Kansas "The Wall"--mean speed=87.1 beats per minute, meanemotion=Renewal--a fantastic live recording featuring Steve Walsh

speed graphs © 2007 Meanspeed Music

A somewhat successful debut album, Kansas (#174), was released in 1974, and showcased Kansas' signature mix of guitars, keyboards, vocals, and Steinhardt's ever-present violin submerging American-style boogie-rock into complex, even symphonic, arrangements and changing time signatures. Their sound bore the marks of late 1960s, early 1970s progressive rock, especially Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. Relentless promotion by Kirshner and touring behind the debut album and its two follow ups, Song for America (#57) and Masque (#70), slowly brought Kansas' name to households across America. On the strength of the major hit single "Carry On Wayward Son" (#11) the band's fourth album, Leftoverture, released in 1976, on which Steinhardt added viola and Walsh added vibraphone to their work, (#5), was a smash hit and a constant presence on the burgeoning AOR radio format. The follow up Point of Know Return (#4), released in 1977, featured the title track (#28) and "Dust in the Wind" (#6), both hit singles, and was an even bigger success than Leftoverture. Both albums had unique album covers, with Leftoverture featuring a DaVinci-like old man on the cover, and Point of Know Return having an image of the age old idea of a sailing ship teetering over the edge of the world on its cover. Both albums have sold over 4 million copies in the USA alone.


Ian Schneider
meanspeed.com
April 20, 2007