, guitars
Robby Steinhardt -- violins, vocals
Rich Williams -- guitars

Track list:

01. *Play the Game Tonight (3:26) -- Livgren, Ehart, Williams, Danny Flower, Rob Frazier
02. *Right Away (4:06) -- Elefante, Dino Elefante
03. Fair Exchange (5:01) -- Livgren
04. *Chasing Shadows (3:20) -- Elefante, Dino Elefante
05. Diamonds and Pearls (4:50) -- Livgren
06. Face It (4:17) -- Elefante, Dino Elefante
07. Windows (3:32) -- Livgren
08. Borderline (4:00) -- Livgren
09. Play On (3:32) -- Livgren, Elefante
10. Crossfire (6:35) -- Livgren

* denotes a single

Studio Album Review: Audio-Visions by Kansas

For their album Monolith, Kerry Livgren had found a counterfeit Jesus in the Jesus of the Urantia Book. Between that album and Audio-Visions, Livgren found the true Jesus of Christianity after debating with Jeff Pollard, the lead vocalist of Le Roux, a band touring with Kansas at the time. And that reality is definitely starting to be reflected in the lyrics of the songs Livgren wrote. Livgren wanted to record a solo album of material presenting a Christian message. Seven of the songs he wrote ended up on his first solo album, Seeds of Change, and four others appeared on this album.

The first song is Relentless, a straight-ahead, upbeat rocker that has a similar form to Carry On Wayward Son, with a guitar-driven intro, then a more piano-driven verse. The song is an autobiographical song about Livgren's conversion to Christianity, which is pretty overt in lyrics such as the second verse, and even an evangelistic appeal in the third verse, stating that the gift is given if you only would receive, and that our lives do not compare to what's awaiting us there (i.e. in heaven).

Next is Anything for You, a mostly piano-driven love song about a man pining for a woman he's fallen for who won't commit to him in return, and no matter how poorly she treats him (e.g. "you tell me lies but I can't let go"), he still wants the relationship to work out because he realizes the way she treats him is a result of some past trauma ("You exist so free and clear/Let no one touch you, let no one near/I think you're just someone afraid of fear/Or what you just might find").

Third up is Hold On, another evangelistic song but this time directed at Kerry's wife, Vicci. It's a guitar-driven song in 6/8 with a wonderful violin melody during the intro and turnarounds. In the song, the Livgren writes that his wife is very close to making the leap into Christianity, and there are certain things in her life that seem to be pointing toward God's existence, so she needs to just hold on because it's closer than she thinks and she's standing on the brink of salvation.

Next is Loner, a blazing rocker written by Steve Walsh that seems to be the antithesis of Anything for You. Loner is a song about how the singer is really a loner at heart, and nothing his lover can do can change that. He feels that he must leave her because of that, and he also believed that she would understand because she knew him.

Curtain of Iron comes up next and is one of only two songs more than five minutes long. The meaning is both literal and figurative. The literal meaning is about the Iron Curtain, a political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union to cut itself off from other noncommunist areas, and from open contact with the West. It was a barrier between freedom and oppression. As Livgren says in his book, Seeds of Change, the symbolic meaning is the spiritual barrier between man and God, with sin acting as a wall of separation between us.

After that comes Got to Rock On, an upbeat rock song that's just about what it sounds like -- the love of music and the desire to keep playing it. It's in a bit of a slower tempo with a rock gallop going on, and for the bridge we are treated to a classical sounding piano part with arpeggios before hitting us with the gallop again for the last chorus.

The next one is Don't Open Your Eyes, a straight-ahead rocker in which the meaning is kind of obscure. It appears to be about a paranoid man who sees danger lurking around every corner, but it's not really clear from the context what is meant by "don't open your eyes too soon 'cause it might be me", especially since at the end of the next verse the singer says "don't open your eyes too soon, it might not be me". This one definitely has an 80's sound to it in the type of keyboard used, something that might have felt at home on a Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack.

No One Together is the last of the Livgren-penned songs on this album. According to the Wikipedia article for this album, it was actually written for inclusion on Monolith, which led to an argument between Livgren and Walsh because Walsh wanted one of his included in that slot for the album. Eventually Walsh won out, the band recording How My Soul Cries Out for You, and eventually recording No One Together for Audio-Visions. It's the second of the two songs to break the five minute mark. It's a fast song which moves into a half-time feel for the bridge. The meaning of the song is about how everything will "come together" only when Christ returns to reign, though it's not exactly made clear by the lyrics. And as the song was written for Monolith, Livgren may have had the Christ of the Urantia Book in mind which he adapted for his newfound Christian beliefs when he got around to recording it.

The second to last song is No Room for a Stranger, a song which seems to be a recurring auditory theme on many of their albums, a gritty rock song with a more mature element to it. In this case, a man's pride has been hurt by his woman, and by her friends who tell him he shouldn't be with her because he's not wealthy. So he thinks about committing suicide or possibly causing her harm if he had more courage and whiskey.

