This one's for you, Dave Q. IMO, Kansas has a better tune, is only one song, and sounds all nice & slushy. Floyd's is a double album ov unremitting grim adolsecent bleating, but does have "Comfortably Numb", which is v nice. I'll go 4 Kansas. Fire away.....
― Norman Phay, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Pinkie's the Wall is an overrated and sterilized record that was a
product of Roger Water's boredom. I am not saying that because it
was the most radio friendly of their albums either. It just doesn't
do justice to their brilliant work of Wish You Were Here (the album,
not just the song) and saucerful of secrets. So its Kansas by default.
― Luptune Pitman, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
How about LUrther Wright and The Wrongs who are solely known for their
faux country take on The Wall. Its sorta like the cast of Hee Haw
does The Wall.
― Mr Noodles, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
They both suck.
But they have their moments...
Run Like Hell. Doesn't make up for legions of disaffected high school
students getting "high" on menthol cigarettes and watching pseudo-
cosmic cartoons at the midnight movie. (My experience with it,
anyway.)
OK, maybe Kansas doesn't have any moments - although I used to
like 'The Wall' - now I think it's Prog.Drivel (See also: ELP, Yes,
Genesis) I just can't stand to listen to it anymore.
― Dave225, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
The words 'prog drivel' seem to go together with as much knee-jerk
flatline-logic as the words 'Islamic fundamentalist'...
Ah
yes, the first album I ever bought with my own money. I remember
loving the shit out the gtr solos. Chunky bluesy distortion goes
nicely set against all the lush whizbangs, no? And I just LOVE the
segue from 'Empty Spaces' to 'Young Lust', where the mix just opens
up and goes all spacy. Kind of the opposite of PiL's 'Memories'. And
the kybds! Don't know who's playing them, but "One of my Turns" and
the ominous undertow of "Goodbye Blue Sky" - sounds like they wanted
to go back to the multifaceted murk of DSOTM, but mixing technology
caught up by 1979, so it's a big terrarium with lots of sonic foliage
to get lost in. (Or, this album probably fulfilled the same function
for my 10-yr-old self that contemporaries found in Tolkien...)
As for the much-maligned lyrics - well, 'Tommy' was pretty
one-dimensional too (Isn't it weird how these poets celebrate
themselves as 'great communicators' and then turn out libretti/films
about being unable to communicate?). Maybe 'Wall' doesn't satisfy
from a 'prog drivel' point of view (Dave225, get
Greenslade's 'Cosmogony of the Pentateuch'! You'll like it!), but if
you think of it as 'Tommy' produced like 'Quadrophenia', it's a
perfectly serviceable look at how distasteful major-label folly
would've looked like from a Winter of Discontent (or in the US,
the 'malaise') p.o.v. So I'll go on replacing it in my collection,
because at one time for me it was either that, or an ELO 45 that I
couldn't even play on the crap turntable because that little spindle
thing went missing. Also, includes the funniest self-penned career
obit ever (featuring in TWO tracks) - Waters' toneless, tuneless
tubercular-Tarzan howl "Why are you running a-way-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-
ay-ay...."...um, Sherlock...
― dave q, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
As for Kansas, they did invent Radiohead, but American prog just
doesn't make it - not fast enough, and the singers overemote instead
of sounding like robots or pixies. I do get perverse fascination from
listening to the first 2 Journey albums, which prove beyond doubt
that 'hippies' were planning the Starbuck's/Gap 'zen fascist'
(thanks, Jello) world takeover from the Bay Area as far back as
Santana's first bong hit.
― dave q, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)