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
Monday, June 15, 2020
Saturday, June 13, 2020
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
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
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Studio Album Review: Point of Know Return by Kansas
Point of Know Return was the follow-up to Leftoverture and released just the next year. Steve Walsh had gotten over his writer's block and contributed to more of the writing on this album. Just about everyone knows their song Carry On Wayward Son. But this album contains the two other songs that even non-fans will be familiar with. Everyone knows Dust in the Wind (it's even become fairly popular in pop culture), and to a lesser extent, the opening title track of the album, Point of Know Return. Point of Know Return is a play on "point of no return". Like Leftoverture, it is a tongue-in-cheek album title, though the album's songs are more serious than the album title might let on. At 10 songs, it's also the album with the largest number of songs so far. Even so, I would say there's not a bad song in the bunch.
The album starts off with Point of Know Return, a strong opener that begins with the entire band full-bore. The cover art for the album is a ship falling off the edge of the earth (which is sort of a myth that people used to believe this; even in the time of the ancient Greeks, it was widely accepted the earth is spherical. In fact, Eratosthenes was able to accurately calculate the circumference of the earth over 2,000 years ago). The song plays into this theme, being about a sailing crew and all the dangers associated with sailing the ocean including the possible danger of sailing off the edge of the world and passing the "point of no return" to where you won't be able to turn back. According to the liner notes of the remastered edition, there was no real reason the band spelled the title "know" instead of "no". It was simply at the suggestion of their manager, Budd Carr. The band thought it was funny and would mess with people's minds.
Next is Paradox, a song that keeps up the momentum established by Point of Know Return with a blazing organ intro. The song itself returns to the familiar Kansas theme of searching, a paradox being a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well-founded or true. This song explores the paradox of having "seen it all", and yet believing there must be more. Of course, Livgren's conversion was still a couple of years away, but this is reminiscent of C.S. Lewis' well-known argument from desire, that since all natural desires have fulfillments, if we have a desire which nothing in this world can satisfy, it follows we were made for another world. Livgren seems to have found the fulfillment of that desire now.
Coming up third we have The Spider, a short instrumental tune. It's really more of a keyboard feature between Walsh and Livgren, with changing time signatures and virtuosic playing. The piece is in constant movement, evoking mental images of a spider moving around on its eight legs, movement which has always been kind of creepy to many people, myself included.
After that, we have Portrait (He Knew), a song written about Albert Einstein. The song is not just about how brilliant Einstein was, but the fact that his intellect had reached a higher plane than anyone else's, a true visionary who could see into the future. After Livgren became a Christian and Kansas split up for the first time in the 80s, Livgren would go on to form another band called AD. In 1988, for that band's Prime Mover album, Livgren updated this song and called it Portrait II, adapting the words to be about Christ.
Next is Closet Chronicles, the first of only two songs on the album to run over five minutes. The song in an allegory of Howard Hughes, an aviator, manufacturer, and movie producer. The song makes allusions to certain facts about his life, such as the singer gazing out the window of the 42nd floor, a reference to the Las Vegas Desert Inn hotel he purchased, and the fact he was a reclusive loner. The music for this song sounds a lot more regal than the other tracks, and is the most progressive-sounding track on the album so far, with the possible exception of The Spider.
The sixth song on the album is Lightning's Hand. This is more of a deep cut, but at least in 2001 for their Device-Voice-Drum live DVD, they performed a portion of it combined with Belexes (from their first album). This song probably rocks the hardest on this album, including a chaotic solo from the electric guitar and synth to reference the chaotic nature of lightning. Lightning's Hand is about the destructive power of lightning and an entity, possibly Thor, who is able to control it. It would make sense for the song to be about Thor, as Thor is a Norse god and the Norse vikings were sailing men who explored other areas by sea. So not only do we have the destructive power of lightning after the dangers of the ocean, but we also have sailing men who fear this god as they respect the ocean.
Now we arrive at Dust in the Wind, probably the most well-known Kansas song. It's driven by acoustic guitar and features a violin solo by Steinhardt after the second verse and chorus. The song was originally written by Kerry Livgren as a picking exercise to learn fingerpicking on the guitar, but his wife liked the melody so much she encouraged Livgren to write lyrics for it and take it to the band. They accepted it and it was recorded on the album. The lyrics were inspired by Livgren's reading of Indian poetry and convey a sense of the emptiness of life, how humans are insignificant considering the surrounding universe and the fact that we live only a brief time compared to "the earth and sky".
Sparks of the Tempest comes in next. This one is another heavy rocker, being driven by crunchy electric guitar. This is a song about totalitarianism, broadly, or communism, more narrowly. It was written after Livgren read George Orwell's 1984, which you can tell from such lines as "Big Brother is watching and he likes what he sees/A world for the taking when he's ready to squeeze". Other lines, such as "they mold you and shape you", and "the less that you know the more you fall into place" evoke their warning about communism.
Nobody's Home comes in as the penultimate song, and the music is kind of deceiving. The music fits the theme of the song but the lyrics are probably the most progressive-y lyrics Livgren has written, as progressive rock songs usually contain science fiction lyrics. This song is about a friendly extraterrestrial who visits earth, only to find mankind extinct because of being devastated by nuclear war. So literally "nobody's home". I say the music is kind of deceptive because in songs with a science fiction theme, you usually expect a lot of weird synth sound effects and things like that, but this one is basically a straight ahead dirge for mankind from the perspective of this extraterrestrial, complete with piano in the high register to underscore the somber third verse: "No requiem was ever sung, no elegy was read/No monument was carved in stone in memory of the dead".
The last song on the album is Hopelessly Human, the longest song on the album which closes the album with a fantastic progressive rock tune. The meaning of this one is obscure. He talks about the "brainstorm of youth" being a strange aberration. Perhaps the meaning of the song is now that he's older, reflecting upon his youth has helped him to see things that he couldn't see now that he's older without taking that into account.
Point of Know Return is an excellent album, from start to finish. With Leftoverture, it was one of their best-selling albums which didn't focus so much on familiar lyrical territory and instead had a bit more lyrical diversity, even finding inspiration in real life people.
Album: Point of Know Return (1977)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- drums, chimes, chain-driven gong, timpani, percussion
Dave Hope -- bass, autogyro
Kerry Livgren -- electric and acoustic guitars, piano, clavinet, synthesizers, Rinaldo whistling machine, percussion
Robby Steinhardt -- violin, viola, Faucen lap cello, vocals
Steve Walsh -- organ, piano, celeste, vibes, Peabody chromatic inverter, synthesizers, vocals, percussion
Rich Williams -- electric and acoustic guitars, Benis bow pedal
Track list:
01. *Point of Know Return (3:11) --Walsh, Ehart, Steinhardt
02. Paradox (3:51) -- Livgren, Walsh
03. The Spider (2:05) -- Walsh
04. *Portrait (He Knew) (4:37) -- Livgren, Walsh
05. Closet Chronicles (6:30) -- Walsh, Livgren
06. Lightning's Hand (4:24) -- Walsh, Livgren
07. *Dust in the Wind (3:26) -- Livgren
08. Sparks of the Tempest (4:15) -- Livgren, Walsh
09. Nobody's Home (4:40) -- Livgren, Walsh
10. Hopelessly Human (7:08) -- Livgren
* denotes a single
The album starts off with Point of Know Return, a strong opener that begins with the entire band full-bore. The cover art for the album is a ship falling off the edge of the earth (which is sort of a myth that people used to believe this; even in the time of the ancient Greeks, it was widely accepted the earth is spherical. In fact, Eratosthenes was able to accurately calculate the circumference of the earth over 2,000 years ago). The song plays into this theme, being about a sailing crew and all the dangers associated with sailing the ocean including the possible danger of sailing off the edge of the world and passing the "point of no return" to where you won't be able to turn back. According to the liner notes of the remastered edition, there was no real reason the band spelled the title "know" instead of "no". It was simply at the suggestion of their manager, Budd Carr. The band thought it was funny and would mess with people's minds.
