Missouri Welcome Two Missouri Polydor 1979

Missouri Welcome Two Missouri Polydor 1979 CAT# PD-1-6206

Meh, nothing but a bunch of meh-ness from this Kansas City band on their major label debut.  And, it's kind of hard to figure out all the MOR numbers on this album.  Was it the labels fault?  The band?  What was the reason for virtually no excitement on this record.

The first album was decent bar-band stuff.  This however, it's still bar-band stuff, but it's a bit more polished and lost some of the appeal in the process.  Some of the numbers have flashes of something that would at least got people off their ass, but the band keeps it at a medium pace; they aren't about to rock you despite that their tunes could have.  I'm just confused, did they walk into the studio and say, "Hey, we got some rockin' tracks for Polydor."  To which Polydor replied, "That's great, sure they rock, but do the tracks sound like the Eagles?"

To me, the album sounds like a dirty bar band trying to sound like the Eagles.  There's a smoothness to this entire record that would have been better served without.  Either way, this album marked the end of the band, Missouri.  The album features a re-recorded version of the band's surprise hit, "Movin' On," it's not any better and it's really not worse, although, people seem to cite the first version as superior.  It's just meh, the entire album is bland. devoid of color, and boring (however, second to last song, "Love on the Run", cool drum intro and synths begging to be sampled, but still, meh).

A collection of tunes

Kansas Drastic Measures CBS 1983

Kansas Drastic Measures CBS 1983 CAT# QZ 38733

There are worse albums than this, but, there are now albums worse than this by the band Kansas.  This is the bottom of the barrel for the band.  So long prog. rock and hello desperate attempt at over produced 80's hard rock.

The album was so lost with itself that it marks a break-up for the band.  After this, they called it quits for a brief time.  Just listen to the song, "Mainstream," you can tell the band was having trouble keeping it fresh as the lyrics describe the pressure of staying true to the band's sound, but trying to stay in touch with the pop rock trends of the day.

The band would later re-form and do a little more than just reunions.  But, they turned back to their days of 70's progressive rock.  The ideas on this album were left alone and died in 1983.  I could be a douche-y tool and make a bunch of puns with the word "drastic" or I could make snarky remarks about how awful this album is...but, it's not really worth it.  Everyone is well aware this isn't any good.

Mainstream

Joe Walsh Barnstorm ABC/Dunhill 1972

Joe Walsh Barnstorm ABC/Dunhill 1972 CAT# DSX 50130

Man, I'm done waiting for post-James Gang Walsh albums to impress me.  They're all the same, a few moments of classic rock awesomeness followed by mellow California style radio rock.  Boring.

This one is called his masterpiece.  His lovely textured guitar work and spacey open-ended songs, blah, blah, blah.  It's boring.  It's what would happen to the Grateful Dead if they got sober.  Soft boogie rock, soft melodies, everything soft.  It's a very country tinged affair, but not in a country rock way, in the spacey California country kind of way.  It's the songs here that probably led the Eagles to pick up Walsh as a guitarist and songwriter.

Admittedly though, I'm not really being fair to the album.  Of the Barnstorm-era and proper solo Walsh stuff I've dove into, this is one of the better albums.  I just wished Walsh would rock more, like "Rocky Mountain Way."  This album is missing a a rocker all together.  The space and psychedelic experiments into country are border line brilliant.  Had I started here, I wouldn't have said all the stuff about Joe Walsh being boring.

Birdcall Morning

Kansas Point of Know Return Kirshner 1977

Kansas Point of Know Return Kirshner 1977 CAT#34929

After the first two songs on this LP, "Point of Know Return" and "Paradox", it's abundantly clear, this is the Kansas high point.  "Point of Know Return" was a huge hit for the band, they had perfected their progressive boogie rock and by the second track even found a way to make the fiddle work.  While the first two tracks don't match the scale of "Carry On My Wayward, Son," they rock and that goes a long way.

The band get's super prog-y on the synth driven instrumental "The Spider," but it's not as aimless as the band's previous work.  It gets in and gets out.  Kansas get pretentious for only a brief minute before bringing the straight ahead rock of "Potrait (He Knew)", which also happens to be insanely Christian, but that was in vogue at the time.  The first side rounds out with "Closet Chronicles", which when compared to the rest of the side is pleasant filler.

