Point out the American progressive rock band Kansas and such main hits as “Stick with it Wayward Son,” “Level of Know Return” and “Mud within the Wind” instantly come to thoughts. However arguably their most vital track is maybe obscure to informal listeners: the energetic and explosive “Can I Inform You,” which first appeared on the band’s 1974 self-titled debut album.
“That was the track that received us our recording contract [with Kirshner Records],” Kansas drummer Phil Ehart tells UCR. “Don Kirshner heard that track on our demo tape and stated, ‘That is why I need to signal you to a recording contract.’”
A long time later, Kansas — whose current lineup consists of founding members Ehart and guitarist Richard Williams, plus bassist Billy Greer, violinist David Ragsdale, singer Ronnie Platt and keyboardist Tom Brislin — has recorded a brand new model of “Can I Inform You.” It seems on their newest launch, One other Fork within the Street, a three-CD profession compilation that got here out on Dec. 16 and celebrates the Fiftieth anniversary of the band’s formation. “That was one thing that me and Wealthy form of talked about,” Ehart says about revisiting the track.
“I stated, ‘It could be cool to rerecord one thing that we recorded 50 years in the past, however let’s rerecord it with at this time’s band.’ We have been like 19 once we have been recording that observe. And the factor simply hauls. I imply, it is actually smoking. We thought, ‘Nicely, we hope the drummer can sustain with it.’ Nicely, let’s examine, that’d be me. It was an actual accomplishment to go in there all these years later and play on the similar tempo. We’re very, very happy with it.”
The brand new model of “Can I Inform You” opens One other Fork within the Street, which Ehart and Williams helped curate. Containing music from their 1974 debut by means of their most up-to-date album, 2020’s The Absence of Presence, the anthology was an thought from the band’s present file label Inside Out. It not solely incorporates hits and fan favorites, however deep cuts from later albums comparable to Vinyl Confessions (1982), Drastic Measures (1983), Freaks of Nature (1995), At all times By no means the Identical (1998) and Someplace to Elsewhere (2000).
Hearken to Kansas’ ‘Can I Inform You (2022 Model)’
“I stated, ‘Look, we wish you guys to do that,’” Ehart recollects telling Inside Out. “And so they have been form of put again a little bit bit so far as, ‘What now?’ ‘Richard and I need you guys to decide on the songs. You are followers. You guys placed on there what you want.’ And they also did. Richard and I have been blown away by the job they did. They received all these songs after which they needed to license them. So there was plenty of work concerned. After which they received concerned within the cowl. We’re very pleased with it and intensely, extraordinarily grateful to them for doing one thing like this.”
Fittingly, the brand new anthology is devoted to the band’s unique violinist and co-lead singer Robby Steinhardt, who died final 12 months on the age of 71. “When Robby handed, it was tough,” Ehart says. “He’ll all the time have a particular which means to all of us. And we have been very proud to dedicate the album to him. We thought it was the best factor to do.”
Fashioned in 1973, Kansas initially featured Ehart, Williams, Steinhardt, singer/keyboardist Steve Walsh, guitarist Kerry Livgren and bassist Dave Hope. Ehart nonetheless fondly remembers when the band from Topeka, Kan., made its debut album for Kirshner Data at New York Metropolis’s File Plant in 1973. “Don Kirshner received us on his program [Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert]. We received out on the street with Queen and have been up and going,” he recollects. “We went to New York and we did not actually have a street supervisor. It was simply the fellows within the band. The following day we have been on the recording studio. We have been in there with Aerosmith, and Yoko Ono and John Lennon have been recording in there. Right here we’re, simply bumpkins from Kansas. It was surreal. All of us survived and got here house and hit the street for a very long time. After which we did one other future with Queen additionally. So we have been very lucky to get with nice bands and get on the market.”
It was Kansas’ third album, 1976’s Leftoverture, that broke the band into the mainstream, because of the success of hit single “Stick with it Wayward Son.” Its follow-up, 1977’s Level of Know Return, featured one other enduring Kansas basic within the iconic ballad “Mud within the Wind.” (Each “Stick with it Wayward Son” and “Mud within the Wind” are featured on One other Fork within the Street as dwell variations). They and different classics like “Tune for America,” “Icarus – Borne on Wings of Metal” and “Play the Sport Tonight” stay live performance staples and can possible seem on the band’s Fiftieth-anniversary tour subsequent 12 months.
“Wealthy and I are engaged on the set record proper now,” says Ehart, “attempting to do one thing that is not the identical outdated, standard. However in the identical sense, you bought to have the identical outdated, standard. You bought to have ‘Mud within the Wind,’ ‘Level of Know Return,’ ‘The Wall.’ However there might be plenty of older tracks in there. There will be plenty of newer ones that we’ve not performed as a lot. So it is not going to be that removed from One other Fork within the Street. It may form of observe that guideline as to what we play and what we’ve got in our set record. There’s plenty of materials there, and we’ll mine all of it.”
Hearken to Kansas’ ‘Stick with it Wayward Son’
Kansas has survived main personnel modifications over the many years, with Ehart and Williams holding the group’s legacy alive. To Ehart, it is all the time been concerning the music quite than one or two specific members. “It has been 30 and 40 years since some unique members have even been within the band,” he says. “Billy Greer has been within the band longer than the unique members that are not with us anymore. We all the time simply focused on making it concerning the music. It was by no means ‘Kansas that includes this man or this man.’ No, it is simply Kansas. We’re nonetheless Kansas. So if you wish to come and listen to Kansas, we’re your huckleberry. We’re that band.”
Ehart says the present state of the group — with longtime members Greer and Ragsdale and newer guys Platt and Brislin — is nice, as evidenced by the constructive reception to their final two albums, 2016’s The Prelude Implicit and The Absence of Presence. “Hopefully, we’ll get to do one other [new album]” the drummer says. “That is what’s so nice about Inside Out, is that they’re there for us. So the chance is there. It is simply that proper now, the band could be very widespread on the street. While you go on to make an album, that takes you off the street. And so it is what we’ve got to watch out [about] once we come off the street, that we have every little thing organized and all the fabric is written. So we’re working as a touring band proper now [and] hoping to have one other new album when it is able to go.”
Wanting again at 50 years of Kansas, whose music nonetheless will get performed on the radio and streaming platforms in addition to being featured in movie and TV, Ehart expresses gratitude. However, he provides, “We’re not prepared to hold it up but. We need to maintain the band going. And we’ve got nice musicians within the band, all good guys. We’ve got a good time on the market and it is enjoyable.”
High 100 ’70s Rock Albums
From AC/DC to ZZ High, from ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ to ‘London Calling,’ they’re all right here.