Next is Paradox, a song that keeps up the momentum established by Point of Know Return with a blazing organ intro. The song itself returns to the familiar Kansas theme of searching, a paradox being a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well-founded or true. This song explores the paradox of having "seen it all", and yet believing there must be more. Of course, Livgren's conversion was still a couple of years away, but this is reminiscent of C.S. Lewis' well-known argument from desire, that since all natural desires have fulfillments, if we have a desire which nothing in this world can satisfy, it follows we were made for another world. Livgren seems to have found the fulfillment of that desire now.
Coming up third we have The Spider, a short instrumental tune. It's really more of a keyboard feature between Walsh and Livgren, with changing time signatures and virtuosic playing. The piece is in constant movement, evoking mental images of a spider moving around on its eight legs, movement which has always been kind of creepy to many people, myself included.
After that, we have Portrait (He Knew), a song written about Albert Einstein. The song is not just about how brilliant Einstein was, but the fact that his intellect had reached a higher plane than anyone else's, a true visionary who could see into the future. After Livgren became a Christian and Kansas split up for the first time in the 80s, Livgren would go on to form another band called AD. In 1988, for that band's Prime Mover album, Livgren updated this song and called it Portrait II, adapting the words to be about Christ.
Next is Closet Chronicles, the first of only two songs on the album to run over five minutes. The song in an allegory of Howard Hughes, an aviator, manufacturer, and movie producer. The song makes allusions to certain facts about his life, such as the singer gazing out the window of the 42nd floor, a reference to the Las Vegas Desert Inn hotel he purchased, and the fact he was a reclusive loner. The music for this song sounds a lot more regal than the other tracks, and is the most progressive-sounding track on the album so far, with the possible exception of The Spider.
The sixth song on the album is Lightning's Hand. This is more of a deep cut, but at least in 2001 for their Device-Voice-Drum live DVD, they performed a portion of it combined with Belexes (from their first album). This song probably rocks the hardest on this album, including a chaotic solo from the electric guitar and synth to reference the chaotic nature of lightning. Lightning's Hand is about the destructive power of lightning and an entity, possibly Thor, who is able to control it. It would make sense for the song to be about Thor, as Thor is a Norse god and the Norse vikings were sailing men who explored other areas by sea. So not only do we have the destructive power of lightning after the dangers of the ocean, but we also have sailing men who fear this god as they respect the ocean.
Now we arrive at Dust in the Wind, probably the most well-known Kansas song. It's driven by acoustic guitar and features a violin solo by Steinhardt after the second verse and chorus. The song was originally written by Kerry Livgren as a picking exercise to learn fingerpicking on the guitar, but his wife liked the melody so much she encouraged Livgren to write lyrics for it and take it to the band. They accepted it and it was recorded on the album. The lyrics were inspired by Livgren's reading of Indian poetry and convey a sense of the emptiness of life, how humans are insignificant considering the surrounding universe and the fact that we live only a brief time compared to "the earth and sky".
Sparks of the Tempest comes in next. This one is another heavy rocker, being driven by crunchy electric guitar. This is a song about totalitarianism, broadly, or communism, more narrowly. It was written after Livgren read George Orwell's 1984, which you can tell from such lines as "Big Brother is watching and he likes what he sees/A world for the taking when he's ready to squeeze". Other lines, such as "they mold you and shape you", and "the less that you know the more you fall into place" evoke their warning about communism.
Nobody's Home comes in as the penultimate song, and the music is kind of deceiving. The music fits the theme of the song but the lyrics are probably the most progressive-y lyrics Livgren has written, as progressive rock songs usually contain science fiction lyrics. This song is about a friendly extraterrestrial who visits earth, only to find mankind extinct because of being devastated by nuclear war. So literally "nobody's home". I say the music is kind of deceptive because in songs with a science fiction theme, you usually expect a lot of weird synth sound effects and things like that, but this one is basically a straight ahead dirge for mankind from the perspective of this extraterrestrial, complete with piano in the high register to underscore the somber third verse: "No requiem was ever sung, no elegy was read/No monument was carved in stone in memory of the dead".
The last song on the album is Hopelessly Human, the longest song on the album which closes the album with a fantastic progressive rock tune. The meaning of this one is obscure. He talks about the "brainstorm of youth" being a strange aberration. Perhaps the meaning of the song is now that he's older, reflecting upon his youth has helped him to see things that he couldn't see now that he's older without taking that into account.
Point of Know Return is an excellent album, from start to finish. With Leftoverture, it was one of their best-selling albums which didn't focus so much on familiar lyrical territory and instead had a bit more lyrical diversity, even finding inspiration in real life people.
Album: Point of Know Return (1977)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- drums, chimes, chain-driven gong, timpani, percussion
Dave Hope -- bass, autogyro
Kerry Livgren -- electric and acoustic guitars, piano, clavinet, synthesizers, Rinaldo whistling machine, percussion
Robby Steinhardt -- violin, viola, Faucen lap cello, vocals
Steve Walsh -- organ, piano, celeste, vibes, Peabody chromatic inverter, synthesizers, vocals, percussion
Rich Williams -- electric and acoustic guitars, Benis bow pedal
Track list:
01. *Point of Know Return (3:11) --Walsh, Ehart, Steinhardt
02. Paradox (3:51) -- Livgren, Walsh
03. The Spider (2:05) -- Walsh
04. *Portrait (He Knew) (4:37) -- Livgren, Walsh
05. Closet Chronicles (6:30) -- Walsh, Livgren
06. Lightning's Hand (4:24) -- Walsh, Livgren
07. *Dust in the Wind (3:26) -- Livgren
08. Sparks of the Tempest (4:15) -- Livgren, Walsh
09. Nobody's Home (4:40) -- Livgren, Walsh
10. Hopelessly Human (7:08) -- Livgren
* denotes a single
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Studio Album Review: Leftoverture by Kansas
Leftoverture is one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded. The band really struck gold when they recorded and released it. At this time, Steve Walsh was having writer's block, so the album is largely a Livgren-penned affair, with Walsh co-writing three of the eight songs (with the rest of the band also receiving songwriting credits on the last song). This album continues many of the themes from Masque but offers a more hopeful outlook than that album did.
The first song is the Kansas song everyone knows. Carry On Wayward Son is just a great all-around rock song. On Masque, the band tried to write a hit song that was in one time signature all the way through. Ironically, the band got their first legitimate hit with this song, which alternates between sections in 4/4 and sections in 12/8. Considering how great a song this is, one might be tempted just to think it was just that: a great rock tune. Some have even speculated this song is about the prodigal son from the Bible. This interpretation is unlikely, as Livgren's conversion was still a few years away. However, if we consider Kansas' output in context, the song is rife with symbolism and becomes easier to understand. Livgren wrote Carry On as a sequel to The Pinnacle, so the song picks up where The Pinnacle left off. The first verse of Carry On begins, "Once I rose above the noise and confusion". The Pinnacle ended with "I stood where no man goes, above the din I rose/Life is amusing though we are losing/Drowned in tears of awe". "Din" means "a loud, confused noise". So Carry On is continuing where The Pinnacle finished by showing what happened after he rose above the din. Carry On could be seen as the third part in a trilogy: Mysteries and Mayhem, The Pinnacle, Carry On Wayward Son. Additionally, Carry On seems to continue some of the imagery from Masque, where Walsh sings "I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high", which could be an allusion to the myth of Icarus, which Livgren used to great effect for a song on the Masque album. So Livgren may still be contemplating death but this time with an added air of hope: "Carry on my wayward son/There'll be peace when you are done", and explaining that "now your life's no longer empty/Surely heaven waits for you".
Next up, we have The Wall, which continues the theme of hope regarding one's inability to escape death and see what waits ahead. The wall is a barrier that the protagonist has erected within himself and prevents him from obtaining peace and happiness. He knows he has to tear it down, so what's keeping him from doing so? In Seeds of Change, Livgren says he believes The Wall and The Pinnacle to be the best lyrics he's ever written (and it's hard to disagree with him). He says the wall was in him, and he didn't have the power to remove this barrier that was keeping him from the joy and harmony he desperately desired.
