Point Of Know Return - Kansas (1977)

Three months in 1977: Released Oct 11. Already written up: Billy Joel’s The Stranger from Sept 29.

First, it takes a certain amount of chutzpah to be a band from Kansas and name yourself… Kansas. I mean… did you ask if that was ok with the hundreds of other bands in Kansas? Not as bad as Europe or Asia or even America, but still pretty bad.

Second, it’s a little jarring to hear straight up British prog coming from an American band.

Kerry Livgren was the primary songwriter, a guy who I was familiar with as a Christian rock artist in the 80s before I’d ever really heard Kansas. Things are weird sometimes.

This is kind of the classic lineup of Kansas that created multiple giant generational and inter-generational hits.

I remember trading my Bob Dylan Oh Mercy CD with a kid at school who exchanged it for this album. I didn’t really get into it because I wasn’t into prog yet and it seemed like 70’s ass rock wankery. He, in turn said (of the poet whose songs have so many unexplored caverns that people still write term papers about them) that “the songs don’t really go anywhere.”

Now I appreciate musical complexity more than–or at least as much as–lyrical complexity, so i can only hope that dude (whose name escapes me) has had a similar revision in taste.

Tracks I Liked

Sparks Of The Tempest - I don’t think I’d heard this before. Pretty great.