Customer Reviews

Song for America (Exp)

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most people, like myself, discover Song For America after their exposure to Kansas' more mainstream material and are blown away by what they hear. So much of this album defines what 1970s anthem rock was all about. Sweeping instrumental virtuosity and lyrics that critics call pompous, historians call quaint, and I call just plain perfection. Oh to have material like this these days!

Down the road rips the foam fronting off speakers and belies the power of Kansas in concert. The title cut, Song For America remains a Kansas standard to this day. Lamplight Symphony is the pure Kansas excess that I just eat up. The imagery of the lonely spouse who gains solace by seeing his wife's apparition is laid down perfectly. Lyrics aren't wasted and the instrumental bridge is wonderful. It remained a part of Kansas's concert playlist for years.

Lonely street demonstrates the breadth of Kansas' accomplishment. Its a bluesy tune (formerly called 11/8) that is one of the most unique Kansas tunes. I know of no other song in their catalog that explores the blues to quite this degree.

Devil Game is the only song that misses the mark, too much repetition, lack of characteristic Kansas depth (devotees of this album and Walsh's material will flame me on this assessment, I'm sure). But it does set us up nicely for what's to follow . . .

Incommudro remains one of my favorite Kansas songs - best of this album. Each member gets to showcase on this tune, particularly Ehart the drummer who shows his Peartish virtuosity and his King Crimson roots. This song is over-the-top. Its full of the excess that critics of the era hate but equally full of the nuances of the genre that I love.

Newbies, get Leftoverture first, then when you're ready, dive into Song for America

Many of us Kansas fans were probably frantically worrying when Kansas' first two albums -- 1974's s/t debut, and 1975's _Song For America_ -- would get the remastering treatment, since such other classics as 1975's _Masque_, 1976's _Leftoverture_ and 1977's _Point of Know Return_ had already gotten their shares. Well, we are finally able to put our worries to rest, as _Song For America_ is *finally* here in all it's remastered, and expanded glory. And, like the other remastered editions, there are bonus tracks; of particular interest is the exciting, rocking live version of "Down The Road", which is packed with so much infectious energy, it'll be hard to sit still.

This album has always been a sentimental favorite, and I only seem to enjoy it more and more as time goes on. The album seems to be divided into two conceptual halves: three elongated progressive rock tracks, showcasing the *prog* side of Kansas, and the other three tracks showcasing Kansas' earthy heartland rock, blues and boogie elements. "Down The Road" is a tasty, boogie-filled foot-stomper featuring violin scrapes that recall country music. An excellent opener to the album. The title track, to me, is far beyond brilliant, and shows Kansas at their most compositionally insightful. It contains all of the elements - and then some - to make an engrossing, enjoyable piece of music. Perfect and emotive vocal harmonies, brilliant arrangements, thoughtful lyrics, melody, convincing anthemic/dramatic attributes, which refrain from coming across as silly -- it's a 10. Everything just seems perfect: not a wasted note, no unnecessary meandering or imbalances. Even the quirky, yet powerful 9/8 instrumental section near the end of the song avoids sounding indulgent. This title track deserves all of the praise it gets - the kind of song in which it's power will still stand even after everything else has faded away. "Lamplight Symphony" is beautiful, lush and poignant. The lyrics concerning a man yearning for his deceased wife have been critcized for being corny, and I can understand that. But, in the end, it's the powerful musicianship that matters. I especially love the overlapping of (orchestral: synthesizer) ascending and descending phrases on this track: contrapuntal lines that could be on the level of those found in classical music. Gives the track extra doses of power and drama.

"Lonely Street" is a fascinating blues study in 11/8. Odd-timed and atypical (for blues), the guitar crunch on the verses exude an utterly menacing tone (to match that of the dark lyrics), while Steve Walsh's vocals plow along mysteriously, before he reaches this passionate climax near the end of the song. Overwhelming stuff. "The Devil Game" is excellent, as it reminds me of the kind of song that would be found on MASQUE ("Mysteries and Mayhem" comes to mind) and later albums - therefore reminding me of the *condensed brilliance* Kansas would show more of on later albums. A hard song to describe, sonically speaking, it's a condensed hard rocker, but contains enough complexity to remind one of the *classic* progressive rock attributes. "Incomudro - Hymn to The Atman" is a 12-minute mystical study. 80% of the track is instrumental featuring ethereal and encircling synthesizer textures, brief vocal parts, which at times sound like they are emerging from underwater, and later, a machine-gun drum solo from Phil Ehart. While this track is very compelling on it's own, the unissued live version found on THE KANSAS BOXED SET is an even more exciting listen. The drum solo is extended, and the passionate ending even lasts longer - and the musicianship is crisp, clean, clear, and the band doesn't miss a beat on that 16-minute blast of nirvana. Nevertheless, both are strong, and each have redeeming value on their own terms. I feel blessed having both versions, as I feel both are necessities (for me, anyway.)