Third we have What's On My Mind. This one is a straight ahead rocker, and the lyrics are pretty much just a love song about how the relationship he's in has been mutually beneficial: she's made him a better man and they open each other's minds. Writing another love song was undoubtedly due to their label's constant pressure to be more commercially viable as a band, but this song is better than either of the two love songs on Masque. Musically, there's not a whole lot to talk about.
After that we have an absolute masterpiece of a song, Miracles Out of Nowhere. Of all the songs Kansas has ever written, The Pinnacle and Miracles Out of Nowhere are definitely in my top five. This is one of my very favorite songs they've ever done. They return to the overall theme of the album in this one, Livgren's search for spiritual truth. Each verse catches a different phenomenon, the beauty of the dawn, the ravings of a lunatic or visionary, and finally Livgren's sense of futility in his created work. Each phenomenon raises existential questions he struggles to find answers to. This is one of Kansas' more complex songs, including a lengthy instrumental interlude after the second chorus where the band moves into playing a fugue in 7/4 time where the synthesizer, electric guitar, and violin all get a chance to shine, and once the drums come in, the fugue continues but with more time signature changes, which could symbolize Livgren's confusion and the turmoil in his mind.
Fifth, we have Opus Insert. An opus is a composition by a particular composer (so in a work of classical music, if it says, for example, "Op. 16," that would be either the 16th piece that composer composed or perhaps the 16th piece cataloged by the person or organization grouping the music together). So I'm a little puzzled by the name "opus insert". I might guess it's a tongue-in-cheek reference to throwing in a song that is usually considered "filler" because they have an obligation to their label as per their contract. The problem with this theory, however, is that Opus Insert is a good song, certainly not filler, and even considered a classic by some. The solo in this song sounds a bit circus-y, with marching drums by Ehart and Walsh alternating between vibraphone and piano. Lyrically, this song fits the theme of searching that Livgren was well-known for, albeit a bit more optimistic than the material on Masque.
Coming up next we have Questions of My Childhood, a straight-ahead rocker from start to finish but moves to a half-time feel for the bridge. In this one, Livgren reflects on the questions he had as a child and how he hasn't yet found the answers. He believes the answers are out there and the journey will be made easier and more meaningful if he has a companion to share the journey with.
The penultimate song is Cheyenne Anthem. Cheyenne, of course, is a Native American tribe. The song here returns to the themes of Death of Mother Nature Suite and Song for America. In this case, Livgren takes on the voice of a Cheyenne and reflects how they think of nature, that it's not owned by anyone so we ought to share it peacefully. It goes even further, though, to talk about the Indians being attacked and moved by white settlers. The song is primarily a slower song, led by guitar, until the solo starts and it kicks into high gear, before slowing back down for the final verse.
Last we have Magnum Opus, Kansas' first instrumental piece. The piece is in six movements. The second movement has lyrics but the rest is purely instrumental. "Magnum opus" means a large and important work of art, usually used to express the most important work of an artist's career. Maybe the title was meant to express that this was one of their more ambitious works, having to rely primarily on the music to express the meaning. It clocks in at around eight and a half minutes long, so with five movements each one is pretty short.
Leftoverture (a portmanteau of "leftover" and "overture") was Kansas' first big hit as a band, primarily on the strength of Carry On Wayward Son, although this is definitely their best album so far in terms of overall quality of the music. There's another song that is very well-known, even by non-fans, which appears on the next album, another strong one from this band.
Album: Leftoverture (1976)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- drums, percussion
Dave Hope -- bass guitar
Kerry Livgren -- electric guitar, piano, clavinet, moog, Oberheim, and ARP synthesizers
Robby Steinhardt -- violin, viola, lead and backing vocals
Steve Walsh -- organ, piano, additional synthesizers, vibraphone, lead and backing vocals
Rich Williams -- electric and acoustic guitars
Track list:
1. *Carry On Wayward Son (5:23) -- Livgren
2. The Wall (4:48) -- Livgren, Walsh
3. *What's On My Mind (3:29) -- Livgren
4. Miracles Out of Nowhere (6:27) -- Livgren
5. Opus Insert (4:26) -- Livgren
6. Questions of My Childhood (3:37) -- Walsh, Livgren
7. Cheyenne Anthem (6:53) -- Livgren (Toye LaRocca and Cheryl Norman, children's voices)
8. Magnum Opus (8:26) -- Livgren, Walsh, Williams, Hope, Ehart, Steinhardt
a. Father Padilla Meets the Perfect Gnat
b. Howling at the Moon
c. Man Overboard
d. Industry on Parade
e. Release the Beavers
f. Gnat Attack
* denotes a single
The first song is the Kansas song everyone knows. Carry On Wayward Son is just a great all-around rock song. On Masque, the band tried to write a hit song that was in one time signature all the way through. Ironically, the band got their first legitimate hit with this song, which alternates between sections in 4/4 and sections in 12/8. Considering how great a song this is, one might be tempted just to think it was just that: a great rock tune. Some have even speculated this song is about the prodigal son from the Bible. This interpretation is unlikely, as Livgren's conversion was still a few years away. However, if we consider Kansas' output in context, the song is rife with symbolism and becomes easier to understand. Livgren wrote Carry On as a sequel to The Pinnacle, so the song picks up where The Pinnacle left off. The first verse of Carry On begins, "Once I rose above the noise and confusion". The Pinnacle ended with "I stood where no man goes, above the din I rose/Life is amusing though we are losing/Drowned in tears of awe". "Din" means "a loud, confused noise". So Carry On is continuing where The Pinnacle finished by showing what happened after he rose above the din. Carry On could be seen as the third part in a trilogy: Mysteries and Mayhem, The Pinnacle, Carry On Wayward Son. Additionally, Carry On seems to continue some of the imagery from Masque, where Walsh sings "I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high", which could be an allusion to the myth of Icarus, which Livgren used to great effect for a song on the Masque album. So Livgren may still be contemplating death but this time with an added air of hope: "Carry on my wayward son/There'll be peace when you are done", and explaining that "now your life's no longer empty/Surely heaven waits for you".
Next up, we have The Wall, which continues the theme of hope regarding one's inability to escape death and see what waits ahead. The wall is a barrier that the protagonist has erected within himself and prevents him from obtaining peace and happiness. He knows he has to tear it down, so what's keeping him from doing so? In Seeds of Change, Livgren says he believes The Wall and The Pinnacle to be the best lyrics he's ever written (and it's hard to disagree with him). He says the wall was in him, and he didn't have the power to remove this barrier that was keeping him from the joy and harmony he desperately desired.
Third we have What's On My Mind. This one is a straight ahead rocker, and the lyrics are pretty much just a love song about how the relationship he's in has been mutually beneficial: she's made him a better man and they open each other's minds. Writing another love song was undoubtedly due to their label's constant pressure to be more commercially viable as a band, but this song is better than either of the two love songs on Masque. Musically, there's not a whole lot to talk about.
After that we have an absolute masterpiece of a song, Miracles Out of Nowhere. Of all the songs Kansas has ever written, The Pinnacle and Miracles Out of Nowhere are definitely in my top five. This is one of my very favorite songs they've ever done. They return to the overall theme of the album in this one, Livgren's search for spiritual truth. Each verse catches a different phenomenon, the beauty of the dawn, the ravings of a lunatic or visionary, and finally Livgren's sense of futility in his created work. Each phenomenon raises existential questions he struggles to find answers to. This is one of Kansas' more complex songs, including a lengthy instrumental interlude after the second chorus where the band moves into playing a fugue in 7/4 time where the synthesizer, electric guitar, and violin all get a chance to shine, and once the drums come in, the fugue continues but with more time signature changes, which could symbolize Livgren's confusion and the turmoil in his mind.
