Kansas: In the Spirit Of Things (1988)
From an old and lost blog, posted July 16, 2014
The last album Kansas did that had any support at all from the record label was 1988's In the Spirit Of Things. This album is special to me because it inspired me to rediscover a band I loved as a kid. I happened to see this tape at K Mart and bought it.
The violin of Robby Steinhardt was what drew me to Kansas, and little did I know that he had been long gone from the band by then. As a kid, I had the album Point Of Know Return, so I bought that tape next and then proceeded to get all of their tapes for my collection.
One of the themes on this album was a flood that wiped out a town. The song Ghosts speaks to a person walking through the halls of an abandoned school and feeling the past within those walls. This song should have been the single lead single rather than Stand Beside Me.
Because of video play on MTV at the time, Stand Beside Me charted in the top twenty on the mainstream rock charts. It was the last song that charted by the band.
Fans of the band generally don't regard this album very highly because it sounds so different for them. I can still hear the Kansas sound on it and some great guitar work by Steve Morse and Rich Williams, especially on songs like The Preacher and Rainmaker.
Under One Big Sky is another great song off of this album. It speaks to the gang violence that goes on in some of the cities. Once In A Lifetime is a song about the regret of a man who left a woman who loved him. The Bells Of St. James is about a man who's woman leaves him while he's serving in the military.
But, one of the most profound lines on the album comes from the song, I Counted On Love. Steve Walsh sings, "Why do memories have to be, like a lock without a key?"
Steve's voice is still solid on this album. When it comes to this era of Kansas, I'd probably suggest a new listener get Power instead of this album. However, In the Spirit Of Things still has its moments.
We never got a third Kansas album with MCA, because the label threw its support behind acts like Tiffany. It's a shame, because Walsh and Morse collaborated on some good songs, and the playing of Phil Ehard (drums) , Billy Greer (bass), Williams (guitars), Morse (guitars) and Walsh (keyboard/vocals) was solid.
It would have been interesting to hear what a third album would have sounded like. It may not compare to Kansas of the 1970's, but there were still some good musical moments with this lineup.