Song by song on Side 2 is further proof that this represents Kansas' best LP despite a few soft spots.  "Lightning's Hand" is a bit silly at times, but its high tempo and guitar solos make it one of the band's heaviest outings and can be considered 70's heavy metal.  The next track, "Dust in the Wind" is a ballad and was another huge hit from this album.  "Sparks of the Tempest" is another heavy metal track and a bit over the top, obviously trying to compensate for the brief foray into sad, bastard music because another ballad, "Nobody's Here," follows.  Its surprisingly good in parts, namely the bridge, but could have done without all the prog elements.  The final track, "Hopessly Human," is based in baroque-era Bach (much of the album is), but it's made especially evident here.  It's a bit too heavy for it's own good, but a decent closer.

Portrait (He Knew)
Point of Know Return

Kansas Power MCA 1986

Kansas Power MCA 1986 CAT# 5838

Good news that if I've actually had to pay for a Kansas LP, I haven't paid over a dollar.  Bad news, this is awful.  It's what you'd expect from a band like Kansas in a year like 1986, though.  Just overproduced pomp rock.

I like Kansas for the most part, well, it's kind of a love/hate thing, but I can certainly respect them.  They have a very devoted fan base, but I can't imagine those fans call out for songs from this LP at shows.  It was a reformed band at this point, Steve Walsh who was previously out was now back in, Phil Ehart was still on drums, but Kenny Livgreen left along with John Elefante.  Instead of prog. rock, you get douchy hard rock.

Even the sole attempt at prog. on this LP, "Musicato", is filled with simple guitar licks and tons of cheesy 80's studio effects.  Such a disappointment.  Despite that, the band still managed a minor hit out of the song "Power" and a top 20 hit out of "All I Wanted".  Good for them, I guess.  The fact that people were still interested in Kansas in 1986 is a testament to their popularity and success.

All I Wanted
Power

Joe Walsh "But Seriously, Folks..." Elektra/Asylum Records 1978

Joe Walsh "But Seriously, Folks..." Elektra/Asylum Records 1978  CAT #6E-141

Yeah, so Joe Walsh was born in Wichita, KS.  That's cool, but I don't think he spent much time in Kansas before moving to Ohio as a child.  Further, at age 12 he'd move to New York.  Regardless, he's a native Kansan.  There is a good chance he has family here, maybe even frequented Kansas as a child for holidays and such.

I've had a rough go with Joe Walsh; not sure what music of his to include on this blog project and what not to include.  Ultimately, I decided solo albums are fair game.  I really wanted to do James Gang albums, because for the most part, the Joe Walsh edition of the band is great, but if I did that, I'd be opening myself up to the Eagles who Walsh also performed with.  I fucking hate the Eagles.  I had to draw the line at solo albums.  Second, that also would lead to talking about stuff just because there was one dude from Kansas or Kansas City and that's too much stuff, so it was best just to stick to solo albums and groups with legitimate roots to the area.

However, with that declaration, Joe Walsh still presented further problems.  Do you count the Barnstorm era Joe Walsh?  You see, after Walsh left James Gang, he went onto do Barnstorm.  That was the actual name of the group Joe Walsh formed and not his first solo album.  However, since Walsh had become an admired guitarist as a member of the James Gang and the labels love a good brand name, they bottled the first Barnstorm album as a Walsh solo project.  Due to the major label money grab, Barnstorm era is fair game as well.

Yeah, so this album is pretty boring.  My parents had it when I was growing up.  I found the cover interesting and humorous as a child.  I don't remember hearing it played in the household or anything, probably because Walsh was a bit Eagles-damaged at this point.  Several years in that band entrenched him in melodic soft rock tunes.  My parents always played party rock when they actually played records, so this one collected dust.  It is a better album than The Long Run by the Eagles which came out the following year.   Don Henly and Glenn Fry would've been better off just recording Joe Walsh tunes by 1979.  And since people fucking love the Eagles, loads of people seem to like this LP for it's a laid back and relaxed style.  It also contained the absurdly long, but big time AOR hit, "Life's Been Good," which admittedly, is pretty hard not to like.

Life's Been Good

Morningstar S/T Columbia 1978

Morningstar S/T Columbia 1978 CAT # JC35316

This is the debut album from Morningstar.  I was hoping after the dreadful experience of their second album for Columbia, this would be better.

