Kansas Progressive: Their Essential Contributions to Art Rock (Classic Rock Deep Dive Book 11)

The place of Kansas in classic rock is forever fixed, and songs like “Carry On Wayward Son”, “Dust in the Wind” and “Point of Know Return” will play on satellite radio for all time. But to any serious fan, Kansas isn’t just a top-shelf classic rock band; they are a top-shelf progressive rock band – America’s first and best.

That’s what the following pages will clarify – the progressive components of the Kansas musical canon, measured and evaluated as would be those of any of their British cousins. Pick any random point in the classic Kansas timeline, play the song in front of you, and it will likely feature virtuoso performance; complex arrangements; shifting meter; unusual rhythm; epic themes, and probably more. These are the features of progressive rock – musical and lyrical elements that go above and beyond the primary colors of rock, into the realm of mind and imagination - that the music of Kansas displays in abundance.