Fifth, we have Opus Insert. An opus is a composition by a particular composer (so in a work of classical music, if it says, for example, "Op. 16," that would be either the 16th piece that composer composed or perhaps the 16th piece cataloged by the person or organization grouping the music together). So I'm a little puzzled by the name "opus insert". I might guess it's a tongue-in-cheek reference to throwing in a song that is usually considered "filler" because they have an obligation to their label as per their contract. The problem with this theory, however, is that Opus Insert is a good song, certainly not filler, and even considered a classic by some. The solo in this song sounds a bit circus-y, with marching drums by Ehart and Walsh alternating between vibraphone and piano. Lyrically, this song fits the theme of searching that Livgren was well-known for, albeit a bit more optimistic than the material on Masque.
Coming up next we have Questions of My Childhood, a straight-ahead rocker from start to finish but moves to a half-time feel for the bridge. In this one, Livgren reflects on the questions he had as a child and how he hasn't yet found the answers. He believes the answers are out there and the journey will be made easier and more meaningful if he has a companion to share the journey with.
The penultimate song is Cheyenne Anthem. Cheyenne, of course, is a Native American tribe. The song here returns to the themes of Death of Mother Nature Suite and Song for America. In this case, Livgren takes on the voice of a Cheyenne and reflects how they think of nature, that it's not owned by anyone so we ought to share it peacefully. It goes even further, though, to talk about the Indians being attacked and moved by white settlers. The song is primarily a slower song, led by guitar, until the solo starts and it kicks into high gear, before slowing back down for the final verse.
Last we have Magnum Opus, Kansas' first instrumental piece. The piece is in six movements. The second movement has lyrics but the rest is purely instrumental. "Magnum opus" means a large and important work of art, usually used to express the most important work of an artist's career. Maybe the title was meant to express that this was one of their more ambitious works, having to rely primarily on the music to express the meaning. It clocks in at around eight and a half minutes long, so with five movements each one is pretty short.
Leftoverture (a portmanteau of "leftover" and "overture") was Kansas' first big hit as a band, primarily on the strength of Carry On Wayward Son, although this is definitely their best album so far in terms of overall quality of the music. There's another song that is very well-known, even by non-fans, which appears on the next album, another strong one from this band.
Album: Leftoverture (1976)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- drums, percussion
Dave Hope -- bass guitar
Kerry Livgren -- electric guitar, piano, clavinet, moog, Oberheim, and ARP synthesizers
Robby Steinhardt -- violin, viola, lead and backing vocals
Steve Walsh -- organ, piano, additional synthesizers, vibraphone, lead and backing vocals
Rich Williams -- electric and acoustic guitars
Track list:
1. *Carry On Wayward Son (5:23) -- Livgren
2. The Wall (4:48) -- Livgren, Walsh
3. *What's On My Mind (3:29) -- Livgren
4. Miracles Out of Nowhere (6:27) -- Livgren
5. Opus Insert (4:26) -- Livgren
6. Questions of My Childhood (3:37) -- Walsh, Livgren
7. Cheyenne Anthem (6:53) -- Livgren (Toye LaRocca and Cheryl Norman, children's voices)
8. Magnum Opus (8:26) -- Livgren, Walsh, Williams, Hope, Ehart, Steinhardt
a. Father Padilla Meets the Perfect Gnat
b. Howling at the Moon
c. Man Overboard
d. Industry on Parade
e. Release the Beavers
f. Gnat Attack
* denotes a single
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Studio Album Review: Masque by Kansas
Kansas' third album, Masque, was released in the same year as Song for America, which is almost unheard of today. It was their third album in roughly a year and a half, but as the liner notes of Song for America (remastered) says, this was a particularly prolific time for Kerry Livgren as a songwriter.
The first song on the album is It Takes a Woman's Love (to Make a Man). This song is an upbeat opener but not a very strong start to the album. The band can't be faulted -- the reason for the song was their label was on them for a hit single, so this was their attempt to write one for their label: something that was "a little shorter than 12 minutes" that you could tap your feet to and was in the same time signature from beginning to end. Needless to say, it didn't become a hit. The song is just a basic love song about how a man isn't complete without the love of a woman. There's nothing really remarkable about the song. True to Kansas' nature, the great songs are the longer ones.
Up next, we have Two Cents' Worth. The lyrical content of this album tends to be much darker than on the previous albums, dealing with things like death and the inability to find meaning from life (which may have ultimately helped lead to Livgren's later conversion to Christianity). This particular song is upbeat and catchy (certainly better than the first track) and yet the singer talks about how he's been drinking because the seeming emptiness of life has gotten him down. He even seems to bring the listener into his discussion because in the last verse Walsh agrees we may think that he's wrong and he wishes he could see things our way.
Third comes Icarus (Borne on Wings of Steel). Like Song for America, this is another one of Kansas' signature songs that they still play live today. This song uses the myth of Icarus as an allegory. Icarus was given wings of feathers that were affixed to his body with wax. He was warned not to fly too close to the sun, yet his sense of freedom while he flew caused him to disregard this warning. He flew too close to the sun, the wax melted, and Icarus fell to his death. In this case, "borne on wings of steel" could likely refer to an airplane, and how flying gives a pilot a sense of freedom as he's able to leave the earth. If he lost the wings, the pilot would surely die just as without that sense of freedom Livgren would die, or he would at least feel lost. This song is one of the lengthier songs on this album and has some great musical moments, one of my favorites being the electric guitar adding a distorted melodic counterpoint to the violin, which is playing a descending eighth note figure. Kansas uses the string instruments, including one not usually found in rock bands, to great effect.
Coming up next we have All the World, which is, for the most part, a piano ballad similar to Lonely Wind from Kansas, except in this song the piano occasionally drops out for some heavier guitar or synth to take over. The end of the song has a rare a cappella section. There is also one musical misstep, in my opinion, which is incredibly rare on a Kansas recording. At the end before they move into the a cappella outro, rather than simply have Livgren stop the synth, they actually just fade it out in the mix and it sounds jarring. I wish they would have simply had Livgren stop playing altogether before coming having Walsh come back in with the vocals. But it's a relatively small nitpick in an otherwise strong ballad that breaks into a 7/4 instrumental section which is led by the synth, with brief periods of 3/4 between each musical phrase, leading the synth up to a new set of notes to play while the band plays a new progression of chords. As for the lyrics, it's the most optimistic song on the album. It's basically a petition to humanity to stop living selfishly and to live lives that forgive each other, leaving despair and loneliness behind.
After that we have Child of Innocence, another signature song that still gets played today. This one is primarily a straight-ahead rocker. This song returns to the theme of death and its inescapable reality. The "child of innocence" tends to think that it happens to others and not himself, but the subject of the song, the grim reaper (as is made obvious by lines such as "still you try to flee my blade", a reference to the scythe that the reaper is often imagined to carry), sings this song to the "child of innocence" to tell him to be prepared because he will die one day, too. It's something that happens to everyone and there's no escape.
The next song is It's You, which is another short love song. Listening to this song paired with the first one on this album, you start to realize why Kansas should avoid writing love songs. It's clearly not their forte. This is by far the weakest song on the album, and is trite and cliche, lyrically (e.g. rhyming "Oh, it's you" with "Oh, I'm blue", and other trite lines like "I need you 'cause my life's turning grey"). Definitely one to skip unless you can tolerate it for its short length. It's probably the shortest song ever written by Kansas that wasn't an instrumental.
Mysteries and Mayhem comes up next. This song is about a nightmare the protagonist has regarding a hooded figure in black calling his name, which likely represents death (based on the themes represented throughout this album as a whole). He tries to run from this figure but can't, his legs seemingly much heavier than they usually are (as if they're made of lead). This song is pretty much a straight-ahead rocker with a musical break during the middle which is driven by the distorted electric guitar.