Good news, it's better.  Bad news, it's still cheeseball, pomp-rock.  You could tell, the second album was based on the commercial failure of this LP.  This album appears to be a bit truer to the band.  You can actually feel the energy and nothing sounds forced.  The band attempts to rock and at times it sounds kind of Kiss-esque, 70's metal.  Most of the time, however, it sounds similar to other studio rockers of the time. The album is also sprinkled with a bunch of synth driven mid-tempo, sappy, chick tunes.  I'm sure they got laid a lot at bars and such, but they probably would have been a more successful band had they concentrated on straight ahead rock n' roll.

Worst of it, the lyrics these guys (or guy) wrote are awful.  I mean, there's a lot of stuff out there that borders on bad teenage poetry, but this does it the whole way through.  Half this shit doesn't even make sense.  Here's the chorus from the tune, Sweet Georgia Peach, "Like a Sweet Georgia Peach, I got a line on you but my ten foot pole won't reach."  Really?  This is not clever.  I mean, I get it, the cliche, "I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole," but it doesn't make it clever to say you can't touch something with something you'd never touch it with in the first place.  It's like that the whole way through, a bunch of lines that just leave you scratching your head trying to figure out if they were attempting to be clever or if they were really that stuck for things to write about.

Props, though.  They mention KC numerous times throughout the LP credits.  The booking company is listed in Shawnee Mission, KS.  They thanked local radio stations.  And, they just gave a straight shout out to Kansas City in the thank you's on the liner.

Kansas Song For America Kirshner 1975

Kansas Song For America Kirshner 1975 CAT #PZ 33385

The third album from Topeka band, Kansas.  They tried extremely hard on this LP to keep up with their British prog. contemporaries.  Long, drawn out tunes; only 6 total.  Heavy on synth and orchestration.  They use odd time signatures and bob in out of movements within the songs.  It is an ambitious album and has it's moments, but it pales in comparison to other progressive bands that surrounded them.

It's strong when the band adeptly moves from synth driven interludes to boogie rock.  The 1st track, "Down the Road" is intense and to be cliche, "rocks."  Other parts of the album "rock" as well, the 1st track of side 2, "Lonely Street" deserves mention as does "The Devil's Game."  The final track also contains some insane drumming, that's cool.  However, even in those mentioned tracks most the album meanders around and can become exhausting to listen to.  Many of the bands fans will argue this is the band's crowning achievement.  The sweeping arrangements and time signatures make it their most "progressive" album and it's easy to get swept up in all the studio perfection.  But, if you look past all the smoke and mirrors, it's really just sub-par prog LP with nice moments.

Down the Road
The Devil's Game

Morningstar Venus Columbia 1979

Morningstar Venus Columbia 1979 CAT # JC 35713

I can tolerate Kansas City's brief foray into the realms of arena and studio rock.  Shooting Star, whatever.  Missouri, better than you think.  Kansas, they got the prog rock thing and that's cool.  But, this band is awful.  The Kansas Music Hall of Fame states they barely missed their moment.  The band's contemporaries like Styx, Journey, and Foreigner had all opted for a ballad driven sound while the rest of the musical landscape was filled with disco and punk--the hard rock sound of Morningstar was destined to be overlooked.  Really?  That may have been true on the pop charts, but last I checked, AC/DC, Aerosmith, The Who, and Led Zeppelin were putting out "hard rock" albums and staying both successful and enjoyable without support of pop radio.  Last I checked, most of those bands put out good music in the late 70's.  Morningstar just isn't that good.

I mean, they seem like competent players.  They sound slick and polished.  They have cool facial hair and great bangs on the back cover.  One problem, they didn't write good songs.  What they do well is showcase the ineptitude of major labels, even at a time when record labels were still successful. The band  appears to be a case of major labels keeping up with the Joneses.  Whenever and wherever something is successful, the labels always find a way to saturate the market with sound alikes.  The band Kansas scored substantial hits in the mid-70's.  Shooting Star was signed by Virgin and being thrown out there in heavy doses.  The band Missouri had a moderate hit without even having major label support.  So, Morningstar seems like Columbia's attempt to cash in on the Kansas/Missouri rock sound.

Even worse, the label just threw them into the melting pot.  You can tell the band was forced to step outside their comfort zone in hopes of finding a hit song.  There's the Styx moments on the record, the moments that try to be the working man's tune, and the moments that get sappy.  This was their second album, so they tried everything.  Overall, it just created an uneven album and history suggests that Columbia gave up on the band shortly after it's release.

