Kansas - In the Spirit of Things

Concept albums are tricky.  Sometimes they work very well [Pink Floyd’s The Wall], and sometimes they don’t work at all [Kiss’ Music from The Elder].  In both cases, Bob Ezrin produced them.  So it is the case with the Kansas 1988 release In the Spirit of Things.  Kansas had a “big” sound, and Ezrin’s productions have been known for their bombast.  One would think a Kansas-Bob Ezrin match would be a match made in heaven.  And for the sound of In the Spirit of Things, it’s a very good match.  But back to the concept album thing.  Only half of In the Spirit of Things is a concept based on the catastrophic flood that hit a small Kansas town named Neosho Falls in 1951.  According to drummer Phil Ehart, he and Steve Walsh heard of Neosho Falls through an old friend who worked at the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka.    Their friend told them about Neosho Falls and took them there.  According to Ehart: 

“For years and years it had been a thriving little town in the middle of Kansas. Then one day, 12 feet of water came in off the Neosho River and just rolled across the town.  This was before they did something about flood control. Every year they would get a flood of 2 or 3 feet, nothing they couldn`t withstand. But this one year, it was just too much.  The people of the town just said, `Later`-and packed up and left. They never returned. You stand there now in that town, and here`s the city hall that still has a piano in it. The bank still has the safe in it. The mercantile store has merchandise on the shelves. There are cars still in garages.”  It is so off the beaten path.  If you didn`t know where it was, you`d never find it in a million years. You get off the main highway, you go across dirt roads, you go through fields. Suddenly you`re in this town, but there isn`t anybody there.  A lot of the town`s structures were built of brick, so they`re still okay. The wood is rotted away, of course. The schoolhouse, built in 1930, is totally brick and mortar, and it`s incredible: There are still pieces of chalk and erasers there. The school bus is still sitting out front. The town fire engine is still there on a street.  Neosho Falls had 2,000 or 3,000 people, and there are a few descendants of the townspeople who still live on the outskirts. But no one lives within the city limits of the old town. You drive into this place, and it`s still gravel streets; they never hard-topped the roads. You look around and you say, `This is strange.` If you stand in the school, you can almost hear the kids laughing, running up and down the stairs. It`s like a set for a movie or something.  I`ll tell you what was eerie: We`re walking through the town, and this old man pulls up on an International Harvester tractor. He`s got an old John Deere cap pulled down on his head, he`s chewing tobacco. He leaves his tractor idling, walks up and asks, `Can I help you guys?` We say, `Yeah, we`re here researching this for a music album.` And he says: `Maybe I can help you out. I lived here back during the flood.`”

The songs that form this story are not told in a narrative.  Rather, they are little vignettes, little snapshots of people and places of that time.  Originally the band planned to make the album a collection of songs about 10 or 11 different people, but Bob Ezrin suggested all the people live in the same town.  This gave the album more focus.  The performances of these songs are among the best Kansas committed to tape in the post-Kerry Livgren era.

The “concept” songs:

 Ghosts – The story begins in a “ghost town”, with weathered tombstones, a crumbling bell tower [Walsh wrote the bell “must have softened every soul that came to pray”], broken schools, rusty swing sets and weeds. Something bad happened here that made all the people go away.  It’s a place where dreams of people who used to live there had their dreams blown away.  The singer feels the presence of the ghosts who have returned to dream again.

One Big Sky – The Reverend James Cleveland and his choir join the proceedings here, a song about fate and circumstance.  Quest for power; pay the cost/Liberty in tempest tossed/ If we don't stop them, we'll be lost – fight for your own liberty because no one else will.  Is this alluding to the Korean War, which was being fought in the timeframe of the Neosho Falls story?

The Preacher – “We all gotta come to the light together…follow me!”  There’s more of James Cleveland’s choir here.  Walsh keeps referring to “the Belt of Hercules”.  My best guess is this is from the Greek myth of the ninth labor of Hercules, where Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the belt of Hippolyte.  What does Greek mythology have to do with Western religion anyway?  How Kansas convinced James Cleveland and his choir to sing on a song that seems to deride preachers, I’ll never know.  Perhaps ‘the preacher’ in this song is much like the man in the next song, that is, a fake.  Perhaps, just perhaps, James Cleveland and his singers didn’t like phony preachers either.

