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Kansas was a great band. How many progressive rock
bands can we say had a violinist? Kansas formed back in 1970 in
Topeka, KS as a mix of musicians from several local bands (The Reasons
Why, White Clover). By 1973, after some shifting in the line up, a
record deal was solidified and the band's
self-titled
debut hit shelves in 1974. Kansas' unique progressive,
symphonic rock sand was henceforth the signature sound that made them
famous. In 1975, Kansas followed up with the albums Song for
America and Masque. By this time, Kansas had quite the
groupie following.
In 1976, Kansas released the album
Leftoverture,
which was the band's first huge hit. The song "Carry On My Wayward
Son" from this album landed at number 5 on the Billboard Pop Album
chart.
Point of no Return, released in 1977, featured two hits:
The title track, which charted at number 4, and "Dust in the Wind".
By this time, Kansas was selling out top venues, such as New York's
Madison Square Garden. The band's live shows sounded true to their
album releases. In 1979, Monolith was released. It
did produce one hit that you may remember: "People of the
Southwind". This song was about the Kaw Native American tribe
(also known as Kanza), which ultimately is where the band derived their
name.
In the early 1980's, founding band member Kerry Livgren
became a Christian (yeah, Kerry!), and the several of the band's
subsequent releases had songs with Christian overtones. You may
remember the hit song "Hold On", from the 1980 release Audio-Visions.
Because of this move to Christianity, the band began to change line ups,
with Steve Walsh leaving to form the band Streets and John Elefante
taking his place (Sammy Hagar had even applied for this position).
The new line up released Vinyl Confessions in 1982, which
featured the hit song "Play the Game Tonight" (this song charted at
number 4 on the Billboard Rock Chart). Drastic Measures was
released in 1983 and featured the hit song "Fight Fire with Fire" (this
song charted at number 3).
After their 1983 release, the band began to lose some
original members. The hit song "Perfect Lover", released on their
1984 greatest hits album, was the last to feature Livgren for some time.
In 1986, with several new members (including Steve Morse and Billy
Greer), Kansas released the album Power. There were three
hit songs from this album: "Power", "All I Wanted", and "Can't Cry
Anymore". The last album released in the 1980's was The Spirit
of Things.
As the years rolled on, Kansas continued to produce new
material and go on tour (with varying members). There is
another band iteration of some of the original members of Kansa, called
Proto-Kaw, that released a few albums reminiscent of the old sound of
Kansas. The fact is, Kansas has had so many hits over the years,
that we had to own them all. If you cannot swing that, consider
the
Sail On Anthology.
At the time of this writing, the Kansas Discography was as follows:1974: Kansas
1975: Song for America
1975: Masque
1976: Leftoverture
1977: Point of Know Return
1978: Two for the Show Live
1979: Monolith
1980: Audio-Visions
1982: Vinyl Confessions
1983: Drastic Measures
1984: The Best of Kansas
1986: Power
1988: In the Spirit of Things
1992: Live at the Whisky
1992: Carry On
1994: The Kansas Boxed Set
1995: Freaks of Nature
1998: Always Never the Same
1998: King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents Kansas
2000: Somewhere to Elsewhere
2001: Dust in the Wind (Live)
2002: Device - Voice - Drum (Live)
2002: The Ultimate Kansas
2004: Sail On: The 30th Anniversary Collection
2005: On the Other Side
2006: Works in Progress
2008: Playlist: The Very Best of Kansas
2009: There's Know Place Like Home (Live) |
