Customer Reviews

Boxed Set

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This 2 CD Kansas box set is a must for die hard Kansas fans, as well as people interested in Classic American Progressive Rock... though there aren't many bands in that category. This box set features many of the band's classic, unknown symphonic prog epics, live tracks, hits, unreleased demos and a new track, specifically made for this box set. Here's the scoop:

Disc One is mostly comprised of elaborate/symphonic progressive rock epics coming from their first three albums. Can I Tell You is a demo as opposed to the original version. Death Of Mother Nature Suite is one of the bonus tracks and is recorded live. Personally, I love the murky quality to this track, as it makes it sound mysterious and haunting. It also features classic southern-fried metal guitar. I believe violinist Robbie Steinhardt performs the lead vocals on this track. Journey From MariaBronn is classic symphonic rock of the finest order. I just love the part when Robbie's violin comes in at the beginning. Song For America is "arguably" Kansas' best all-around epic. This time out, the full 10 minute version is on here, as opposed to the 1 minute that was taken out for the "Best Of Kansas 1999 remastered edition" single CD. Incomudro is pure progressive rock heaven: a 16 minute live version with a mind-bending drum solo from Phil Ehart. Nearly 80% of this song is instrumental. Like ELP, Kansas is one of the few (prog) bands that sound really excellent and crisp on stage. The last four songs: Child Of Innocence (melodic, theatrical and beautiful), Icarus-Borne On The Wings Of Steel, Mysteries And Mayhem, which has musical and lyrical references to the next track, The Pinnacle all come from Kansas' third album, Masque.

Disc Two features most of the band's commercial stuff, while containing some prog "leftover-tures"!

The first five tracks come from Leftoverture. Obviously, Carry On Wayward Son is very popular. Kerry Livgren claims in the liner notes that the song was almost left in the vaults. The Wall is very anthemic. What's On My Mind is a funky rocker. Opus Insert is probably my favorite out of these 5 tracks, other than C.O.W.S. The vocal chorus/repeat/chorus is a harmonic country-esque cross between Creedence Clearwater Revival and Queen. Magnum Opus is a mostly instrumental 8 minute prog epic. This one is good, but seems not as strong or full as the earlier prog epics. Now comes the tracks from Point Of Know Return. After the title track comes Portrait (He Knew), a song about Albert Einstein. After the beautiful Dust In The Wind comes one of my favorite Kansas tracks, The Closet Chronicles. Written about Howard Hughes, I thought it was about Elvis Presley at first guess.

The songs that follow in my opinion are not that great, with the exception of the melodic heavy rockers Relentless and Loner. The bonus track, Wheels is actually pretty good, though it seems as if Steve Walsh is struggling to hit the high notes he used to hit so well.

To sum it up, this box set chronicles the Kansas era from 1974-1980, so many fans' opinions will contradict each other, as there are fans of Kansas' "prog" era (1974-1980) as well as the more "commercial" era (1980 and beyond). I'm pretty new to Kansas, but I became an enthusiast very early. If you like the more commercial Kansas, this box set wil probably disappoint due to the many lengthy prog tracks, but if you're like me, and love the earlier version of Kansas better, or like BOTH versions, this box set is a must. It's even got a booklet that gives you information on the roots of Kansas, each band member and stories behind most of the tracks.

For those waiting for a definitive collection of KANSAS greats, this box set is it. As an avid Kansas fan, yeah, this box set left out some of my favorites, however it covers 90%, which is better than most box sets have to offer these days.

I won't get into what other reviewers have in the area of Kansas and how they relate to the world of prog rock - judge for yourself. If you like them, they hey, what the f is wrong with that? So what if they cloned some King Crimson or Yes stuff here and there? They came AFTER the prog rock 'wave', so we can't expect too much from the critically imposed LIMITS of prog rock now, can we?

Hey, these guys are tops in my book, and if you want to have some select CD quality cuts off the stuff you probably have on LP, then this is IT! This box set is a great 3 hours of one of the best bands ever.

Kansas is one of those stalwart 70s bands that unravelled for a while but never went away. You know, one of the "featuring two original members" kinds of collectives that tried to reinvent themselves through the 80s and 90s. The Kansas most people know, or should want to know, is the 1974-1980 version showcased here -- and which is more or less back together again now. For casual fans, all the big hits are here along with a nice "education" about some of the other AOR material. For real fans, this box offers a couple of things which make it worth buying -- a nice booklet history of the band, the tracks from "Masque" (especially Icarus), and the rare versions of a couple of early tunes. When you boil ten albums down to 26 tracks, you can always argue about tradeoffs, but this is a well-considered set which can only be faulted for ignoring the (generally less good and certainly less characteristic) 1982-1995 era. Those who get this and are excited should realize that more or less THIS version of the band is on the road in summer-fall 2000...buy the box, see the band! Kansas is a band. And a damn good one.

Even among very good artists, you are hard pressed to discover artists with tremendous talent in each of the 3 areas which comprise rock & roll: music, lyrics, and quality of the singer's voice. Kansas is quite rare in that they possess a great deal of talent in all three areas. This boxed set has a tremendous vitality, energy, and uniqueness that most artists cannot even approach. It can be frenetically intense at times yet hypnotically enchanting at others. It contains virtually all of the best Kansas songs before the myriad of lineup changes in the band eventually caused its downfall. However, the previously unreleased track Wheels is well deserving of a spot on this album. Though Miracles Out of Nowhere and Cheyenne Anthem should have been on the album in place of What's on My Mind and Opus Insert from the Leftoverture album, it is nonetheless a near perfect album.

