Point of no return (Kansas) (LP 2914 -2924)

Kansas  Kansas (CD, Epic Records, 1974) ***  

Kansas  Song For America (CD, Epic Records, 1975) ****  

Kansas  Masque (CD, Epic Records, 1975) ***

Kansas  Leftoverture (CD, Epic Records, 1976) *****

Kansas  Point Of No Return (CD, Epic Records, 1977) *****

Kansas  Two For The Show (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1978) *****

Kansas  Drastic Measures (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1983) *** 

Kansas  Power (Vinyl, MCA Records, 1986) *** 

Kansas  The Prelude Implicit (CD, Inside Out Records, 2016) *** 

Kansas  The Very Best of Kansas - Live (CD, Inside Out Records, 2016) *** 

Kansas  Greatest Hits (CD, Inside Out Records, 2016) *****

Genre: Prog rock

Places I remember: HMV (Oxford St); Real Groovy (Two For The Show + compilations); Chaldon Books and Records (Drastic Measures/ Power), Fopp (The Prelude Implicit).

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Dust in the Wind (Two For The Show)

Gear costume: Song For America (Two For The Show)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4

Active compensatory factors: Both Kansas and Journey share some similarities in my brain. Both started out working in the American prog genre. Both have a brilliant lead guitarist and lead vocalist who helped create the signature sound. Rich Williams/Kerry Livgren and Steve Walsh respectively ensured the Kansas sound would be mega successful.

Kansas differs in some key ways though - musically they also had Phil Ehart on drums and Robby Steinhardt providing the key point of difference on violin.

The debut album has the signature sound right from the first track and by Journey to Mariabronn you know you are in safe hands. Having said that, the songs aren't consistently great on the debut, but Journey pointed the way forward.

Second album - Song For America and they are already at the top of their game, which they would sustain for the next 4 years! The title song is one of my favourites, as is the opener - Down The Road, a bluesy blast that is almost southern rock.

Their second album of 1975 was Masque. For me, overall, it's not as strong as Song For America, or what was to come. Icarus is a beacon towards those next two albums but a couple of those other songs sound a bit too much like Grand Funk Railroad.

Leftoverture, though, is the band firing on all cylinders. The first two songs are a one-two punch to the solar plexus!

About now the band's melodies tighten up (and deliver that punch to the gut) and the instrumental interplay is superb. Think Yes at their most in synch.

The high standards were maintained on Point Of No Return. In fact it may even shade Leftoverture.

The album, their fifth in four years, has another great cover with a painting by Peter Lloyd.

There is a lot of variety on this one too. Dust In The Wind is one of my favourite songs of all time and a great acoustic addition to their canon. Just goes to show - sometimes when you go against type, it can work spectacularly well.

Of course, the title track is another epic song, but the shorter songs work too. One reviewer wrote that Kansas' "interplay and superior musicianship make this both an essential classic rock and progressive rock recording". I couldn't agree more.

Two For The Show is a live double released in 1978 and it takes all of the studio versions to a whole other level. Steve Walsh is in magnificent form throughout and the band excel themselves.

This was actually my first taste of Kansas. I loved it so much I had to back track in the catalogue. I guess I had been reluctant because I'd initially lumped them in with the pomp confection of Styx, but Two For The Show is a muscular effort from front to back (don't mess with the extended version on Spotify though - the best stuff was distilled on the original double album).

Although it's a composite of three tours from 1977 to 78, it still plays like a complete, coherent concert, although on Spotify it has a brief gap between songs which is off-putting. I much prefer the double album format on vinyl. I'd be keen to find a CD version at some point because nothing beats the uninterrupted experience.

I lost track of the band after Two For The Show and only picked up their progress with Drastic Measures. By this time Steve Walsh and Robbie Steinhardt had both moved away. The band had also developed a Christian perspective following Kerry Livgren's born-again conversion some years before.

Even though John Elefante sounds a lot like Steve Walsh, all of the changes resulted in a different, more mainstream rock sounding Kansas. As a result, Livgren left and the band fizzled out at the end of 1983.

After a gap of two years the band reformed but Livgren and Steindhart were still absent. Steve Walsh was back though and joined by Steve Morse on guitar (after Dixie Dregs and before Deep Purple).

This is the band that recorded Power. With Steve Morse's influence (he cowrites most of the songs with Steve Walsh) the band become more mainstream rock and less prog rock in their approach.

So, it's a different beast to how the band started out and hard not to judge them on past glories. Ultimately, Power's a good album but not a great one.

I had read about the final studio album on my list, The Prelude Implicit (stoopid title, but great cover) in Prog magazine and decided on a whim to buy it while browsing in Fopp.

There were still two original members left in the band by this point (Steve Walsh had retired in 2014). That's the ever present Phil Ehart and guitarist Rich Williams. Thanks to the new blood and those two old campaigners, this sounds like a revitalised Kansas. The sound is an amalgam of their prog, AOR, and rock approaches.

The Very Best of Kansas - Live uses live versions from 1975 to 1982, although the bulk are from the 77-78 tours. The individual songs are all excellent but there is no continuity and no attempt to present this as a coherent concert experience - hence my three stars.

Where do they all belong? The Greatest Hits compilation is probably the best place to start, and then dial up the shorter version of Two For The Show on Spotify. I predict that you will sit in awe at the power of Kansas.