Kansas Leftoverture Kirshner 1976

Kansas Leftoverture Kirshner 1976 CAT #34224

I don't really want to buy a bunch of Kansas (band) records for the sake of this blog that no one reads.  So, I suppose it's a good thing I got this one free from my old man.  If there's a Kansas album you have to own, I assume this is the one, right?  It's got the hit, "Carry On Wayward Son," made famous by the 1970's, AOR Radio, and later the video game Guitar Hero and the cartoon Southpark.

There are some things I love about the band Kansas.

1.  They are legitimately Kansas dudes, form Topeka.

2.  The song, "Carry On My Wayward Son" is pretty f'n good.

3.  They are about a 100 times better than the band called Missouri.

4.  They are virtually the only American Prog Band worth a shit.  Boston, maybe?  They had prog tendencies, right?  Journey sucks and can hardly be considered anything but overproduced.  Who else is there?  The great prog bands were British with the exception of Rush who is Canadian.  I'm sure there is some sort of hyper-obscure American prog-outfit out there.  However, in terms of going toe to toe with the Brits, these guys from Topeka are America's answer.

5.  Continuing on the prog-theme, Kansas made their version American.  Nothing about Kansas' music sounds plastic or over thought.  The songs have a groove--prog-rock you can dance to and girls actually like.  I love that this band had the balls to do it.  That's being a Jayhawker, man.  It's not always about what's par for the course, sometimes it's about finding your own thing, and Kansas certainly did that.

What I don't like about Kansas; it's that they are a prog-rock band.  I mean, I have a guilty pleasure in Rush, The band Yes is good.  And, you might catch me raising my fist to an Emerson, Lake & Palmer song.  But yeah, I wouldn't consider myself a fan.  However, what becomes apparent after listening to Kansas is that they are nowhere near the talent level those other bands are.  Thus the reason they probably throw in a bunch of boogie rock, it's to hide their inadequacy as a prog-band.  Again, cool they had the balls to do it.  They took beatings in the world of rock journalism because of it, but still made out like bandits.

Randy Marsh does Kansas