The Pinnacle is the final song, and Mysteries and Mayhem leads right into it. Mysteries and Mayhem allows the song to fade, and then The Pinnacle starts with the same melody that Mysteries and Mayhem ended with, which indicates that they probably envisioned it as the second part of the prior song. I don't know if it was just a limitation of the recording equipment where they couldn't connect the two songs and split it into two tracks or if it was intentional, but based on the same melody, plus the lyric near the end of the prior song, "Mysteries and mayhem from the pinnacle I see", it's pretty strongly implied that The Pinnacle picks up where Mysteries and Mayhem left off. Plus, in both songs, the protagonist sings about bearing "the mark of Cain", which is a Biblical reference to the mark Cain received after murdering his brother, Abel, which God gave to him as an act of mercy, a sign showing that whoever would kill Cain, vengeance would be taken upon that person sevenfold. Most of the songs on this album are great, but of all the songs, this is my absolute favorite. It continues the theme of death, and even the sense of frustration that Livgren felt in his search for religious truth, which he thought unattainable. In his book Seeds of Change, Livgren says he was moving from one philosophy to another and none filled the emptiness he felt. The "jester's promenade" he mentions in the song refers to the "promenade of human religions and philosophies," which started to seem like some insipid joke. This song is very complex musically, and gives almost a sort of medieval feeling, using imagery you usually see in fantasy stories of "the hero" who "breaks his blade" in "conquer[ing] demon foes" while standing "where no goes". It clocks in at almost 10 minutes long but is a marvelous composition from start to finish, and the glorious ending of the song gives me goosebumps every time.
The success of this album, and Kansas' first two albums, was most definitely due to the success of their next two albums. Once the next album was released to the public, the lead single became a smash hit and even fans of rock music who weren't necessarily musicians became enamored of this band.
Album: Masque (1975)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- drums, moog drum, assorted percussion
Dave Hope -- bass guitar
Kerry Livgren -- lead and rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, clavinet, moog and ARP synthesizers
Robby Steinhardt -- violin and vocals
Steve Walsh -- organ, piano, clavinet, moog synthesizer, congas, and vocals
Rich Williams -- lead and rhythm guitar
Track list:
1. *It Takes a Woman's Love (to Make a Man) (3:09) -- Walsh (saxophone by Lon Price)
2. Two Cents' Worth (3:09) -- Livgren, Walsh
3. Icarus (Borne on Wings of Steel) (6:02) -- Livgren
4. All the World (7:12) -- Walsh, Steinhardt
5. Child of Innocence (4:34) -- Livgren
6. It's You (2:33) -- Walsh
7. Mysteries and Mayhem (4:18) -- Walsh, Livgren
8. The Pinnacle (9:34) -- Livgren
* denotes a single
The first song on the album is It Takes a Woman's Love (to Make a Man). This song is an upbeat opener but not a very strong start to the album. The band can't be faulted -- the reason for the song was their label was on them for a hit single, so this was their attempt to write one for their label: something that was "a little shorter than 12 minutes" that you could tap your feet to and was in the same time signature from beginning to end. Needless to say, it didn't become a hit. The song is just a basic love song about how a man isn't complete without the love of a woman. There's nothing really remarkable about the song. True to Kansas' nature, the great songs are the longer ones.
Up next, we have Two Cents' Worth. The lyrical content of this album tends to be much darker than on the previous albums, dealing with things like death and the inability to find meaning from life (which may have ultimately helped lead to Livgren's later conversion to Christianity). This particular song is upbeat and catchy (certainly better than the first track) and yet the singer talks about how he's been drinking because the seeming emptiness of life has gotten him down. He even seems to bring the listener into his discussion because in the last verse Walsh agrees we may think that he's wrong and he wishes he could see things our way.
Third comes Icarus (Borne on Wings of Steel). Like Song for America, this is another one of Kansas' signature songs that they still play live today. This song uses the myth of Icarus as an allegory. Icarus was given wings of feathers that were affixed to his body with wax. He was warned not to fly too close to the sun, yet his sense of freedom while he flew caused him to disregard this warning. He flew too close to the sun, the wax melted, and Icarus fell to his death. In this case, "borne on wings of steel" could likely refer to an airplane, and how flying gives a pilot a sense of freedom as he's able to leave the earth. If he lost the wings, the pilot would surely die just as without that sense of freedom Livgren would die, or he would at least feel lost. This song is one of the lengthier songs on this album and has some great musical moments, one of my favorites being the electric guitar adding a distorted melodic counterpoint to the violin, which is playing a descending eighth note figure. Kansas uses the string instruments, including one not usually found in rock bands, to great effect.
Coming up next we have All the World, which is, for the most part, a piano ballad similar to Lonely Wind from Kansas, except in this song the piano occasionally drops out for some heavier guitar or synth to take over. The end of the song has a rare a cappella section. There is also one musical misstep, in my opinion, which is incredibly rare on a Kansas recording. At the end before they move into the a cappella outro, rather than simply have Livgren stop the synth, they actually just fade it out in the mix and it sounds jarring. I wish they would have simply had Livgren stop playing altogether before coming having Walsh come back in with the vocals. But it's a relatively small nitpick in an otherwise strong ballad that breaks into a 7/4 instrumental section which is led by the synth, with brief periods of 3/4 between each musical phrase, leading the synth up to a new set of notes to play while the band plays a new progression of chords. As for the lyrics, it's the most optimistic song on the album. It's basically a petition to humanity to stop living selfishly and to live lives that forgive each other, leaving despair and loneliness behind.
After that we have Child of Innocence, another signature song that still gets played today. This one is primarily a straight-ahead rocker. This song returns to the theme of death and its inescapable reality. The "child of innocence" tends to think that it happens to others and not himself, but the subject of the song, the grim reaper (as is made obvious by lines such as "still you try to flee my blade", a reference to the scythe that the reaper is often imagined to carry), sings this song to the "child of innocence" to tell him to be prepared because he will die one day, too. It's something that happens to everyone and there's no escape.
The next song is It's You, which is another short love song. Listening to this song paired with the first one on this album, you start to realize why Kansas should avoid writing love songs. It's clearly not their forte. This is by far the weakest song on the album, and is trite and cliche, lyrically (e.g. rhyming "Oh, it's you" with "Oh, I'm blue", and other trite lines like "I need you 'cause my life's turning grey"). Definitely one to skip unless you can tolerate it for its short length. It's probably the shortest song ever written by Kansas that wasn't an instrumental.
Mysteries and Mayhem comes up next. This song is about a nightmare the protagonist has regarding a hooded figure in black calling his name, which likely represents death (based on the themes represented throughout this album as a whole). He tries to run from this figure but can't, his legs seemingly much heavier than they usually are (as if they're made of lead). This song is pretty much a straight-ahead rocker with a musical break during the middle which is driven by the distorted electric guitar.
The Pinnacle is the final song, and Mysteries and Mayhem leads right into it. Mysteries and Mayhem allows the song to fade, and then The Pinnacle starts with the same melody that Mysteries and Mayhem ended with, which indicates that they probably envisioned it as the second part of the prior song. I don't know if it was just a limitation of the recording equipment where they couldn't connect the two songs and split it into two tracks or if it was intentional, but based on the same melody, plus the lyric near the end of the prior song, "Mysteries and mayhem from the pinnacle I see", it's pretty strongly implied that The Pinnacle picks up where Mysteries and Mayhem left off. Plus, in both songs, the protagonist sings about bearing "the mark of Cain", which is a Biblical reference to the mark Cain received after murdering his brother, Abel, which God gave to him as an act of mercy, a sign showing that whoever would kill Cain, vengeance would be taken upon that person sevenfold. Most of the songs on this album are great, but of all the songs, this is my absolute favorite. It continues the theme of death, and even the sense of frustration that Livgren felt in his search for religious truth, which he thought unattainable. In his book Seeds of Change, Livgren says he was moving from one philosophy to another and none filled the emptiness he felt. The "jester's promenade" he mentions in the song refers to the "promenade of human religions and philosophies," which started to seem like some insipid joke. This song is very complex musically, and gives almost a sort of medieval feeling, using imagery you usually see in fantasy stories of "the hero" who "breaks his blade" in "conquer[ing] demon foes" while standing "where no goes". It clocks in at almost 10 minutes long but is a marvelous composition from start to finish, and the glorious ending of the song gives me goosebumps every time.
