LIVE: DUST IN THE WIND

Well I finally saw this CD in a cutout bin for $3 USD and bought it just to confirm a suspicion. Turns out the hunch was right.

This is a chopped up version of the Live at the Whiskey album, nothing more. The jewel case insert has no liner notes whatsoever, the tracks are out of sequence from the original 'Whiskey' concert, and three tracks have been cut out - "Mysteries & Mayhem", the "Howlin' at the Moon" excerpt from "Magnum Opus", and "Portrait (He Knew)". This collection from EMI's "Special Markets Live Series" is a complete waste of money!

If one was inclined to hear the live sound of Kansas from the early 90's, I would say purchase the original Live at the Whiskey CD (which I wouldn't recommend either - Walsh's voice is terrible, the tape mastering is muddy and uneven, and the editing is choppy at best).

It is interesting that the 'Whiskey' CD even includes this disclaimer in the liner notes:

"Intersound has been authorized to release this collection of songs in audio and video format with Kansas' full support and creative input. Any other compilations, audio or video, are not sanctioned by Kansas". So it looks as if EMI pushed this one out even without the consent or support of the band. Bad form!

The 'Whiskey' concert was not good - this abbreviated copy of it is even worse. Walsh singing "Down the Road" is laughable (that will always be Robby Steinhardt's song), Ragsdale's violin is awkward and out of synch half the time, and even Kerry Livgren's guest appearance for "Carry on Wayward Son" is a weak shadow of the band's former self.

The only track on this album worth hearing is "Lonely Street", which is taken from a 1975 concert. That alone is the only thing worth a star, and I suspect that if Song for America is ever remastered, it will be included as a bonus track. Save your money - one star.

peace

Dust in the Wind

Well, the title of this Live album is Dust in the Wind, maybe because this is probably their most succesful song (not the best actually) and i think they gave it this name to the album, just in order to be "more attractive" to the people, just as a commercial strategy.

As Bob (Clem) pointed in his review, this is nothing but an alternitave and cut version of Live at the Whiskey, so dont think that this is something new, nor outstanding. I am not a Kansas fan, actually i am not so familiar with the band, but i like quite a bit some of their albums and particular songs. I found this Live album in a compillation that a friend had some years ago, it is called Progressive Rock Vol 2., which contains albums by Biglietto per L´Inferno, Gentle Giant among others, and this Kansas album was there, so i thought that it would be a representative album from the prog scene and about Kansas as a band.

I have listened to it a few times, and i actually think that it is not that bad, but surely there are better Live albums, but for a newbie to the Kansas sound, this could be a nice reference (not the best).

This album features 10 songs, some of them are probably their better hits and songs that the most of the people could know, "Point of Know Return" Dust in the Wind", "Lonely Street", "Song for America", "Carry on my Wayward Son", "Hold On", "Miracles out of Nowhere", "The Wall", "Paradox" and "Down the Road", so you know many of them no? Their performance is good, with the characteristic violin sound, good keyboards. My favorite songs here are "Song for America" and "Carry on Wayward Son".

As i said, this Live album could be nice for newbies, but i imagine that a loyal and hard fan would bash it, as i said that i am not a ture fan of the band, i will grade it with 3 stars, probably it deserves 2.8 or something, but i will round it to 3, good but non-essential for sure.

This album is an odd mix of not trying enough and of trying too hard. Many songs on this album make you forget it is a live album, and the songs just become carbon copies of the studio album versions, giving you no reason to listen to yet another version that is no different at all. Nothing new, in fact, it is just like their other live album.

On the completely opposite hand, in other sections of the album, they try too hard. On such classics as "Carry On Wayward Son" and "The Wall", they strive to sound completely different from the studio version, and you can tell it is their main goal. The tracks sound chopped up, and stressed as vocals are over-emphasized and stretched where they should not be, making for hard listening,

As far as positive things go: there is a good job editing out audience noise on this album, hardly any other than the first cheers right before a song starts. As well, on some of the overly-different songs, there are extended guitar and keyboard parts that are good variations on the original song, but are probably more entertaining to those in the audience than to those listening to a live album.

Not a good live album, it just feels thrown together without much thought or care.

CAUTION !

This is nothing more than a shorter edition of "Live at the Whiskey" released in 1992. The original release was actually a good one, featuring some classics from the band but without violin which could have led to the worse. It was not the case and I rated it with three stars.

For a reason I ignore (except the financial one but I am reluctant in believing that Kansas did this on purpose to cheat the fans but maybe that I am too childish) this version has been put onto the market.

Three numbers have been taken out here making this one a bit less interesting than "Live At The Whiskey". Using the title of one of their best known songs (not their best one at all, IMO) adds to my confusion (did they really want to cheat their fans) ?

My only advise to you, is that you should stick to the Wiskey version (which can be found for about 1 $ yes one US $ + 2,59 shipping charges). It is far much cheaper than this "Live Dust In The Wind ".

Two stars for the tracklist. One star for the idea.

I bought this cheap, discount bargain bin CD because I wanted desperately and couldn't find the album that was effectively responsible for getting me into progressive rock: Live at the Whiskey, which I had borrowed from a friend and unfortunately had to return. The fact that the magnificent "Miracles Out of Nowhere" was on this disc was good enough for me at the time. That said, this is not an album one needs to try to obtain if one can acquire the actual album this compilation was taken from, a product many consider inferior for many reasons. Unfortunately, the tracks are out of order, and a few of them are missing, not the least of which is the powerful, heavy metal version of "Mysteries and Mayhem." Due to the performance and the set list itself, which I find full of fire and spunk even if Steve Walsh was loaded off his ass, I can't give this the lowest rating- there's a lot of fantastic music here, even if some greedy corporation got a hold of it, made it worse than it was, and offered no liner notes or anything additional. Get it if it is cheap, Live at the Whiskey is unavailable, and Kansas is of interest- otherwise, pass it by.