Angel

Missouri S/T Panama Records 1977

Missouri S/T Panama Records 1977 CAT # PRS-1022

Missouri was a Kansas City band led by Ron West. In the late 60's, West fronted a fairly cool garage band called the Chessman.  He and his brothers played the local scene relying on British Invasion covers and a few originals.  After the garage scene ended, Ron couldn't quite the music business.  Like many former garage rockers, when AOR gained favor, West went in the same direction.  His brother, Gary West, actually did the same helping to form the band Shooting Star.

The album Ron West created is a nice little success story.  It was put out by Panama Records in Kansas City.  It doesn't appear Panama Records did much outside a handful of local releases, however, despite being independent in a time where major labels dominated, the song "Movin' On" became a modest hit on AOR stations in the late 70's.  While most the success was regionally based, it got the band onto Polydor records for the second album and on national tours as a supporting artist.

Another thing the lack of major label money did was create an enjoyable album from start to finish.  In an era of progressive rock and overly produced studio rock, Missouri sounds like roots rockers.  The recording sounds organic and live.  Gives the LP a timeless feel and wins over the likes of other KC bands like Shooting Star and Morningstar.  The band would get a slicker sound on their major label LP, however, the didn't completely lose touch with the sound on this album.

What I can't stand about the album is the cover.  I get that the Arch is a Missouri landmark, but the Kansans and Missourians in Kansas City can usually agree on two things and two things only; Kansas City is great and St. Louis sucks.  Missouri is a Kansas City band, not cool to try to sell yourself as a St. Louis act.  And, where the hell are those mountains from?  Oh wait, they're from fucking Arizona.  I suppose, I could make the connection as the last in the lower 48 to become a state, Arizona represents Manifest Destiny better than any other state, but that's a lot of explaining for an album cover and probably isn't right.

Movin' On
I'm Still Tryin'

Shooting Star III Wishes Virgin/Epic 1982

 Shooting Star III Wishes Virgin/Epic 1982 CAT #FE 38020

Shooting Star is a fairly successful Kansas City band that played the AOR/Studio Rock card in the late 70's into the early 80's.  They are a footnote in music history for being the first American band signed to Virgin Records.  The bios state they formed in Kansas City, MO.  However, the founding members were Shawnee Mission South Alum, so their roots are in Kansas.

Apparently, this isn't the place to start with this band.  Which in a way is good, because it's awful.  It's just MOR studio rock.  I've read that this album was desperate attempt to have a hit album and they drew influence from the likes of Journey, Loverboy, and probably Toto.  I guess prior to this LP, they were closer to Foreigner rock than Journey?  I don't know, shit all sounds the same to me.  It's still a little too heavy to be yacht rock, but moments aren't far off.

The first song isn't much different than what would later be accepted as heavy metal with the likes of Poison, Bon Jovi, Warrant, etc.  It's a shame they didn't grow out there hair until 1987 and just play to that crowd, they had the skills to do that.  However, they quit that good time hard rock sound almost immediately on this album in favor of slow tempo ballads and soft rock meant to appeal to high school age girls.

It's all pretty trite.  Due to their success locally and the fact that their Alma Mater is literally a block from my house, it's pretty easy to find their LPS for a dollar, I'm hoping their earlier releases are far more enjoyable.

Kansas S/T Kirshner 1974

Kansas S/T Kirshner 1974 CAT #32817

The best thing about the debut by Kansas is the cover.  This is the greatest cover on any album ever.  You don't like John Brown and the story behind Bleeding Kansas?  Fuck you, you're a racist.  Yeah dude, Kansas was on the right side; Free State.  That's how we roll, you're welcome.

Other than that, there's an absurd amount of fiddle on this LP.  I've never thought to myself, hey, these keyboards and rambling chord progressions could really use some fiddle.  But, the band Kansas did.  I guess that was going to be there calling card back in the day.  They were going to be that prog-rock outfit with a fuckin' fiddle.  Heads will explode.

Aside from that, there's a lot of boogie in the album.  It has its moments within the songs.  But, it lacks any sort of focus.  It's all the bands tricks at once.  They would get better, focusing on boogie and harmonies more so than all the prog and fiddle.  All lot of the songs show promise at the start before the band just starts lumping everything they have into them.  For one, The Pilgrimage, could have been solid had they not destroyed it with an organ break and a guitar vs. fiddle dual.  It's just that way throughout the entire thing.  The band focuses too much on trying to show you their virtuosic skills rather than their songwriting skills.

The Pilgrimage

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