hypersongs

Song for America

Their second album: six songs with the title track and "Incomudro - Hymn to the Atman" over ten minutes each.
Kansas, 1975

Song for America was recorded in December 1974 at Wally Heider's Studio 3 in Hollywood and produced by Jeff Glixman and Wally Gold for Kirshner in the US and Epic elsewhere. It runs 45:08 and has six songs: "Down the Road", "Song for America", "Lamplight Symphony", "Lonely Street", "The Devil Game" and the 12-minute "Incomudro - Hymn to the Atman". Kerry Livgren wrote the long pieces; Steve Walsh sang lead and played organ and synthesizers, with Robby Steinhardt on violin, Rich Williams on guitar, Dave Hope on bass and Phil Ehart on drums. Peter Granet engineered it and Peter Lloyd painted the cover.

It reached 57 on the Billboard 200 and went gold in June 1980, after Leftoverture (1976) and Point of Know Return (1977) renewed interest in it. Gary Graff of MusicHound Rock called the title track one of prog-rock's sonic gems. Dates differ: Wikipedia gives February 1975, MusicBrainz March 1975. The 2004 remaster adds the single edit of the title song and a live "Down the Road" from the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland.

Track listing

  1. Down the Road3:43
  2. Song for America10:03
  3. Lamplight Symphony8:17
  4. Lonely Street5:43
  5. The Devil Game5:04
  6. Incomudro - Hymn to the Atman12:11

More from Kansas

Kansas (1974), Masque (1975), Leftoverture (1976), Point of Know Return (1977), Two For The Show (1978), Monolith (1979), Audio-Visions (1980), Vinyl Confessions (1982), Drastic Measures (1983), King Biscuit Flower Hour 2/20/83 (1983), Power (1986), In The Spirit Of Things (1988), Freaks Of Nature (1995), King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents (1998), Somewhere To Elsewhere (2000), Device - Voice - Drum (2002), There's Know Place Like Home (2009), Bryn Mawr 1976 (2014), Dust In The Park (2015), The Prelude Implicit (2016), The Absence Of Presence (2020)

Sources

  1. Song for America, Wikipedia