Kansas are brilliant musicians in my book, and this album does not disappoint. It shows just one of the many facets this band possesses.

"Song For America" is the second album from the masters of American Progressive rock, Kansas. Although this was only their second album, the band had already established themselves as a solid live act and had delivered an impressive self-titled debut album which still ranks among their finest work. With "Song For America", the band successfully fused their tight hard rock sound with a decidedly more epic approach. Two of the album's shorter tracks, the opener "Down The Road" and "Lonely Street" display a heavy dose of bluesy bar-band boogie while "The Devil Game" is a short but musically complex piece with strong band interplay, odd time signatures and lyrics that are openly anti-satanic.
The album's three remaining pieces rank among the very best of Kansas's long epic pieces. All three were soley penned by bandleader/guitarist/keyboardist Kerry Livgren and feature some of his finest compositional structure and arrangement work. The 10-minute title track pays homage to the beauty America and combines complex time signatures and dynamic musical themes with simple pop-rock melodic structures. The 8-minute "Lamplight Symphony" is a heavily keyboard-based piece and displays tightly arranged orchestrations alongside impressive vocal work from Steve Walsh and violinist Robby Steinhardt. The 12-minute "Incommurdo" is the oldest piece on the album dating back to 1971-72 (the original recording is on the excellent Kansas demo compilation "Proto-Kaw"). It is also the longest piece recorded by the classic Kansas line-up. The band's solid musicianship is displayed at its fullest here complete with Livgren's dramatic keyboard orchestrations and stunning lead guitar work, Steve Walsh's passionate vocals and Phil Ehart's powerhouse drum feature. The piece's lyrics are interesting in the fact that Livgren was still on a spiritual quest at the time of this song's writing and recording. Its subject matter dealing with philosophies of Eastern religion and Buddhist principles (again, this was roughly five years before Livgren embraced the born-again Christian faith).
On the expanded remastered version, there are two bonus tracks. One being a three-minute 'single edit' version of the title track. The other being a solid 1975 live version of "Down The Road" showing Kansas rocking hard with the pedal to the metal. The remastered sound quality is a revelation compared to the previous CD issue displaying full depth and clarity to the music. The booklet includes a newly written essay featuring commentary from several Kansas band members as well as providing an insight into the making of the album.
After 29 years, "Song For America" remains one of Kansas's greatest albums. The expanded remastered version is so fresh-sounding, it makes it worth buying the album all over again. With its solid rock numbers and progressive epics, the album is an excellent demonstration of the many musical trademarks of the band. From here, Kansas continued to improve and refine their sound paving the way for superstardom that was to come only less than two years later.
A highly recommended Progressive Masterpiece!!

Epic/Legacy's reissue of Kansas' "Song for America" is a welcome one. The result is a crisper, punchier sound compared to the original CD release. Even my old ears can pick up some subtleties that seemed to elude me on the original. Some of these songs are available on other remastered releases, but it's still nice to have the whole album in remastered form. The additional tracks are novelties at best -- were there no unrelease studio pieces they could have included -- but the live version of "Down the Road" shows that the band could deliver the goods in concert as well as on record.

To my ear, this is the most consistent of the early Kansas albums. For personal reasons, it is also my favorite, but it is not simply my own nostalgia that justifies holding this album in such high esteem.

Recorded back when albums had sides, it is difficult not to sense a kind of parallelism between the two sets of three songs the original album comprised. Songs 1 on both sides are gritty, urban nightmares about drugs; songs 2 are complicated, riff driven morality tales; songs 3 are dramatic, cosmic and spiritual epics about the afterlife. Both sides, then, reflect a movement from the earthly to the divine, a quest for meaning from the brutality of life to a vision of eternity, which might explain the album's abiding sense of profundity, in spite of seemingly trite lyrics. Music (including opera) has long proven that even the most cliché sentiments can take on an almost unbearable effectiveness when sung passionately or surrounded by awe-inspiring music.

Songs 1, "Down the Road" and "Lonely Street" (the parallel here is obvious) are the most conventional songs on the album. "Down the Road," in fact, is a rather weak opener, stylistically similar to the opening of Kansas' debut album. This weakness is only in comparison with the rest of the album. "Lonely Street", on the other hand, is a very powerful blues-like song in 11/8. Here is not the place for an essay on how odd-metered time signatures work to create much more compelling licks and riffs than their even-metered counterparts. Suffice to say that the main effect and power of this song derives from the one beat less from a standard blues lick that the main riff reflects. Lyrically and emotionally, also, this song is much more tormented and personal than "Down the Road".

