Song for America

Kerry Livgren wrote "Song for America", the title track of the 1975 album, 10:03 on the LP. It opens with a three-minute instrumental overture and has an extended instrumental section in 9/8. Livgren has said he wrote it during heavy touring behind the first album, looking down at the country from an airplane and musing over our relatively young nation, as Wikipedia quotes him; the primary interview was not located. The lyrics describe America before and after European colonization. Walsh sings lead, with Livgren on keyboards and guitars, Steinhardt on violin, Hope on bass, Ehart on drums and glockenspiel and Williams on guitar. Recording was in 1974, at Wally Heider's Studio 3 in Hollywood.

Label owner Don Kirshner edited it to 3:02 for a single in April 1975, with an instrumental version on the B-side; the single did not chart, and the edit is a bonus track on the 2004 remaster. A 9:08 version is on The Best of Kansas. Cash Box praised the excellent musicianship and a strong lyric line, and Record World called it a more believable and dramatic unofficial anthem for the Bicentennial era. Dave Ling of Classic Rock ranked it Kansas's third-best song and Ultimate Classic Rock's Eduardo Rivadavia fourth. The Topic upload is the studio audio; we could not tell whether it is the original or the remaster. We found no video, setlist.fm count or covers.