Album Review: Kansas - Leftoverture

In 1976, Kansas headed into the studio for their fourth album. Their three previous records had failed to produce a hit. Some of their best progressive rock songs were on those three albums. They had hopes that something would crack the charts off of the previous album, Masque, but it failed to produce.

Singer Steve Walsh's songs, It Takes A Woman's Love To Make A Man and It's You failed to chart, and he was in a bit of a writer's drought on Leftoverture. Questions Of My Childhood was the only Walsh penned song on the album.

It fell to Kerry Livgren to write the hit, and the song that became the hit was one he brought in at the last minute. It was Carry On Wayward Son, which is the first song on the album. It is said that it was meant to be a sequel to two other songs he wrote on the Masque album, Mysteries And Mayhem and The Pinnacle.

There is a guitar riff on the song that goes back to a Journey song, I'm Gonna Leave You. Journey even mentions on their box set that the riff came from them. Kansas toured with them briefly around that time. Kerry later said that he never consciously borrowed that riff from them. What's interesting was the success that Kansas and other bands were having at the time had an impact on Journey bringing in lead singer Steve Perry to change that band's sound.

The song was actually brought in a couple days before they were to record the album, and they already has the songs picked out for it. The band added the a Capella beginning to the song in the studio. The single went gold and was the band's first hit. In fact, it still makes the top ten on some all time rock anthem lists.

The album has some amazing moments on it, such as Miracles Out Of Nowhere and Cheyenne Anthem. Both songs feature Walsh and violinist Robby Steinhardt trading vocals. The latter song speaks to the plight of the native Americans as they had their land taken away from them.

What's On My Mind was another single off of the album. The rocking tune speaks of Livgren finally meeting the woman of his dreams and marrying her. They are still married some 40 years later. It's a good song that didn't chart.

Not to be confused with the Pink Flord song, The Wall was Livgren's struggle to overcome a spiritual barrier. This was before he became a Christian. Part of the music comes from a Walsh song called Love Is A Dream that was never recorded, so he gets a writing credit on this song. The band has continued to play this song live in many of their tours since the Leftoverture tour.

The last song on the first side was originally called Leftoverture as it was leftover parts of a few different songs that were thrown together. The song is called Magnum Opus, and all five band members are listed in the credits. Other than a few lyrics at the beginning, it's a musical jam that showcases the talents of all of the band members.

The album peaked at #5 and and went multi platinum, launching the band into super star status. For a few years, they were as big as any rock band out there. They still featured the classic lineup of Walsh (Keyboards/Vocals) Steinhardt (Violin/Vocals), Livgren (Guitar/Keyboards), Rich Williams (Guitars), Dave Hope (Bass) and Phil Ehart (drums).