Kansas

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Kansas is an American progressive rock band who became a major arena rock group in the late 1970s. Kansas'  biggest hit singles are "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind." Kansas has remained a classic rock radio staple and a popular touring act throughout both North America and Europe

Lynn Meredith, Don Montre, Dan Wright and Kerry Livgren were together in 1969 in a band called The Reasons Why. They changed their name to Saratoga and started playing Livgren's original material with Scott Kessler on bass and Zeke Lowe on drums. They soon changed their name again to Kansas and took on some new band members in 1970.

Dave Hope (bass), Phil Ehart (drums), and Kerry Livgren (guitar, and later keyboards) formed the progressive rock group named Kansas in 1970 in their hometown of Topeka, Kansas, along with vocalist Lynn Meredith from Manhattan, Kansas, keyboardist Don Montre, keyboardist Dan Wright, and saxophonist Larry Baker. This was the first lineup of Kansas and lasted until 1971, when Ehart left for England. Fans refer to this lineup as Kansas I.

Ehart was replaced by Zeke Lowe and later Brad Schulz. Hope was replaced by Rod Mikinski on bass, and Baker was replaced by John Bolton on saxophone and flute. Fans refer to this lineup as Kansas II.

In the meantime, Ehart and Hope formed a group called White Clover with Robby Steinhardt (violin, vocals), Steve Walsh (keyboards, vocals) and Rich Williams (guitar). They changed their name to Kansas when they recruited Livgren from the second Kansas group, which then folded. A demo, cut at a small studio in Liberal, Kansas, for a $300 fee wound up in the hands of a contact on the east coast, and good news came about the tape while the band was gigging at "The Opera House" in Ellinwood, Kansas, in 1973. This old 2-story converted vaudville theatre was a favorite and welcome club for the progressive original music of both White Clover, and the Kansas that signed with Kirshner Records.

Jeff Glixman from "Cocky Fox" went on to produce the first seven Kansas albums. Wally Gold came to audition Kansas at the Opera House, looking for a "house band" for the newly created TV show "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" and competed with "Wolfman Jack's Midnight Special", all prior to MTV. Kansas III received a record deal with Don Kirshner's eponymous label, and they recorded the first Kansas album shortly thereafter.


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, such as Genesis and 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) Kansas'  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. Both Carry On Wayward Son and Dust in the Wind were certified Gold singles, selling over one million units each.

During this period, Kansas developed into one of the exemplars of what came to be known as arena rock, becoming a major headlining act for several years, and selling out the largest venues available to rock bands at the time (e.g. New York City's Madison Square Garden). Kansas documented this era with its first live recording, 1978's double live album Two For The Show, a snapshot of various performances from the 1977 and 1978 tours supporting Point Of Know Return.

Kansas decided to self-produce their follow-up to Point Of Know Return themselves. The 1979 album Monolith (#10) featured lyrics influenced by The Urantia Book and Native American themes. "Kansas" itself is a toponym derived from the Kansa tribe, whose name is widely believed to mean "People of the South Wind." The starkly expressive album cover depicts Plains Indians in traditional dress and space suit helmets living in a settlement under the ruins of highway overpasses. While the album produced a top 40 single in "People of the South Wind" (#23), both Kansas  and the label were disappointed in Monolith's failure to produce sales or radio airplay close to its two predecessors.


Kansas' band members began to drift apart in the early 1980s. Kerry Livgren became a born-again Christian, and this was reflected in his lyrics on the next three albums, beginning with Audio-Visions (#26), and especially on the top 40 single ("Hold On") released from that album. Dave Hope soon converted to Christianity as well, and it became obvious to Walsh that Kansas was moving in a different creative direction. As a result, he left to form a new band, Streets. Walsh was replaced by vocalist John Elefante, also a born-again Christian, who along with his brother Dino, later became known for producing albums for Christian rock bands Petra, Bride, Rick Cua, and Guardian.

Kansas' first album with Elefante, Vinyl Confessions (#16), released in 1982, was their most successful studio release since Point of Know Return. The record renewed interest in Kansas and generated the band's first top twenty hit in several years with "Play the Game Tonight" (#17). The album's overtly Christian lyrics attracted an entirely new audience of evangelical Christians, who used lyrics from the record in religious tracts handed out after Kansas concerts. However, sales of the album fell just shy of gold status, and to this day the album has not been certified gold, unlike all of Kansas'  prior releases.