Songs 2, "Song for America" and "The Devil Game" are related in that both are moral fables; the former with respect to nature, the latter with respect to one's soul. Both lyrically convey warnings and either directly or indirectly insist on waking up and smelling the coffee, as it were. "Song for America" itself need not have any more said about it; many are the raves in other reviews, and justly so--the whole structure of the song, especially the bridge in 5/4 (omitted in the live performance), is everything Kansas can be in a nutshell. Why "The Devil Game" is held in less esteem is a bit mysterious; perhaps the rather pedantic injunctions about Christianity in the lyrics are annoying. The song (penned by Hope and Walsh) is, in fact, a wonderful collection of various, mostly intricate riffs, delivered with relentless energy. Resting between the gritty gloom of "Lonely Street" and the cosmic grandeur of "Incomudro," it seems like a brilliant contrast, and is a song that, in any case, rewards the attentive listener. The drums and bass work, as usual, are consistently engaging, interesting and, frankly, just all-around snazzy.

Songs 3, "The Lamplight Symphony" and "Incomudro - Hymn to the Atman" are epic, cosmic speculations on the spiritual; in the former case concerning the appearance of the apparition of a man's wife to console him in his loneliness, the latter as an assertion of faith about reincarnation that thus consoles the individual wondering about life after death. (The Atman, a Hindu notion, is the God-soul of the individual that reincarnates again and again until it achieves the release of Enlightenment.) The parallel character of the songs, length and long bridges aside, can be heard in the first opening seconds of each, which resemble one another. The tastefulness of musicianship in "Lamplight Symphony" alone justifies buying this disc; its epic sweep is one of the benchmarks progressive rock aspired to (which, for example, "In the Court of the Crimson King" fell short of). One reviewer claims that the lyrics make him gag. While it is true that Kansas lyrics are often trite when removed from the context of their music, I really don't see the fairness of this remark in this case. The song's whole narrative seems rather poignant, and atypically well-written. The musical bridge, deceptively simple (and somehow resembling the one in "Incomudro" so that the pieces again seem interrelated), is a continuously interesting crisscrossing of carefully orchestrated lines. Most simply put, the music is beautiful, moving and full of grandeur. I can think of nothing to equal it in progressive rock at the time, and still strikes me even 25 years later as without peer (except as follows).

"Incomudro - Hymn to the Atman" is my favorite Kansas song ever; its power and gloriousness have reduced me to tears more than once. There is hardly a moment in it where the drum line or the bass line is not simply exquisite, but the whole band shows for the full 12 minutes of the song just how much musical taste they all have. Even when Phil Ehart goes off on what should come off as a rather boring drum solo--somehow it's never worn out its welcome for me though. The build-up to the bridge, the burst of guitar line, and then the finally dropping into the rolling bass line of the bridge is perfectly modulated, while the bridge itself, with its variations on a keyboard theme, brilliantly and subtly builds and builds in harmonic interest, ending with a gong note (to usher in the drum solo). The return to the main theme, the nuances of differences in Walsh's singing of the last verse, especially the triumphant howl he lets out, echoing and fading into an intensely increasing finale, is one of the greatest sections in all of rock music that I know of, finally to break off in a resounding peal of thunder that dies away. An amazing song, uplifting in the best sense, both awe- and hope-inspiring, and a perfect end to an almost perfect musical statement.

Two copies go with me to the desert island, in case the first one wears out.

SONG FOR AMERICA (1975) is arguably the most *proggish* album of Kansas' output, and is considered by many hardcore fans to be their most brilliant.

I happen to agree with Chris Kemp: while many progressive rock bands seem to lose their brilliance when they condense their music, Kansas' music would seem to get more interesting, and arguably more brilliant, considering their ability to create infectious, catchy songs, while still containing brilliant arrangements. This aspect of the band had it's strongest leanings on this album's follow-up MASQUE (1975), which eventually seemed to fully blossom on later albums, LEFTOVERTURE (1976) and POINT OF KNOW RETURN (1977).

That's just one of the many things that have always had me convinced that Kansas were geniuses (along with Queen and several other brilliant bands.) I've always held guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/main songwriter Kerry Livgren in high regard as one of the most brilliant composers in rock music. Not only that, the rest of the musicians - Steve Walsh (vocals/keyboards), Robbie Steinhardt (violin/occasional vocal), Rich Williams (guitar), Dave Hope (bass) and Phil Ehart (drums) - were all exceptionally talented on their respective instruments.