The success of this album, and Kansas' first two albums, was most definitely due to the success of their next two albums. Once the next album was released to the public, the lead single became a smash hit and even fans of rock music who weren't necessarily musicians became enamored of this band.
Album: Masque (1975)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- drums, moog drum, assorted percussion
Dave Hope -- bass guitar
Kerry Livgren -- lead and rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, clavinet, moog and ARP synthesizers
Robby Steinhardt -- violin and vocals
Steve Walsh -- organ, piano, clavinet, moog synthesizer, congas, and vocals
Rich Williams -- lead and rhythm guitar
Track list:
1. *It Takes a Woman's Love (to Make a Man) (3:09) -- Walsh (saxophone by Lon Price)
2. Two Cents' Worth (3:09) -- Livgren, Walsh
3. Icarus (Borne on Wings of Steel) (6:02) -- Livgren
4. All the World (7:12) -- Walsh, Steinhardt
5. Child of Innocence (4:34) -- Livgren
6. It's You (2:33) -- Walsh
7. Mysteries and Mayhem (4:18) -- Walsh, Livgren
8. The Pinnacle (9:34) -- Livgren
* denotes a single
Monday, May 11, 2020
Studio Album Review: Song for America by Kansas
Kansas's second album, Song for America, was recorded and released not long after their first. They had to make a living with their music, so songs for the second album were essentially written on the road. The songs on this album are also a lot more polished than the songs from the first, which was, for the most part, a lot more raw because the songs were each recorded in one take.
The album starts off with Down the Road, a song in the same vein as Can I Tell You, a blazing straight-ahead rocker. This is a song about a man who tries to get rich quick but ends up getting involved with the wrong crowd. Now he wants to "get out of town" without being killed by a loan shark. It's a real fun song despite the somewhat heavy lyrics. Near the middle of the song the band erupts into a sort of hoedown-esque solo, with the violin playing more of a fiddle style and some folks clapping their hands while Robby Steinhardt's hands fly across the violin. This is by far the shortest song on the album.
Next we come to Song for America. The topic of the song is just as the title suggests: it's an ode to America. The liner notes of the remastered edition mentions that Livgren wrote the song while he was in an airplane, looking down at the country and musing over "our relatively young nation and how unique we are." Before the song finishes, however, it returns to the themes established in the Death of Mother Nature Suite and laments the damage that humans have done to this majestic land. At just over 10 minutes long, this song isn't even the longest on the record. The music is just as majestic as you expect a song about the beauty and grandeur of America to be. This was also the only single on the album and they really took a meat cleaver to it. They condensed a 10 minute song down to just three minutes. It's more egregious than the radio single version of Meat Loaf's I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That). To anyone familiar with the full album version, the radio edit is pretty jarring. Just about everyone knows Carry On Wayward Son, but Song for America was really Kansas' first signature song.
After that we have Lamplight Symphony. As great as Song for America is, this is probably my favorite song on the album. It tells a tale of an old man whose wife recently died. He pines away for her, wishing he could bring her back. But suddenly the ghost of his wife appears to comfort him and tell him that one day soon they'll be reunited. This song is more mystical than the previous one and the music is more mystical to match, with sustained strings and organ to add an air of mystery to the verses, and a portion where the bass leads the movement of the song to express the fearful wonder of seeing his dead wife appear. Then the music fades as the apparition does, leaving him alone to ponder the message his wife brought.
Coming up next we have Lonely Street, a bluesy song in 11/8 time, which moves to 12/8 for the choruses. The lyrics are a bit heavier than even Down the Road. In this case, the protagonist is a man who walks up and down a street, looking for a man who robbed and raped his girlfriend/wife, and the shady characters he meets on his journey. The verses being in 11/8 is pretty unique. I don't listen to enough blues to know if there are other songs in this time signature, but it definitely adds a bit of interest to the song.
The second-to-last song is The Devil Game. They raise allusions to the Christian concept of the devil, referring to him as Lucifer and Satan, which are some of his names in Christianity. But as to whether or not they are referring to the literal devil is anyone's guess. It could simply be a song warning against being bad, because those who live an evil life will fall in the end. This is another raucous rocker that isn't extremely lengthy but still clocks in at over five minutes long.
Finally, we have Incomudro-Hymn to the Atman. A hymn is a song, usually religions, that expresses adoration to something or someone. "Atman" is a term in Hinduism which essentially refers to the immortal soul. I haven't been able to find a meaning for "incomudro", so perhaps it is a word that Livgren made up while coming up with a title for this song. In his autobiography Seeds of Change, Livgren says this song sums up the syncretistic approach he took to religion, combining elements of Hinduism with Zen Buddhism. This is Kansas' longest track they've ever recorded. A couple of noteworthy things: First, Phil Ehart has a drum solo near the middle of the song, and during a violin solo, the song takes on a "waltzy" feel, where the song is played in a feel of one large beat per measure, but instead of being in 3/4, as waltzes usually are, this was in 4/4 but played as if in one beat per minute. Non-musicians probably won't care much about that but I thought it was pretty interesting.
This album, as a whole, sounds better than their first, which was a lot more rushed although still excellently performed. Despite how great this album is, it would still be a couple more albums before they found worldwide fame. But with this album, they really solidified their staying power.
Album: Song for America (1975)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- drums, glockenspiel, moog drum, gong
Dave Hope -- bass guitar
Kerry Livgren -- lead and rhythm guitars, piano, ARP and moog synthesizers, ARP strings
Robby Steinhardt -- lead vocal, vocals, violin
Steve Walsh -- organ, piano, scat and lead vocals, ARP and moog synthesizers
Rich Williams -- acoustic and electric guitars, lead and rhythm guitars
Track list:
1. Down the Road (3:44) -- Walsh, Livgren (handclaps by Food Alright and the Wines)
2. *Song for America (10:03) -- Livgren
3. Lamplight Symphony (8:14) -- Livgren
4. Lonely Street (5:43) -- Walsh, Hope, Williams, Ehart
5. The Devil Game (5:04) -- Walsh, Hope
6. Incomudro-Hymn to the Atman (12:13) -- Livgren
* denotes a single
The album starts off with Down the Road, a song in the same vein as Can I Tell You, a blazing straight-ahead rocker. This is a song about a man who tries to get rich quick but ends up getting involved with the wrong crowd. Now he wants to "get out of town" without being killed by a loan shark. It's a real fun song despite the somewhat heavy lyrics. Near the middle of the song the band erupts into a sort of hoedown-esque solo, with the violin playing more of a fiddle style and some folks clapping their hands while Robby Steinhardt's hands fly across the violin. This is by far the shortest song on the album.
Next we come to Song for America. The topic of the song is just as the title suggests: it's an ode to America. The liner notes of the remastered edition mentions that Livgren wrote the song while he was in an airplane, looking down at the country and musing over "our relatively young nation and how unique we are." Before the song finishes, however, it returns to the themes established in the Death of Mother Nature Suite and laments the damage that humans have done to this majestic land. At just over 10 minutes long, this song isn't even the longest on the record. The music is just as majestic as you expect a song about the beauty and grandeur of America to be. This was also the only single on the album and they really took a meat cleaver to it. They condensed a 10 minute song down to just three minutes. It's more egregious than the radio single version of Meat Loaf's I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That). To anyone familiar with the full album version, the radio edit is pretty jarring. Just about everyone knows Carry On Wayward Son, but Song for America was really Kansas' first signature song.