By 1983, Kansas had scheduled time to record their next album, but the changes in Kansas that had begun with Audio-Visions were more fully manifesting themselves. Robby Steinhardt failed to show up to record the album. Kerry Livgren was holding some of his best material back due to more explicit Christian content, intending to save them for his second solo album. Kansas' next release Drastic Measures (#41) was written mostly by the Elefante brothers, with just three tracks from Livgren, although all three have been favorites among many fans. The change in musical direction was closer to the sound of 1980's bands Loverboy or Foreigner than Kansas' earlier work. The first single from the album, Elefante's "Fight Fire With Fire," didn't crack the Top 40 on the Pop Charts, but reached #3 on the then recently created Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart, making the highest chart position of any Kansas release on any chart.

Livgren had always felt pressure from the music industry to produce more commercially viable material, and ironically such attempts always led to commercial failure, while their most successful material was never intended as hits. But Kansas' new direction did seem more commercially directed on Drastic Measures, and this was reflected in the lyrics of "Mainstream," a criticism of the dominant mindset within the music industry, which ironically the very album it was on was coming closer to reflecting.

During the Elefante years of Kansas, Livgren and Hope had been feeling more distant from the other band members, and Livgren was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Kansas representing his Christian worldview. After a final New Years' Eve performance on December 31, 1983, Livgren and Hope left to form AD with former Bloodrock member Warren Ham, who had toured with Kansas in 1982, and Michael Gleason, who had toured with Kansas in 1983. They were joined by drummer Dennis Holt. Elefante, Ehart, and Williams sought to continue, as demonstrated by their recording of one more song ("Perfect Lover") which would appear on 1984's retrospective The Best of Kansas, but that was the last effort by Kansas with Elefante, whose main attraction to Kansas had been Livgren, and Kansas came to an end later that year. In recent years, Elefante has become a popular contemporary Christian music singer and has never again performed with Kansas in any of its reconstituted lineups.


In 1985, Kansas came back together with Walsh but without Livgren, Hope, and Steinhardt. Kansas released Power in 1986 with new bassist Billy Greer (whom Walsh had worked with in Streets), guitarist Steve Morse (formerly of the Dixie Dregs, who has since gone on to rejoin that band and has been a member of Deep Purple since the mid-1990's) and, notably, no violin player (though in concert, Morse would perform the solo on "Dust in the Wind" on a violin). "All I Wanted," from Power became the last Kansas single to hit the Billboard Magazine Top 20 charts. 1988 saw the release of this Kansas lineup's second album, In the Spirit of Things, a favorite of several band members but a commercial failure. Morse left Kansas at the end of this tour. Kansas made promotional videos for a number of songs during this era, several of which received regular play on MTV.

In 1990, a German promoter arranged to reunite all the original members of Kansas III except Steinhardt for a European tour. Greer joined them, along with keyboardist Greg Robert, who had been touring with them in the Steve Morse years. At the end of the tour, Hope left again but Livgren remained on into 1991, which also saw the return of the violin but this time in the hands of David Ragsdale. Livgren left Kansas during the 1991 tour, to be replaced temporarily by Steve Morse again. After the tour, Morse left Kansas, saying that David Ragsdale could cover the extra guitar parts, leaving Rich Williams as the primary guitar player. The resulting lineup of Ehart, Greer, Ragsdale, Robert, Walsh, Williams lasted from 1992 through 1997. This period saw one live album and videocassette, Live at the Whisky, in 1992, and the 1995 fan-favorite Freaks of Nature, a return to classic form that nonetheless did not make a mark.

In 1997, Robert and Ragsdale left Kansas, and Robby Steinhardt returned. The following year Kansas recorded Always Never the Same with the London Symphony Orchestra as a sixth band member, featuring mostly older songs alongside a few new ones and one cover (Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles). Kansas has continued to tour, but Kansas  has never been able to regain any mass popularity or critical notice despite the media attention generated by the reunion album Somewhere to Elsewhere, an album that featured all original members of Kansas III plus Greer, with all songs written by Livgren. The album sold very well on the Internet when it was first released, charting at Number 13 on the Billboard Internet album chart its first week.

In 2000 Kansas toured as opening act support of Yes during their "Masterworks" tour. In 2002, Kansas II, the Kansas lineup before the group that recorded the first album, released an album of demos and live material they had recorded from 1971-1973. For legal reasons and a desire not to ride on the success of Kansas III, they decided to use the name Proto-Kaw. This led to a new album by most of the Kansas II members called Before Became After in 2004 and simultaneous tours by both Kansas groups. Proto-Kaw released a third album in 2006, entitled The Wait of Glory.

Kansas hit the road again in 2006. The tour was delayed for a few weeks in connection with the surprise announcement that original violinist and secondary lead singer Robby Steinhardt had left Kansas . He had left in 1983 but returned in 1997. Robby was a central part of Kansas' live shows, acting as the de facto emcee during both tenures with Kansas. David Ragsdale has subsequently returned to the lineup at violin. Kansas is on tour again in 2007.

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