Kansas "Point of Know Return"

Don't give me that shit. It's fantastic.

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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TheOmbudsman

Is that footage from “Space:1999″ about halfway through (the explosions on the Moon)?

LOL.
Preston Sturges

Kansas was like Journey – they were a very good ambitious band that became wretched stadium rockers. I think they were signed by Don Kirschner – it would have better to die in a plane crash.

“Bringing It Back (From Mexico)”

http://youtu.be/x6FZBnX8e_w
http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin

You’re right, it is.

nb: I miss the “trails” effect in rock music videos.
- Preston Sturges
  
  Wait, what? Everyone doesn’t see trails? Oh dude, I’ve been seeing those nonstop since about 1974.
- swlabr
  
  Yeah, the “trails” effect dates from the analog video era before digital video effects became common. A video camera pointed at a video monitor with both signals run and blended together through a video switcher consul could produce odd analog video feedback signals. Lots of fun.
Gary61

awesome group, I’m a prog-rock fan from waaay back ….
You tell ‘em, David ….
http://www.facebook.com/Professional.Werewolf Bryan White

I was actually listening to this today. And Dust In The Wind.
chgoliz

I still have the album.

And I miss long hair on men. Sideburns, not so much.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  http://www.mlhh.org/
  - chgoliz
    
    *snort*
    
    Dare I ask?!
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Quite safe.
      - chgoliz
        
        ??
        
        I meant, how in the world did you know about such a sub-culture?
        
        Or were you just being kind and googling it for me?
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        I have waist-length hair.
      - chgoliz
        
        response to Antinous’ personal revelation:
        
        You have me gob-smacked. Did not picture that.
        
        You know what they say about “assume”. (More about me than u.)
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        I had hoped that that site would be full of useful hair advice, but it’s mostly guys complaining about how everyone is mean to them because of their hair. I do check out the pictures, though.
    - Cowicide
      
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG5Qk-jB0D4
- xtalman
  
  Mine is down well past my shoulders. No sideburns. Of course it is turning gray now also.
p9ooo

My 8th-grade journal is a blatant plagiarism of this and Closet Chronicles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ld3prHzbdY
http://chipandre.com Chip

TIL Elrond played drums for Kansas.
http://twitter.com/TomDuff Tom Duff

Did the guy in the stripe-edged tux get lost on the way to his wedding band gig?
greenberger

There’s great prog-rock and there’s terrible prog-rock, and Kansas somehow embraces both ends of the scale. They were never hip, cool, or anything else that might save them from ridicule- yet they were talented enough to rock out AND make some interesting music despite their aesthetic cluelessness, mostly thanks to Kerry Livgren (guitarist, though he’s playing keyboard on this video.) He was the real songwriting talent in the band, and he later became a born-again christian who put out some interesting solo music in the Christian music market (check out “One of Several Possible Musiks.” It’s like Kansas meets Tolkien and probably sold 10 copies back in the day.) I sort of lost track of the guy when the 80′s ended, but google tells me he’s still a busy boy today.
I’ve still got all their records.
http://profile.yahoo.com/OJIGDLOUE4I6YSSHK4ELIGJTD4 Barry

No!
http://profile.yahoo.com/OJIGDLOUE4I6YSSHK4ELIGJTD4 Barry

see what I did there?

hmm?
Paul Renault

My sense of this piece is that it’s made up of a series of short hooks, but it’s lacking a coherent structure, a coherent whole. It’s possible that I’m just deaf to its qualities.

Constrast with Genesis’s Selling England by the Pound – The Battle of Epping Forest. A greatly varied musical styles throughout the piece. Brilliant! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-jS4e3zacI&t=25m0s

Gawd, I miss prog rock.
- greenberger
  
  Very true (about this song not being much of anything, really.) This is a bad example of what Kansas can do.
  
  On the other hand, Peter Gabriel’s Genesis is about as boring as prog-rock got! Talk about doing things by the numbers… let’s paste a 4/4 riff here, a 7/4 riff there… album after album of just boring, uninspired music until “Lamb Lies Down…” which was pretty good… and by then it was all over for the band, anyway. I’ll take solo Gabriel or even the 80′s pop version of Genesis over that bombastic 70′s mess any day- I don’t care how blasphemous that sounds!
  - http://twitter.com/smknghrtdesigns SmokingHeartDesigns
    
    Yup. Genesis goes on and on and on using the same riff for 10 minutes.
- http://twitter.com/DJ_Solar_Bear Jason Carl
  
  Prog’s still here. http://www.progarchives.com/mp3.asp?id=2261
franko

most of those explosions look like they were lifted from season 1 of the old BSG.
franko

it also occurred to me that, even though i grew up with them, i never knew what the dudes in kansas looked like. the bass player has a steampunk moustache to die for!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1584576741 Scott Rose

Ok, let me combine a few:

1. I didn’t know that Val Kilmer’s stunt double sang for Kansas.
2. Who needs acid with a producer like that.
3. DUCK! Moon explosions!
4. Someone already got my Elrond the drummer comment.

That’s all I got, howd’ya like that.
http://www.doggo.org doggo

Nektar – Remember The Future:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FnANLIb0P4

I’m always so embarrassed by my old prog-rock favs.

Here’s some old, and embarrassing, Hawkwind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PRIcwaAHUs
katkins

A) Though I never saw this, my whole aesthetic sense is apparently founded from it.

B) So that’s where I learned to “dance”. Huh.

C) Vocal harmony! I almost don’t care what you do, if you harmonize, I’m with you, man.
CygnusXII

This is one of my late night go to Albums. This was my transition into teen years music, along with Styx Equinox, Crystal Ball, The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight. ELO and RUSH, backed up by the Classics, YES, Moody Blues, The WHO, The Eagles, Deep Purple and all the Swamp Rock Bands.

What a great time to be alive and maturing. The 70′s had their good times, and their bad.

I absolutely loved this album though. The Lyrics to the songs in this Album were very mystical to me at the time, and touched me on a level I had not even began to think about in those days. It’s almost like hearing Billy Thorpes’ Children of the Sun for the first time. That’s another song that is transcendent. The 70′s were on the cusp of change, back then. We had just finished with going to the moon. Technology was coming down to the common man. That was a time of expectations, and the possibilities of wonder and awe were not as jaded.

Ahhh, the lamentations of the generations as they realize they are passing on the torch.
http://www.facebook.com/dwthompson1957 David Thompson

I was fortunate enough to be working for WKNC-FM in 1977 while attending North Carolina State University. That was enough to get me backstage with Kansas and Styx when they played the now-defunct Greensboro Triad Sports Arena. I was there to interview the bands. Styx was the opener, and had yet to achieve the huge pop success they would eventually garner. They were a bit morose. Kansas, though, was very up, and it was such fun to be able to ask them questions and hang out.

Glory days…
Boundegar

This is exactly what the Sex Pistols were sent to destroy.
- http://www.facebook.com/dwthompson1957 David Thompson
  
  Don’t you mean “created by McLaren to destroy… after they were done shilling for his sex shop”?
  
  The Sex Pistols were like The Monkees of their day. Except the Monkees had at least two people with skill.
  - http://www.doggo.org doggo
    
    Yes, and McLaren was right to do so. Also, I beg to differ, John Lydon is a hell of a singer.
    
    FWIW: those old prog rock bands may be a source of nostalgia for me, and I may even listen to them and enjoy them occasionally, but really, there’s a lot of suck there.
    
    Excessive amounts of suck.
    
    Also, the Monkees were awesome.
penguinchris

This was the first vinyl album I ever bought from a thrift store (I had started listening to my mom’s records from the 60′s previously), about 10 years ago, in high school. I thought the album cover looked really cool. I never listened to it, though, so watching this video was quite educational :)

Styx was also the first real concert I went to, around the same time (Peter Gabriel and Bad Company were the opening acts!)

But, I never really got into that sort of music because I got really into Bob Dylan instead and went down a different musical path from there, which is probably why I never listened to the Kansas album.
aeryn

Was I the only one vaguely expecting Phantom? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0DQgY7Rr-0
Cowicide

I came for the music, but stayed for the video feedback.