After that we have Lamplight Symphony. As great as Song for America is, this is probably my favorite song on the album. It tells a tale of an old man whose wife recently died. He pines away for her, wishing he could bring her back. But suddenly the ghost of his wife appears to comfort him and tell him that one day soon they'll be reunited. This song is more mystical than the previous one and the music is more mystical to match, with sustained strings and organ to add an air of mystery to the verses, and a portion where the bass leads the movement of the song to express the fearful wonder of seeing his dead wife appear. Then the music fades as the apparition does, leaving him alone to ponder the message his wife brought.
Coming up next we have Lonely Street, a bluesy song in 11/8 time, which moves to 12/8 for the choruses. The lyrics are a bit heavier than even Down the Road. In this case, the protagonist is a man who walks up and down a street, looking for a man who robbed and raped his girlfriend/wife, and the shady characters he meets on his journey. The verses being in 11/8 is pretty unique. I don't listen to enough blues to know if there are other songs in this time signature, but it definitely adds a bit of interest to the song.
The second-to-last song is The Devil Game. They raise allusions to the Christian concept of the devil, referring to him as Lucifer and Satan, which are some of his names in Christianity. But as to whether or not they are referring to the literal devil is anyone's guess. It could simply be a song warning against being bad, because those who live an evil life will fall in the end. This is another raucous rocker that isn't extremely lengthy but still clocks in at over five minutes long.
Finally, we have Incomudro-Hymn to the Atman. A hymn is a song, usually religions, that expresses adoration to something or someone. "Atman" is a term in Hinduism which essentially refers to the immortal soul. I haven't been able to find a meaning for "incomudro", so perhaps it is a word that Livgren made up while coming up with a title for this song. In his autobiography Seeds of Change, Livgren says this song sums up the syncretistic approach he took to religion, combining elements of Hinduism with Zen Buddhism. This is Kansas' longest track they've ever recorded. A couple of noteworthy things: First, Phil Ehart has a drum solo near the middle of the song, and during a violin solo, the song takes on a "waltzy" feel, where the song is played in a feel of one large beat per measure, but instead of being in 3/4, as waltzes usually are, this was in 4/4 but played as if in one beat per minute. Non-musicians probably won't care much about that but I thought it was pretty interesting.
This album, as a whole, sounds better than their first, which was a lot more rushed although still excellently performed. Despite how great this album is, it would still be a couple more albums before they found worldwide fame. But with this album, they really solidified their staying power.
Album: Song for America (1975)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- drums, glockenspiel, moog drum, gong
Dave Hope -- bass guitar
Kerry Livgren -- lead and rhythm guitars, piano, ARP and moog synthesizers, ARP strings
Robby Steinhardt -- lead vocal, vocals, violin
Steve Walsh -- organ, piano, scat and lead vocals, ARP and moog synthesizers
Rich Williams -- acoustic and electric guitars, lead and rhythm guitars
Track list:
1. Down the Road (3:44) -- Walsh, Livgren (handclaps by Food Alright and the Wines)
2. *Song for America (10:03) -- Livgren
3. Lamplight Symphony (8:14) -- Livgren
4. Lonely Street (5:43) -- Walsh, Hope, Williams, Ehart
5. The Devil Game (5:04) -- Walsh, Hope
6. Incomudro-Hymn to the Atman (12:13) -- Livgren
* denotes a single
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Studio Album Review: Kansas by Kansas
Kansas is the eponymous debut album by progressive hard rock band Kansas. To record their first album, this iteration of Kansas was brought together from two separate projects: Kerry Livgren, from an earlier iteration of Kansas, and White Clover, a rock and blues band. The material on the album is a combination of material from both groups. You'll notice a lack of love songs. Early on, the band told Rolling Stone that they avoided writing love songs because everything that can be said about love has already been said. Of course, they would relax this rule on later albums.
The album starts with Can I Tell You, a short blazing rocker about freedom and making sure you appreciate it when you have it. According to the liner notes on the remastered album, this was the song that got the label interested in signing the band. There's only one verse in this song. It's sung three times with a lengthy instrumental section between the second and third verses. It sets the mood of what you can expect from Kansas: while their songs usually contain lyrics, and these lyrics are often intellectual and sometimes mystical, it's the music and the musicality of the band that really sets them apart. Even though unusual in a hard rock band, the violin is certainly not an afterthought. It carries the music through most of the instrumental before the guitar and organ trade solos, backed by a great rhythm section in Dave Hope and Phil Ehart, the latter being probably the most underrated drummer in rock music.
Next we hear Bringing it Back, a cover of a song by J.J. Cale about a man in jail reminiscing about getting caught bringing drugs back across the border from Mexico. Kansas really puts their own spin on it, playing the song a lot faster than the original. I had no idea it was a cover until recently, it sounds so much like they could have written it. Steve Walsh's piano playing really shines on this song.
After that we get Lonely Wind, a piano ballad written by Steve Walsh. It's a nice song, and the violin just soars in the intro and the solo. The meaning of this song has always been kind of obscure to me. Most of the interpretations I found on-line are that this is a song about a man who goes out into nature to commune with God. This doesn't sound plausible as the band is well known in its early incarnation for exploring various religious faiths, especially eastern religions, although the song does contain the lyric "Sometimes he seems to be the only one beside me/Who can feel the Lord's breath all around him", so who knows? Maybe it's correct. They wouldn't become a Christian band until the early 80's and Steve Walsh left the band after Livgren's and Hope's conversion because their lyrics had become too Christian. Another interpretation I found took a more literal approach: the protagonist is a man without friends who finds comfort in the wind as his only companion. As for me, I've always thought about it as a man who has been unable to find love but can find solace in the arms of a friend, which can make the pain of loneliness more bearable. At any rate, it's a nice ballad but I wouldn't consider it among the best songs on the album.
Next up is Belexes, a song that is inspired by the pseudo-Asian sound of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot, an opera about an Asian man who wants to marry a princess, but must answer three riddles on pain of beheading if he answers incorrectly. As far as I can tell, it's inspired by the music, not the story. Livgren was fond of making up words for the titles of his songs, and this is one such example. Belexes doesn't mean anything, it's just a word that came to him when he was thinking of a title (according to his book, Seeds of Change). The meaning of the lyrics seems a little obscure, but it appears, at its heart, to be a song about making sure you make wise decisions. Despite what others may say about your future, it's ultimately up to you to choose how best to proceed. After bringing it down a bit with Lonely Wind, Belexes kicks it back into high gear with a general swing feel at a fast pace.
After this we get Journey from Mariabronn, a song inspired by Herman Hesse's novel Narcissus and Goldmund, a story of a man, Goldmund, who is at a Catholic monastery and forms a close bond with his teacher, Narcissus. Goldmund meets a Gypsy woman who seduces him, causing him to decide he was never meant to be a monk. So he searches Germany in search of the meaning of life. The book appears to be heavily influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche's theory of the Apollonian and Dionysian spirit, as well as Jung's union of polar opposites. I have not read this book myself, but you can read the synopsis and explication of the general themes at the Wikipedia page. As for the musicality, this is one of the most progressive songs on the album. Just the key signatures, alone, are varied, moving from 10/4, to 7/8, to 6/8, to 4/4, and others. Despite how fast the song is, it still clocks in at almost eight minutes long.
The Pilgrimage comes next, another song with a swing feel though it's even more bluesy than Belexes was. There are even some elements of southern rock you can hear from the violin during the solo. The guitar gets a chance to shine during the solo, and the keyboard is evident throughout the verses and turnarounds. It's not clear from the lyrics what kind of pilgrimage Kansas is singing about, but considering how great the musicians are, you're happy just to be taking the journey.
The penultimate song is Apercu, a word which may be unfamiliar to you (as it was to me), but it simply means "an immediate impression", or "insight". Again, the insight the song is talking about is not very clear from the lyrics, but then again the vision that the protagonist is seeking is still hazy and concealed by "the mists of time", so perhaps the listener is meant to be as in the dark as the protagonist. It is worth noting, however, that one reviewer I found said the song is about reincarnation (e.g. talking about how we've "done this all before"). This is a song that shifts from quiet and introspective during the verses to big and bombastic during the choruses. All of the instruments are heard clearly throughout the song. Kansas is not the kind of band to just feature one instrument but often has very complex arrangements that requires extraordinary skill from each player. That's no more evident than on this song and Journey to Mariabronn.
