I spend 3 hours a day in my car commuting to and from work and have taken to listening to artist catalogs on my iPod to pass the time. This week has been Kansas and I realized that I really do love this band.
Let me count the ways ....
1. Catalog Quality - From s/t to Audiovisions there is not one stinker. Sure some songs are merely Good, but most are Great. I can't think of another band where this is the case. Kansas literally have seven albums of quality songs. Hard to beat.
2. Progability - Aside from a few ballads, their music is keenly complex and intricate, yet catchy. They are the inventors of Prog with a capital B for Blues/Rock and in their prime did it well.
3. Robbie Steinhardt - What other Prog band has a giant, hillbilly, violin/fiddle player front and center. Those of you who saw them live back in the day know what I mean by front and center, and well the giant hillbilly comments.
4. Sing-a-long - More than any other group, I can "sing" along with every Kansas song, and by that I don't mean the lyrics, I mean the instrumentation - hooks. They wrote catchy hooks in the Prog genre.
5. Ensemble - Six top musicians playing as an ensemble, not 5 backers and a soloist/frontman.
6. Two's - Two Keyboards and Two Guitars, which IMHO should be a basic Prog requirement.
7. Content -While cheesy at times, their lyrical content at least attempted to portray a deeper meaning.
7.5 - Will Ferrel - Nothing funnier than Will Ferrel singing "Dust in the Wind" at Blue's funeral in the movie Old School.
Thoughts? DO you love Kansas? If so is my list accurate and if not, um why not????
Bookmarks