Kansas in the top 100

Enchant X wrote: I assure you Kansas output is very relevant  .. this thread comes about from Kansas being so underrated . Kansas themselves have given me plenty of prog happiness through the years, its something worth defending with extreme opposition if needs be , Kansas are not just another band , they come from a special planet where great bands come from , its sad for me to see so many people miss the opportunity of enjoying their music based solely on ignorance ... what are you afraid of  they might be better than what you hold so dear ... get a copy of Leftoverture and give it the three play rule if its not happening for you then at least you tried.

a lot of people like Kansas, you'd be surprised, but the whole thing of being mad they are not in top 100 or whatever is ridiculous, irrelevant, of no importance
yes, they are a great band, I even love their 80s work!

this thread should have been done with after micky's line and I quote: "this forum really does have FAR too many Genesis fans, definitely too many Camel fans, not enough trolls, and DEFINITELY not enough tits".

None of us can beat that, so might just as well stop

To me, Kansas is a much a prog band as Yes or Genesis are. Option 2.

Epignosis wrote: Stool Man wrote: I'm one of those people who don't consider Kansas to be prog at all. You mean, "wrong?"

richardh wrote: There seems to be a lot 'taking it very personally' that Kansas are not more respected around here. That's a shame. For me they didn't record a masterpiece and that's not a problem at all and is the sole reason why I believe they do not get more recognition than they may deserve. However this silly obsession with the top 100 is getting annoying. I did suggest earlier in the thread we would be better off without it but there were no takers. A top ten would suffice although I guess there would then be more complaints that Gentle Giant or Rush or whoever are not in but really it just doesn't matter. Get a grip!   Kansas had many great songs and pieces of music and that is way more important. They made the definitive US symphonic prog track Song For America which is an absolute beauty. They can be justifiably proud of that and the fact the album it came from is not in the TOP 100 hit parade is entirely irrelevant. I also like a lot of the 'crossover' material they excelled at and again in general this kind of material does not pick up the 5 star ratings which is quite understandable.   I also don't believe in the anti-USA bias although perhaps that comment was meant as tongue in cheek. I hope it was.  I love many albums by USA bands including the likes of Chicago, Mountain , Love , The Tubes and one of my favourite bands of recent times is Glass Hammer who I like more than Kansas . Sorry but that is a matter of taste only (or lack of in my case perhaps).   BTW I would recommend seeing Kansas live. I saw them 10 years ago and they rocked!! One of the best gigs I ever saw. They came off that stage sweating buckets!

Absolutely `Leftoverture' deserves to be in the top 100, as well as pretty much the self titled debut, `Song for America' and `Point of No Return' (but not so much `Masques').

Although those album had more straight-forward moments, the proggiest stuff on them is really almost up their with anything off the early Genesis/Yes albums, and Kansas completely had their own style that sounded like no-one else, completely unique.

I tend to think that those who don't really consider them prog actually haven't properly listened to any of those above mentioned albums fully. Their first few albums are LOADED with prog greatness!

Oh, and those that write the band off due to `Carry On Wayward Son', that's seriously one of the greatest `proggy' pop singles that had commercial success ever!

The album Two For The Show is indeed one of the finest live albums ever.  That would be in my all-time top 20, never mind top 100.

despite having a few of their albums, I don't really know much Kansas other than the 2 big hits.

Music is not competition.

perhaps he meant half the instrumental skill... double the vocal talent

Cailyn wrote: Seriously??? Prog? Not prog? Kansas is/was brilliant/great/not so bad/awful/American/blah blah blah. These are all subjective opinions.  There is no objective way to measure progginess and there is no objective way to measure which albums are great and which are not.  The top 100 at best is a flawed consensus of the members who bothered to rate the albums there.  I like Kansas. I think they're proggy.  Good for me.  So I play Kansas albums and I go to their concerts and I waste no energy worrying about what the good people of PA think of Kansas.