Apercu leads right into Death of Mother Nature Suite, a song that outright condemns humanity's destruction of the environment set to an eight minute rock epic. This one has more esoteric elements than the others, incorporating a lengthy violin solo over sustained organ and wailing from the vocalists. The song is definitely a strong closer, if a bit heavy-handed in its message.
Overall, Kansas is an excellent debut album from a band that would become world-famous but would also have its ups and downs. This album, like all of Kansas' albums, is worth checking out. To fans of classical music like me, there's a lot to love from Kansas' progressive output. And for fans of hard rock (also like me), there's much to love in their more straight ahead rock offerings.
Album: Kansas (1974)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- drums
Dave Hope -- bass guitar, vocals
Kerry Livgren -- Lead and rhythm guitar, piano, organ, moog synthesizer, vocals
Robby Steinhardt -- violin, lead vocals and harmony
Steve Walsh -- organ, piano, congas, lead vocals and harmony
Rich Williams -- guitar
Track list:
1. *Can I Tell You (3:32) -- Williams, Walsh, Ehart, Hope
2. *Bringing it Back (3:32) -- J.J. Cale
3. Lonely Wind (4:17) -- Walsh (additional harmony by Jay Siegel of The Tokens)
4. Belexes (4:24) -- Livgren
5. Journey from Mariabronn (7:56) -- Livgren, Walsh
6. The Pilgrimage (3:43) -- Livgren, Walsh
7. Apercu (9:36) -- Livgren, Walsh
8. Death of Mother Nature Suite (7:53) -- Livgren
* denotes a single
The album starts with Can I Tell You, a short blazing rocker about freedom and making sure you appreciate it when you have it. According to the liner notes on the remastered album, this was the song that got the label interested in signing the band. There's only one verse in this song. It's sung three times with a lengthy instrumental section between the second and third verses. It sets the mood of what you can expect from Kansas: while their songs usually contain lyrics, and these lyrics are often intellectual and sometimes mystical, it's the music and the musicality of the band that really sets them apart. Even though unusual in a hard rock band, the violin is certainly not an afterthought. It carries the music through most of the instrumental before the guitar and organ trade solos, backed by a great rhythm section in Dave Hope and Phil Ehart, the latter being probably the most underrated drummer in rock music.
Next we hear Bringing it Back, a cover of a song by J.J. Cale about a man in jail reminiscing about getting caught bringing drugs back across the border from Mexico. Kansas really puts their own spin on it, playing the song a lot faster than the original. I had no idea it was a cover until recently, it sounds so much like they could have written it. Steve Walsh's piano playing really shines on this song.
After that we get Lonely Wind, a piano ballad written by Steve Walsh. It's a nice song, and the violin just soars in the intro and the solo. The meaning of this song has always been kind of obscure to me. Most of the interpretations I found on-line are that this is a song about a man who goes out into nature to commune with God. This doesn't sound plausible as the band is well known in its early incarnation for exploring various religious faiths, especially eastern religions, although the song does contain the lyric "Sometimes he seems to be the only one beside me/Who can feel the Lord's breath all around him", so who knows? Maybe it's correct. They wouldn't become a Christian band until the early 80's and Steve Walsh left the band after Livgren's and Hope's conversion because their lyrics had become too Christian. Another interpretation I found took a more literal approach: the protagonist is a man without friends who finds comfort in the wind as his only companion. As for me, I've always thought about it as a man who has been unable to find love but can find solace in the arms of a friend, which can make the pain of loneliness more bearable. At any rate, it's a nice ballad but I wouldn't consider it among the best songs on the album.
Next up is Belexes, a song that is inspired by the pseudo-Asian sound of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot, an opera about an Asian man who wants to marry a princess, but must answer three riddles on pain of beheading if he answers incorrectly. As far as I can tell, it's inspired by the music, not the story. Livgren was fond of making up words for the titles of his songs, and this is one such example. Belexes doesn't mean anything, it's just a word that came to him when he was thinking of a title (according to his book, Seeds of Change). The meaning of the lyrics seems a little obscure, but it appears, at its heart, to be a song about making sure you make wise decisions. Despite what others may say about your future, it's ultimately up to you to choose how best to proceed. After bringing it down a bit with Lonely Wind, Belexes kicks it back into high gear with a general swing feel at a fast pace.
After this we get Journey from Mariabronn, a song inspired by Herman Hesse's novel Narcissus and Goldmund, a story of a man, Goldmund, who is at a Catholic monastery and forms a close bond with his teacher, Narcissus. Goldmund meets a Gypsy woman who seduces him, causing him to decide he was never meant to be a monk. So he searches Germany in search of the meaning of life. The book appears to be heavily influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche's theory of the Apollonian and Dionysian spirit, as well as Jung's union of polar opposites. I have not read this book myself, but you can read the synopsis and explication of the general themes at the Wikipedia page. As for the musicality, this is one of the most progressive songs on the album. Just the key signatures, alone, are varied, moving from 10/4, to 7/8, to 6/8, to 4/4, and others. Despite how fast the song is, it still clocks in at almost eight minutes long.
The Pilgrimage comes next, another song with a swing feel though it's even more bluesy than Belexes was. There are even some elements of southern rock you can hear from the violin during the solo. The guitar gets a chance to shine during the solo, and the keyboard is evident throughout the verses and turnarounds. It's not clear from the lyrics what kind of pilgrimage Kansas is singing about, but considering how great the musicians are, you're happy just to be taking the journey.
The penultimate song is Apercu, a word which may be unfamiliar to you (as it was to me), but it simply means "an immediate impression", or "insight". Again, the insight the song is talking about is not very clear from the lyrics, but then again the vision that the protagonist is seeking is still hazy and concealed by "the mists of time", so perhaps the listener is meant to be as in the dark as the protagonist. It is worth noting, however, that one reviewer I found said the song is about reincarnation (e.g. talking about how we've "done this all before"). This is a song that shifts from quiet and introspective during the verses to big and bombastic during the choruses. All of the instruments are heard clearly throughout the song. Kansas is not the kind of band to just feature one instrument but often has very complex arrangements that requires extraordinary skill from each player. That's no more evident than on this song and Journey to Mariabronn.
Apercu leads right into Death of Mother Nature Suite, a song that outright condemns humanity's destruction of the environment set to an eight minute rock epic. This one has more esoteric elements than the others, incorporating a lengthy violin solo over sustained organ and wailing from the vocalists. The song is definitely a strong closer, if a bit heavy-handed in its message.
Overall, Kansas is an excellent debut album from a band that would become world-famous but would also have its ups and downs. This album, like all of Kansas' albums, is worth checking out. To fans of classical music like me, there's a lot to love from Kansas' progressive output. And for fans of hard rock (also like me), there's much to love in their more straight ahead rock offerings.
Album: Kansas (1974)
Band: Kansas
Phil Ehart -- drums
Dave Hope -- bass guitar, vocals
Kerry Livgren -- Lead and rhythm guitar, piano, organ, moog synthesizer, vocals
Robby Steinhardt -- violin, lead vocals and harmony
Steve Walsh -- organ, piano, congas, lead vocals and harmony
Rich Williams -- guitar
Track list:
1. *Can I Tell You (3:32) -- Williams, Walsh, Ehart, Hope
2. *Bringing it Back (3:32) -- J.J. Cale
3. Lonely Wind (4:17) -- Walsh (additional harmony by Jay Siegel of The Tokens)
4. Belexes (4:24) -- Livgren
5. Journey from Mariabronn (7:56) -- Livgren, Walsh
6. The Pilgrimage (3:43) -- Livgren, Walsh
7. Apercu (9:36) -- Livgren, Walsh
8. Death of Mother Nature Suite (7:53) -- Livgren
* denotes a single
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