The final song on the album is Back Door, a piano-led ballad about finding the life that you were meant for. This is a song written by Walsh that seems to take a page from Livgren's prior songs about searching and trying to find your place in the universe. This song ends the record on a lighter, more contemplative note.

Like Monolith before it, Audio-Visions would not be remembered as one of Kansas' stronger albums. Livgren and Walsh were both recording solo projects at the time, and one reviewer assumed it was for that reason Kansas became more like a side project for the two, which led to the output suffering. The next two albums would be well known as Kansas' two Christian albums, but I would actually consider Audio-Visions to be Kansas' first Christian rock album (as would Mark Allan Powell, writer of Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music). Walsh tolerated the more Christian-themed songs from Livgren on this album, assuming it was a phase that would pass. But when Livgren came with even more evangelical lyrics for the next album, Walsh decided to leave the band. That makes Audio-Visions the last Kansas album recorded with all the original members intact, with the exception of an album they would record 20 years later (which I'll get to in due time). After Walsh left the band, Kansas had to look for a new lead singer. They would find one, and their meeting would seem almost divinely appointed.

Album: Audio-Visions (1980)
Band: Kansas

Phil Ehart -- drums, percussion, vocals
Dave Hope -- bass, vocals
Kerry Livgren -- guitars, keyboards, percussion, vocals
Robby Steinhardt -- violins, violas, lead vocals
Steve Walsh -- keyboards, vibes, percussion, lead vocals
Rich Williams -- guitars, percussion, vocals

Track list:

01. Relentless (4:57) -- Livgren
02. Anything for You (3:58) -- Walsh
03. *Hold On (3:52) -- Livgren
04. Loner (2:30) -- Walsh
05. Curtain of Iron (6:12) -- Livgren
06. *Got to Rock On (3:19) -- Walsh
07. Don't Open Your Eyes (4:04) -- Walsh, Williams, Livgren, Ehart, & Hope
08. No One Together (6:57) -- Livgren
09. No Room for a Stranger (3:01) -- Williams & Walsh
10. Back Door (4:23) -- Walsh

* denotes a single

Studio Album Review: Monolith by Kansas

Following two smash successes, Kansas would release their sixth studio album, Monolith, a year and a half later which is the longest length of time between releases so far. Between Point of Know Return and Monolith, the band recorded several of their live performances and released the songs on a record called Two for the Show. It's a great recording of an excellent live show with no studio overdubs. If you do want to track it down and give it a listen, look for the 30th anniversary edition which added a second CD of live tracks from the same era. I'll provide a tracklist for Two for the Show at the very end of this review, so you can know which songs are on it.

As far as their studio output is concerned, Kansas sort of settled into a groove that brought more of the same. It's not one of their best albums but it's by no means a bad one. I maintain that Kansas has never recorded a bad album, and just because one is more lackluster compared to albums like Leftoverture and Point of Know Return, that doesn't negate the quality of the album, itself. Kansas released eight quality songs that really sound like they could have been written during the Point of Know Return sessions and simply didn't make the cut. The lyrics on this album were partially inspired by The Urantia Book, which Livgren was devoted to before he converted to Christianity. According to Wikipedia, the word "Urantia" in that religion is the name of the planet Earth and the book intends to "present enlarged concepts and advanced truth." The book aims to unite religion, science, and philosophy, so as Livgren is an intellectual, it sounds like something that's right up his alley. I don't know much beyond that about The Urantia Book, but as Livgren converted to Christianity shortly after, it is evidently incompatible with the Christian faith.

The album starts off with On the Other Side, a song urging his listeners to find the truth (or what he believed to be the truth, at the time), but laments that people will often turn away from it because it's easier to avoid the question, despite knowing where to look and the answers being so simple. Musically, this song starts a more guitar-driven sound for the band that will continue to be utilized in the future. The keyboards and violin are still present and we are still treated to a lengthy instrumental section in an odd time signature.

After that we have People of the South Wind, a song that's more pop-oriented to try and appeal to more people and bring in more fans. The lyrics focus on the Kaw people, for whom the state of Kansas is named. It roughly translates to "people of the south wind". It was also the lead single from the album and earned modest success. According to the Wikipedia entry for this album, Rich Williams once called the song the band's "most pop moment", calling out the happy disco drum beat, whereas their songs were usually deeper, more introspective, and in a minor key.

Third comes Angels Have Fallen, a piano-led song which seems to be talking about someone who doesn't like to show people who he really is and acts differently around them, possibly for fear that they won't like him. It's up to him to search for people who are his "true friends", people who will accept him for who he is and not want him to try to be someone he's not. The lyrics of this song are one that I can definitely relate to.

Coming up next is How My Soul Cries Out for You, a blazing rocker that's simply about a man who realizes he needs his lover as much as she needs him, and his "soul cries out for her". The way they ended this song was kind of different. It mostly fades out, but then it starts to fade back in again, stopping at a much lower volume than the rest of the song, and then it speeds up like you're fast-forwarding a cassette tape, and then it moves on to the next song. It's not that rare for a rock song to fade out, but they kind of played with that a little here on this track.