Kansas came out of the mid-west as a group of rockers who wanted success on their own terms. Having been signed by Don Kirshner they frustrated their record company by not trying to put out hits, at least until they got a taste of mainstream success after which they leaned too far in the other direction.

This first CD of this box set starts out with an unreleased demo that, although is interesting, really is not up to Kansas' standards. Two songs follow from their debut album, which helps to see where they started. The next four come from "Song For America" ( of course their VERY best album) and includes a live rendition of Incomundo-Hymn to The Atman. Not a bad version but I enjoyed the album cut better. The last 4 cuts on CD 1 come from Masgue. It's interesting to note that CD #1 reflects their music when they weren't trying to make hits, and therefore is their most pure.

CD #2 starts off 5 songs from Leftoverture, Kansas' first mainstream success, and includes the complete Magnum Opus. This turned out to be the last "epic" Kansas song ever recorded. Because of the success of this album every release after this started to focus on shorter, more mass-appealing songs. Other highlights of CD #2 is a live version "On the Other Side", "Relentless" (Still one of my favorite Kansas rockers) and "Portrait". Lowlights include not including any songs off "Vinyl Confessions". Yes, I know Steve Walsh had left the band and that most Kansas fans never accepted John Elefante as his replacement. I'm not sure I ever did. However it had at least two classic sounding Kansas songs on it: "Play the Game" and "Crossfire".

Overall this is a great collection of Kansas songs, and it's also nice that they didn't fall into the trap that some groups do of using "radio" released versions instead of album released cuts. Of course there are songs I wish were included here but aren't (Lamplight Symphony, Miracles out of Nowhere), however that's my own preference. I would recommend this to any Kansas fan.

To me, Kansas sounds like the illegitimate child of Yes and AC/DC (which is to say they sound like Yes with a lot harder-sounding guitars). Perfect for the guy who doesn't like his prog-rock too wussy.

However, like most prog-rock bands, the pretentiousness and the overbloatedness of their stylings occasionally come through and start to wear on you. The often-galloping nature of songs like "Song For America", "Mysteries & Mayhem" and "The Pinnacle" render them pretty much interchangable to all but die-hards. Kansas definitely had a unique sound considering they combined hard rock guitar and prog-rock songwriting/arranging with violin (is there any violin player in history who's gotten more groupie action than the guy in Kansas?), but their uniqueness wears off quickly over the course of this 2-CD set. Ironically, they seem to get a little more interesting when they go mainstream on the second disc. Songs like "People Of The South Wind" and "Hold On" were obviously designed to appeal to the masses, and it's refreshing to hear them stick with the same tempo for an entire song under five minutes long.

If you're the type who likes "Dust In The Wind" and "Carry On Wayward Son" but couldn't sit through several 8-minute-plus opuses (including one called "Magnum Opus") all guilty of acute time signature abuse, then pass on this and pick up "The Best of Kansas" instead (especially if you're more of a fan of the early-80's "Play The Game Tonight"/"Fight Fire With Fire" era Kansas, which is not represented here). It definitely concentrates on their more radio-friendly fare. This retrospective certainly isn't a bad set, it's just tends to grate on you if you're not a real Kansas enthusiast.

Not a bad collection of songs we have here, but I tell you comparing this to the ultimate Kansas theres plenty of filler here .You get some unreleased live material an unreleased demo of Can I tell and the song Wheels(which is great). The live version of Death of mother nature suite sounds very poor in quality, Incumudro is a reasonable live recording and it really rocks at the end and On the other side is pretty ordinary (like the guys had a tough time keeping time on stage). The rest of the CD is Like a best of but still not ideal. Get this if you see it inexpensive.

The box, CD cover, and extensive booklet certainly contribute to making you feel that you've added a jewel to your collection. Rare and live recordings and even a new song ('Wheels') by the band's current lineup sent me to the edge of the cliff -- the music pushed me over. This collection of great Kansas music makes up for the less-than-perfect Best of Kansas released during the years when Steve Walsh was off rockin' with his band Streets -- I instantly recognize his influence on this effort. From the early demo recording to the new release the band unleashes its original, dynamic poweful sound -- drums, guitars, keyboards, violins...Steve Walsh's angelic voice. On the downside, the box set ignores about half of the band's discography and leaves out a the "missing on digital" 'Closet Chronicles' track. This collection only captures the 'hay day' of this great bar-band-gone-stadium group -- perhaps that's the point -- but the band has continued recording and touring for almost THIRTY YEARS!!! You guys owe us a boxed set Volume II -- to include the solo excursions of both Steve Walsh and Kerry Livgren! This set is a collector's must! KANSAS IS A BAND!!!

Awesome classic rock music. Live re-recording of Hymn to Atman is incredible!

Even 'tho some people would call progressive rockers Kansas too pretentious and too pedantic, they sure have the skills and ability to create interesting music. On this 2 cd set you get some of their finest songs, like the epic "Carry on wayward son", and the very emotional and beautiful "Dust in the wind" - two very well known and immortal tunes. Other songs that stand out from the rest are "What's on my mind", "Portrait", "People of the south wind", "Relentless" and "Loner". All these mentioned songs are the kind that immediately catches your attention since they're catchy and melodic. When it comes to the rest of the material you might have to listen more active to really appreciate it since it's far more complex than the average songs you get to hear on the radio these days.