I dunno, I don't think anything went terribly wrong anymore than any other band. At least no one from Kansas is dead. I mean, compared to a few other bands I can think of off hand (The Beach Boys, The Who, Zeppelin, Beatles) Kansas has had a walk in the park.
That's a cool story.BTW, about a year and a half ago, I played at some music festival in Florida with the band I tour with, Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band... and Kansas opened for us. No, I don't think we were the "headliner" exactly (that'd be pretty silly since we're just a covers band), it just happened that we were the last act of the night and Kansas went on before us. By that time, the festival was way behind schedule and both them and us had to play shortened sets. They played their hits of course. Walsh was still with them and though his voice wasn't what it used to be, it wasn't as bad as I'd expected based on the rumors. The violinist (Ragsdale?) was really good and the band sounded fine. I met Phil because our drummer, Danny Gottlieb (from the original Pat Metheny Group) knew him; no surprise, he knows just about everybody! Phil seemed like a very nice, humble guy. Though I would've loved to have seen Kansas in their heyday, I'm glad I at least got the opportunity to hear them then. I really want to hear Leftoverture now; I've never heard it! I always loved "Song For America;" I don't know why I never followed their career, but that's kind of typical of me; I'm sort of whatever the opposite of a completist would be.
Along with everyone else I'd also recommend Leftoverture. If you're a casual fan, and all you need is one Kansas album, Leftoverture is the one to get. Yeah, it's their big "commercial breakthrough" but it's very proggy, it rocks, and it contains Magnum Opus (which pretty much sums up what Kansas was all about).
I agree. It's the one album of theirs I think really works front to back...'What's On My Mind' is the lesser track on here but it's not bad or anything. The lapses into going nowhere 'rawk n roll' let the previous albums down for me. 'Masque' for instance has some really strong material ('Icarus', 'Mysteries And Mayhem', 'The Pinnacle') and also some duds, including the very first song, 'It Takes A Woman's Love' or whatever it was. I tend to skip that one.
I bought LO the first time on a two-fer cassette with POKR around 30 years ago. I didn't know they were prog. My early favorite tracks were COWS, What's On My Mind, and MO. Didn't appreciate the keyboards at the time.
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