After that we come to A Glimpse of Home. This is one of the longest tracks on the album but it's basically a straight-ahead rocker, with an extended guitar solo in the middle that never deviates from a 4/4 time signature. The song is about Christ, but the Christ of the Urantia book, not Christianity. Reflecting on it in his book, Seeds of Change, he would remember it as an irony that he thought he had found the answers he was searching for but in reality he still hadn't arrived yet. He found the title prophetic -- he had only attained a glimpse of home whereas finding the true source of joy was still a short ways off.

Coming up next is Away from You, a song that starts off with an organ intro slightly reminiscent of Boston's Foreplay intro to Long Time, before emerging with a fast strummed guitar for the verse and a swing feel for the chorus. This is a song about losing someone you care about and wanting to renew the relationship. He starts off reminiscing that as he looked forward in life when he was younger, he never would have known that "gambling with fate" would cause him to end up alone. But no matter how far he is apart from the one he loves, nothing can take him all the way away from her.

The penultimate song on this album is Stay Out of Trouble, a dirty rock song with chunky guitars reminiscent of their earlier songs Down the Road or Bringing it Back. The song is essentially what it sounds like. It's a song appealing to the protagonist to stay out of trouble. He's someone who has been hurt before and now that pain affects his relationships, or lack thereof, and might get him killed if he's not careful.

Finally, we have Reason to Be, another pop-oriented song with synthesized strings in the background which lends to it being a nicer, calmer track than they're used to playing. This is a song about finding your purpose in life, and once you do, everything else seems to fade away and the rest of your life, like a comedy. In light of A Glimpse of Home, we know that this feeling was temporary as Livgren was still a short time away from finding lasting peace and joy, but he would eventually find it, as would be evidenced by the next album Kansas released.

With eight songs, Monolith certainly isn't the album with the fewest songs on it (Song for America still claims that title, with six songs). In fact, in Kansas' first decade, eight songs was essentially the average number of songs for a Kansas album. Kansas, Masque, Leftoverture, and Monolith all have eight songs. Song for America has the fewest with six, and Point of Know Return has the most with ten. Monolith would close out Kansas' first decade on a less than stellar note, but still, after recording and releasing so many albums in such short succession, every album can't necessarily be a winner. Monolith is not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely won't be one of the albums you return to first if you want to refresh yourself with their output from the 70's. A few months after this album was released, Kerry Livgren would find the Jesus of Christianity, and bassist Dave Hope would follow. Their next album would be where Livgren's newfound faith would start to appear in his music.

Album: Monolith (1979)
Band: Kansas

Phil Ehart -- drums
Dave Hope -- bass
Kerry Livgren -- guitars, keyboards
Robby Steinhardt -- violin, lead and backing vocals, anvil
Steve Walsh -- keyboards, lead and backing vocals
Rich Williams -- guitars

Track list:

01. On the Other Side (6:24) -- Livgren
02. *People of the South Wind (3:39) -- Livgren
03. Angels Have Fallen (6:37) -- Walsh (backing vocals by The O.K. Chorale)
04. How My Soul Cries Out for You (5:41) -- Walsh
05. A Glimpse of Home (6:34) -- Livgren
06. Away from You (4:23) -- Walsh
07. Stay Out of Trouble (4:12) -- Walsh, Steinhardt, Williams
08. *Reason to Be (3:51) -- Livgren

* denotes a single

Live Album: Two for the Show (1978)
Band: Kansas

Phil Ehart -- percussion
Dave Hope -- bass
Kerry Livgren -- keyboards & guitars
Robby Steinhardt -- violin and vocals
Steve Walsh -- vocals and keyboards
Rich Williams -- guitars

Track list:

Disc 1 (original version)

01. Song for America (from Song for America)
02. Point of Know Return (from Point of Know Return)
03. Paradox (from Point of Know Return)
04. Icarus -- Borne on Wings of Steel (from Masque)
05. Portrait (He Knew) (from Point of Know Return)
06. Carry on Wayward Son (from Leftoverture)
07. Journey from Mariabronn (from Kansas)
08. Dust in the Wind, ~acoustic guitar solo~ (from Point of Know Return)
09. *Lonely Wind, ~piano solo~ (from Kansas)
10. Mysteries and Mayhem (from Masque)
11. Excerpt from Lamplight Symphony (from Song for America)
12. The Wall (from Leftoverture)
13. Magnum Opus (from Leftoverture)

Disc 2 (30th anniversary re-release)

01. Hopelessly Human (from Point of Know Return)
02. Child of Innocence (from Masque)
03. Belexes (from Kansas)
04. Cheyenne Anthem (from Leftoverture)
05. Lonely Street (from Song for America)
06. Miracles Out of Nowhere (from Leftoverture)
07. ~drum solo~, The Spider (from Point of Know Return)
08. Closet Chronicles (from Point of Know Return)
09. Down the Road (from Song for America)
10. Sparks of the Tempest (from Point of Know Return)
11. Bringing it Back (from Kansas)

* denotes a single