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OTHER ACTS' ANALYSES (Kerry Livgren / Kansas) Many bands get known to a younger audience due to a minimalist and/or simple song, which boosts their sales but pigeonholes them into a category they don't belong to (or makes them follow that line). It happened to Extreme with More than Words (which only features two of the four band members and only one instrument), to Yes with Owner of a Lonely Heart, to the Bee Gees with Stayin' Alive and How Deep Is Your Love, to Elton John with Sacrifice and the up-dated Candle in the Wind, to KISS with Beth and I Was Made for Loving You, to Radiohead with Creep, to Mr Big with To Be with You, to Pointer Sisters with I'm So Excited, etc. This song is clearly less progressive than those epics Kansas used to do at the time, yet it's full of subtle details demonstrating only a truly professional could write it. Lyrics are beautiful, and the melody's just perfect. Otoh, as it uses Ockham's Razor for the arrangements, Dave isn't there at all, and Phil only plays very softly during the outro. Likewise, Kerry only plays guitar (not guitar + keyboards as he often did) and Steve sang but didn't play piano. Similar cases have been the aforementioned More than Words by Extreme (Pat and Paul aren't there), Yesterday by The Beatles (Ringo, John and George are missing) and Beth by KISS (there's only Peter and an orchestra, but no Gene, Paul or Ace). Music
& Lyrics by: Kerry Livgren Produced
by: Jeff Glixman Recorded
in: July 1977 Keys:
C, Am
Drums: Phil Ehart Lead
Vocals: Steve Walsh Born on 18th September 1949, Kerry Livgren started his musical activity when he was a kid, making himself an electric guitar and eventually beginning to write songs, mostly influenced by classical genres. As he grew he soon expanded his influences to jazz and rock, and by the time he co-formed Kansas in 1973, he'd already learnt to play piano as well, and his compositions were relatively advanced in both music and lyrics. Although many Kansas tracks are credited to Kerry and Steve, they hardly-ever sat together to write. Mostly they exchanged some ideas with each other: both being marvellous musicians (Steve played keyboards and percussion besides having a flawless voice), they often wrote individually. Kerry wasn't a singer (although he occasionally provided backing vocals), yet he developed an enviable way with words and the ability of inventing beautiful melodies. A great performer of his instruments, his biggest strength was still the creative department. Kansas formed in 1973 and started issuing records. They've been a support band for several important British acts, including Bad Company (featuring Mick Ralphs and Paul Rodgers), Mott the Hopple, Queen and Yes. The music Kansas did from the beginning was layered, sophisticated and eclectic, usually coming in pairs: two great singers (Steve and Robby), two great guitarists (Rich and Kerry), two great keyboardists (Steve and Kerry). Their line-up consisted of Phil Ehart on percussion, Dave Hope on bass (not present in this song), Kerry Livgren on piano, synthesiser, clavinet, percussion, guitar and backing vocals, Steve Walsh on piano, synthesiser, organ, vibraphone, percussion and vocals, Rich Williams on guitar and Robby Steinhardt set them apart from most band by adding violin, viola and cello duties to his vocals (sometimes lead but mostly harmonies). The inclusion of violin to their progressive rock was part of their distinctive sound just as Jethro Tull had the flute. Dust in the Wind was a last-minute addition to their 'Point' album, as Kerry had initially penned the arpeggio pattern as a finger-exercise, but his wife suggested turning it into a song, and the rest is history. Unfortunately, it was "only" a #6 hit, yet it's much better known than many #1's, isn't it?
In spite of being short, it still gives vent to some of Kerry's recurring formulas: each section has AA' form and there's a re-intro. The viola/violin solo is played over the second part of the bridge, and the re-intro. A simple but effective variant on this structure can be found in the Scorpions' cover, where they expand the song by adding a second solo (played on cello in this case) and coming back to the chorus.
In spite of the several alterations (sus2, sus4, add 9th, changing bass), all of the chords (and all parts done by instruments and vocals) are diatonic except for the D-Major chord done at the beginning of the chorus, giving it a slightly mediaeval touch (another Kansas track with that influence is The Pinnacle, where Steve hits an impressive soprano C, which is two semitones above Roger's high "for me" in Bohemian Rhapsody). The key is clear from the start: C for intro and verse, Am for chorus, middle-eight and outro. Note the nice use of pedal-bass in the bridge.
The backing track consists of Kerry and Rich dueting on acoustic guitars. They play similar (yet not equal) parts, which makes it rather interesting in the matter that each bit stands for itself, but they both complement each other quite nicely. Kerry and Rich had been, from the beginning, big influences on each other. Mostly the same patterns are followed all throughout the song, which makes it a frequent target for guitarists (both rookies and experts) as it's an excellent arpeggio etude.
Instrumental overdubs are a viola-violin duet (both played by Robby) and, at the end, some drums played with brushes. The solo starts on viola (with violin adding ornaments), then goes to violin (with viola providing sound reinforcement to the guitars); Robby was used to dueting with Rich, Steve and Kerry, as many of their songs had extended instrumental solos (e.g. Hopelessly Human, Paradox). Note that violin and viola continue during the last verse and only fade away at the beginning of the outro. Their parts (composed and arranged by Livgren) are diatonic scale-fragments. The descending bit by the violin follows an "up, down, down" pattern, similarly to the way Freddie Mercury would build the flamenco solo on Innuendo (+1, +1, -1, +2, -1, -1, -1 and then the same one degree below).
Melody's based on diatonic scale-fragments too, giving another old-English touch (check Elizabethan pieces such as Pavan and Greensleeves). Steve sings lead from beginning to end, covering a range of one octave and a perfect fourth (E2 to 440-A), except for some higher notes he does during the outro. During the second verse, Robby joins doing a nice harmony which starts in opposite-motion ("same old song" and "all we do") and then continues parallel. The chordal backing in the first bit of the second chorus is two-part (in thirds), which could've been overdubbed by any of the three singing-members in order to get a better sound. Although that choir is tight, you can tell Robby's there, but of course he could have been joined by. At the end Kerry adds the antiphonal backing vocals on the last choruses. Kansas always had great voices. Btw, one of their later-days hits, Play the Game Tonight, features Roger Taylor on backing vocals.
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