Kansas

Kansas
Song For America
Masque
Leftoverture
Point Of Know Return
Monolith

all great studio lps

I enjoy Livgren's stuff with A.D
but (IMHO) Steve Walsh is supposed to sing his songs.

Tall Tyrion wrote:

Wargod48 wrote:

Both Livgren's & Walsh's solo prject are as equally as good especially "Seeds Of Change" from Livgren!

YEAH, BABY!!!

Can't beat that Dio song "Live For The King"

I thought he sang mask of the great deciever?

Here is what I have on CD now a days . To me these are the keepers
with STE being somewhat dull but decent . The rest are excellent releases.

Kansas
Song For America
Masque
Leftoverture
Point Of Know Return
Two For The Show
Monolith
Audio Visions
Freaks
Somewhere to Elsewhere

thejokeriv wrote:

Tall Tyrion wrote:

Wargod48 wrote:

Both Livgren's & Walsh's solo prject are as equally as good especially "Seeds Of Change" from Livgren!

YEAH, BABY!!!

Can't beat that Dio song "Live For The King"

I thought he sang mask of the great deciever?

You are correct, Dio sang on two songs on Seeds of Change.

James B. wrote:

I enjoy Livgren's stuff with A.D
but (IMHO) Steve Walsh is supposed to sing his songs.

Then if you haven't yet, get Somewhere To Elsewhere. All songs written by Livgren and perfromed by the origional Kansas line-up (+1). One of my all time favorite albums and a must have for any Kansas fan past or present.

The problem I have with STE is it lacks the instrumental interplay of Robbie's
voilin , the keys and leads that the earlier releases thrive on. Plus it is much too mellow for my taste.

Everyone raves about STE but I hated it.

To be fair, I only listened to it once so maybe I need to dust it off and spin it again.

tohostudios wrote:

Everyone raves about STE but I hated it.

Be honest Toho, you hate a lot of things other people love. No problem, everybody is different. Also, not everyone is as perfect as I am .

DallasBlack wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Everyone raves about STE but I hated it.

Be honest Toho, you hate a lot of things other people love. No problem, everybody is different. Also, not everyone is as perfect as I am .

Yeah, you're right about that. (see my post in the Now Playing thread for the latest example. )

Actually, I didn't hate STE but I found it boring.

I'm a casual fan. I got into them thanks to Napster during that program's glory years and actually went out and bought some of their albums (take THAT, RIAA!).

I own Leftoverture and Point of Know Return. I'm not a fan of prog rock, but that's really good stuff there. I've never felt compelled to try anything else from them though. I got hooked on them thanks to "Dust in the Wind".

They also did a GREAT cover of "Eleanor Rigby".

Yeah, Leftoverture, Point, Monolith and AudioVisions are the ones I like the best by this band. Prog rock that still remembers to throw in hooks and memorability.

DallasBlack wrote:

James B. wrote:

I enjoy Livgren's stuff with A.D
but (IMHO) Steve Walsh is supposed to sing his songs.

Then if you haven't yet, get Somewhere To Elsewhere. All songs written by Livgren and perfromed by the origional Kansas line-up (+1). One of my all time favorite albums and a must have for any Kansas fan past or present.

+1.

I love Kansas. My favorites are Leftoverture, Point of Know Return and Song for America. I also have Monolith, which is very good. One of the best prog bands of the 70s, right up there with Yes, IMO.

Lots of love to Livgren's "Seeds of Change" too. He formed a band called AD after he became a Christian. Their first, "Art of the State" is a great album. Their style didn't catch on with the Christian community and after a couple of albums, went by the wayside. I loved those albums. Kerry Livgren still offers them through his label Numavox as custom CD-Rs. Between Seeds and Art there was another album under the name Kerry Livgren's AD called "Time Line." Also a great CD.

I like the early stuff alot due to the heavy progressive musical interplay .
Are Livgren's solo releases along these lines or are they leaning more toward a mainstream rock vibe like most of Kansas' later material ?

Seeds of Change, Time Line, and Art of the State have the same kind of feel as the later Kansas albums, but there are some interesting instrumental breaks. Mainstream like Asia's first album, some definite progressive leanings, but less than early Kansas.

Does that help or hinder? The three I mentioned above are far and away the best 80s post-Kansas stuff Livgren did, at least for the Christian music world. One other AD album worth mentioning is Reconstructions. It was pretty good. Numavox.com offers a "re-mixed and re-made" version called Reconstructions Reconstructed. Not sure why that was done, the original was pretty good.

I liked Time Line quite a bit, but Art of the State didn't do much for me. Especially "We Are The Men", with that lame shouted chorus.

Tall Tyrion wrote:

I liked Time Line quite a bit, but Art of the State didn't do much for me. Especially "We Are The Men", with that lame shouted chorus.

My love of Art of the State may be a bit nostalgic. During college I went through an "only Christian rock" phase and finding any music that came close to my taste was cause for celebration. I will admit that the chorus to "We Are the Men" is cheesy, but "The Fury" was a great tune. I also have always enjoyed Kerry Livgren's lyrics. At the time, (mid-80s) he was one of the few Christian artists with intelligent lyrics, and I have never been one for a steady diet of "Me + God = All Things Rosy" lyrics. Being a Christian is not a guarantee against bad days, we just have hope they're not going to last!

Oh, and:

- I wore my KANSAS tour shirt yesterday

Listened to the first two Kansas albums and the first one after Kerry's conversion-Monolith (got all three for $11.99 @ Wal-Mart). One of the best prog bands of all time no doubt.

Love Kansas. Point of Know Return and Leftoverture are the two records that made me a prog fan.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Oh, and:

- I wore my KANSAS tour shirt yesterday

which one bro ?

I have been wanting a "point of know return" jersey for a few years now

James B. wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Oh, and:

- I wore my KANSAS tour shirt yesterday

which one bro ?

I have been wanting a "point of know return" jersey for a few years now

The 1996 Summer Tour shirt...with the cover from the first box set on the front...

This one ?



I have the new dvd on my Netflix and it has a very very long wait, go figure!

No, that one was from 2003 or 2004 or something...I'm talking about the one from 1995 or 1996...this one: