I would love to ask the founders how long they actually thought this experiment would last… 10 years, 30 years, 100 years…. 250?? In science you construct a theory, then an experiment to see how close you are, and that typically leads you back to the drawing board. It is an amazing thing that for the most part we are still living with a system that has only been “changed” about once per decade… and 10 of those were the Bill of Rights – a decent document we are still trying to understand. The balance of individual Liberty, with Government only given powers expressly by them… turned on the spigot of creativity and inventiveness that is still the envy of all parts of the world. Not perfect – but how many democracies are there now that modeled themselves after the work of these Americans? Interestingly Kansas, as we know them really only, lasted one of those decades – 1970 to 1980. The creative tension’s inherent in a rock band that had lyrics that constantly talked of self-examination lead to the principal songwriter to look deeply for renewal….
Kerry Livgren was like me the son of an Industrial Engineer, and unlike me, was pretty good at engineering 😉 He built his first guitar out of an acoustic, a microphone, and an old Sears Silvertone amp. He also studied Jazz and classical music, wanting to write music from an early age – a way to express himself better than words alone. He was in the bands around Kansas like the other guys but also toured in the late 60’s with a predominantly Black rhythm and blues group for a bit – which must have been quite the contrast with his white-blonde hair 😉 He founded early versions of Kansas that played his original music, but never caught on.. until Phil’s return. He became one of the most prolific writers of their music, with complex parts for each member that he would write out, and then demonstrate for them to start from. Each member talks in their own bio’s about the “Meat Grinder” that was Kansas – tearing lyrics, riffs, bridges, chords apart – and then reassembling them. They always worked to ensure their albums could be recreated faithfully in live shows, but that meant brutal practices and editing that left the authors often disillusioned…
One of his biggest contributions was a practice song (like Landslide by Fleetwood Mac) that was really something he used to simply warm up his hands before playing. It had intricate changes, rhythms, reaches to stretch out the fingers… and his wife suggested he should show the band. It was quiet, and not really what he thought they would like. When he did, everyone knew (but him…) that it would be a huge hit. This is Rich’s discussion of the recording: “Back in the olden days of recording, we recorded our parts in their entirety, because of technical limitation reasons, from start to finish. If you screwed up, you started over at the top. After the first track was finally completed, I recorded a second identical track to create the doubling effect. Added to that was a third track using what is called “Nashville tuning,” which was putting only the upper octave strings of a 12-string on my Martin, with the G-string up one octave, to create a sparkling harmonic thing to add to the mix.” Sadly there was a problem and “There was no fix; the track was unusable. So the tedious recording process began again from scratch, this time with no picks. Having no calluses on my picking fingers, I was blistered by the end of the day.”
There was a fun FaceBook meme yesterday that showed Thomas Jefferson saying, on July 3, 1776 “Crap is that due tomorrow??”. I think most of us hear music and think “wow that is awesome” – and have no idea all of the blood, sweat, and tears that go into making it. There is a practice of making guitars look “older” – relicing – and one of the major steps is putting saltwater on the hardware to simulate all of the hard work that pours out of musicians. And the miles on tours away from home – thinking about what they have observed that day, finding comments that are tossed off … and turning them into hits. Kerry did that and eventually found a book of mysticism… and started to debate it vs. the Bible as true wisdom with one of the leaders of their back up bands. From that strenuous debate he was faced with a choice – turn his life to Christ. He did – and started to bend his lyrics in that direction, particularly on Monolith. For a short season, he released some amazing Christian Rock in parallel (Seeds of Change which I have) but ultimately left with Dave Hope in 1983.
Like everything, there is a debate on what was meant by the original signers about religion. It is clear all wanted to NOT have faith be dictated to anyone BY government. But they all wanted the ability to practice their faith actively – freedom OF religion – not freedom FROM religion. Over half of the signers were in fact trained in Divinity school at some point and active ministers. Many of the colonies had an expressed religion POV – Quaker, Catholic, Anglican… Our current struggles remind us that many of these tensions are still in play, and as with all things, divide us. Many of us are being forced with kids and Work from Home – to see what TRULY matters. The path of renewal that lies before everyone requires we have to let go of our current life to choose that path – and that is the hard part. Even dysfunctional “known” is easier than the “unknown”. But it is a choice I have made and I would encourage you to consider. As I close the week, a final offer “Now, don’t hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky, It slips away, And all your money won’t another minute buy”. Dust in the Wind