This album has always been a sentimental favorite, and I only seem to enjoy it more and more as time goes on. As mentioned in other reviews, the album seems to be divided into two conceptual halves: three elongated progressive rock tracks, showcasing the *prog* side of Kansas, and the other three tracks showcasing Kansas' earthy heartland rock, blues and boogie elements. "Down The Road" is a tasty, boogie-filled foot-stomper featuring violin scrapes that recall country music. An excellent opener to the album. The title track, to me, is far beyond brilliant, and shows Kansas at their most compositionally insightful. It contains all of the elements - and then some - to make an engrossing, enjoyable piece of music. Perfect and emotive vocal harmonies, brilliant arrangements, thoughtful lyrics, melody, convincing anthemic/dramatic attributes, which refrain from coming across as silly -- it's a 10. Everything just seems perfect: not a wasted note, no unnecessary meandering or imbalances. Even the quirky, yet powerful 9/8 instrumental section near the end of the song avoids sounding indulgent. This title track deserves all of the praise it gets - thhe kind of song in which it's power will still stand even after everything else has faded away. "Lamplight Symphony" is beautiful, lush and poignant. The lyrics concerning a man yearning for his deceased wife have been critcized for being corny, and I can understand that. But, in the end, it's the powerful musicianship that matters. I especially love the overlapping of (orchestral: synthesizer) ascending and descending phrases on this track, which I only imagine can be found in classical music, or at least, that's more than likely where those ideas originated. Gives the track extra doses of power and drama.

"Lonely Street" is a fascinating blues study in 11/8. Odd-timed and atypical (for blues), the guitar crunch on the verses exude an utterly menacing tone (to match that of the dark lyrics), while Steve Walsh's vocals plow along mysteriously, before he reaches this passionate climax near the end of the song. Overwhelming stuff. "The Devil Game" is excellent, as it reminds me of the kind of song that would be found on MASQUE ("Mysteries and Mayhem" comes to mind) and later albums - therefore reminding me of the *condensed brilliance* Kansas would show more of on later albums. A hard song to describe, sonically speaking, it's a condensed hard rocker, but contains enough complexity to remind one of the *classic* progressive rock attributes. "Incomudro - Hymn to The Atman" is a 12-minute mystical study. 80% of the track is instrumental featuring ethereal and encircling synthesizer textures, brief vocal parts, which at times sound like they are emerging from underwater, and later, a machine-gun drum solo from Phil Ehart. While this track is very compelling on it's own, the unissued live version found on THE KANSAS BOXED SET is an even more exciting listen. The drum solo is extended, and the passionate ending even lasts longer - and the musicianship is crisp, clean, clear, and the band doesn't miss a beat on that 16-minute blast of nirvana. Nevertheless, both are strong, and each have redeeming value on their own terms. I feel blessed having both versions, as I feel both are necessities (for me, anyway.)

Kansas are brilliant musicians in my book, and this album does not disappoint. It shows just one of the many facets this band possesses.

It is worth your hard earned bucks to buy the Kansas CD, SONG FOR AMERICA just for the track, LAMPLIGHT SYMPHONY. While other reviewers say that it is a ghostly love story. I found this track to be mesmerizing and full of emotion. So full of imagery. It's a masterpiece!!

With their second album Kansas produced an album that was to signal the greatness to come. Song For America contains some of the best progressive rock music made and let Kansas firmly stamp their style on the world.

The highlights of this album are the seminal classic Song For America (which is probably only bettered by the live version on Two For The Show), the excellent Lamplight Symphony and Incomudro-Hymn To The Atman. If this album were to consist of these 3 tracks alone (from a total of 6) it would easily merit 5*.

The other 3 tracks although good, cannot match up to the musicianship and melody of the above stated 3 songs. They are typically Kansas and perfectly enjoyable - they're just not classics.

Song For America in particular was to point to the genius that was to come in the later albums Leftoverture and Point Of Know Return and it somewhat overshadows the rest of the album giving it a slightly imbalanced feel - perhaps leaving it until last in the playlist would have helped. This would be my only negative criticism.

Recommendation to buy.

Kansas stood out as one of the top prog rock bands of the mid & late '70's and this was one of their best efforts. Kerry Livgren's guitar work was impeccable and Steve Walsh's vocals and keyboards gave this band their signature sound. A must for any Kansas fan, or other fan of that vintage of prog rock's collection. Play it loud!

I bought Point of Know Return in 1977 at 13years old, and loved it, then i bought Song for America, this turned me into a progressive rock fan, it is an excellent and diverse album. I am still loving this album, and am always searching for something like it.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED