My sister had this vinyl and I wore it out! Especially "The Spider" and "Closet Chronicles". This album is "in your face" with first class musicianship and composition! Definitely one of the greatest albums of all time. It's interesting that Kansas was gonna call it quits if this album didn't sell and BAM! Look what happened! Headliners!
Kansas was and shall be a bright spot in the musical legacy of the midwest. This is their popular high-point and where most will realize their importance to prog.
I had this album on vinyl back in the day and I remember liking the first two tracks, but then, "The Spider" came on and I thought, "...what the...?? it then segued into "Portrait: He Knew," and I was mesmerized by the complex organ introduction and arrangement of 'Portrait'. What a track! Rivals anything Yes put out. Well worth getting.
This is one of my favorite albums of all time. The music was very well written, organized and performed. They are a really good progressive rock band. In my opinion, the whole album is worth downloading. However, if I were asked to recommeond five of those tracks, then I would recommend tracks 1,4,5,7, & 9.
BUT worth the 10 credits for the first 10 tracks of the original recording for you collectors out there. Or if you're on a budget... tracks 1,4,7 & 8. Track 3 is the lead-in to 4.
closet chronicles is my fave tune from these guys. its grandiose and sweeping
On the back of Kansas's self-titled first album, which came roaring out of Topeka in 1974, the band looks like six long-haired farmboys, out standing in their field: Blue jeans, Daniel Boone fringe jackets - one big guy even has overalls on. The front cover is a famous portrait of insurrectionary 19th-century Bleeding Kansas abolitionist John Brown; the last track a eulogy for Mother Nature. Though released on a label run by Don Kirshner, the… more »