Rainmaker – This is told from the point of view of a con man who tells a haunting story.  He used to be a gun runner and a medicine man, whatever it took to earn a buck.  But in a drought-stricken Kansas “one-horse town” [the ‘one horse’ is agriculture], he became a ‘rainmaker’.  The townspeople would pay him up front to make it rain, to “light a fire - pray, and dance around, tell them it'd rain so they'd all go to bed”.  Once asleep, the ‘rainmaker’ would skip town, but the ‘hand of fate got outta hand.’  But he started to dance, and the sky went dark.  In the background, James Cleveland’s choir is singing “Rainmaker, rainmaker, save this one-horse town…” The ‘Rainmaker’ had ‘summoned down the Holy Ghost…the searing wind and the clouds of dust, and hell came raining down.’  That storm spelled the end for the one-horse town.

Bells of St. James - A soldier fighting in Korea gets a Dear John letter, probably from his wife in Neosho Falls.  Imagine getting such a letter saying not only has your wife left you, but also your home isn’t there anymore.  Presumably, they married at a church called St. James, and the GI asks if the bells are still ringing.  Those bells are probably those alluded to in Ghosts [the bells that “must have softened every soul that came to pray”].  Our hero is trying to take comfort somewhere, and perhaps hearing the bells is that comfort zone.

The record company [MCA] wanted hit singles.  Kansas wasn’t a “singles” band, but they did have a modest hit with All I Wanted from 1986’s Power.  Their two big singles [Carry On Wayward Son, Dust in the Wind] were “happy accidents”.  Writer Kerry Livgren would say to this day that he wouldn’t know how to write a hit single.  So too would Steve Walsh.  They just happened.  But in those times Kansas were competing with the likes of teeny-boppers like Debbie Gibson and Tiffany on one hand, and hair metal like Bon Jovi on the other.  So Kansas [probably against their better instincts, but they did what their paymasters at the record company told them] recorded three songs from outside songwriters - One Man, One Heart, Once in a Lifetime, and Stand Beside Me.  The performances of these songs were as good as anybody could make them, but they’re all dripping with cheese.  The songs are as generic as the decade from whence they came.  Of the three, One Man, One Heart is ok – skip the other two.

The band recorded three other songs unrelated to the concept story:

House On Fire – This rocker is a keeper.  I’m not sure this is part of the concept story, but Phil Ehart related that some of the stories told to him about Neosho Falls on the weekends painted the town as a “hell-raising house on fire.” It starts out with some otherworldly experimental guitar work from Steve Morse, which leads to organ introduction from Steve Walsh, not unlike Steve Morse’s next band, Deep Purple.  There’s some very good guitar interplay between Morse and Rich Williams.  There’s some excellent Hammond B-3 work from Walsh at the end.  On the singing end of things the chorus gets a bit repetitive, but the music more than makes up for it.

I Counted on Love – This one is a bland 80s power ballad.  This is a “skip” track.

Inside of Me – This is a decent pop song, but nothing more.

T.O. Witcher – This a short, solo acoustic piece from Steve Morse named after a former teacher.  I wish it was longer [it’s only 1:39].

In the Spirit of Things is somewhat of a peak for Kansas, or at least it was for Steve Walsh.  This album has a suite of songs written by him that were sharply focused and well-executed.  Suffice to say, here he emerged from the long shadow of Kerry Livgren.  Walsh's voice was in outstanding form but would never be the same after this.  An anachronism, In the Spirit of Things was a concept work in an era of short attention spans that demanded the instant high of insipid, vapid hit singles.  This would prove to be Kansas's last album for a major label.  MCA didn’t bother to expend any effort to promote it, and when the album failed to set the world on fire, MCA dropped them.  Kansas would not make another studio album for seven years.  Steve Morse would leave the band to concentrate on his solo, instrumental work and then eventually succeed [but not replace] Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple in 1994. 

It is a shame the album is sequenced such that the non-concept songs are intermingled with the concept songs, thus diluting the impact of the story.

Here’s the album sequence as released:

1.     "Ghosts"

2.     "One Big Sky"

3.     "Inside of Me"

4.     "One Man, One Heart"

5.     "House on Fire"

6.     "Once in a Lifetime"

7.     "Stand Beside Me"

8.     "I Counted on Love"

9.     "The Preacher"

10. "Rainmaker"

11. "T.O. Witcher"

12. "Bells of Saint James"

Here’s what I would do in my iPod playlist and have some continuity to keep the story going [I gave House on Fire the benefit of the doubt]:

1.     "Ghosts"

2.     "One Big Sky"

3.     "House on Fire"

4.     "The Preacher"

5.     "Rainmaker"

6.     "Bells of Saint James"

7.     "T.O. Witcher"

I keep the concept songs and ditch the rest.  I also keep T.O. Witcher as a “Little Martha” coda to the concept songs.  The concept songs are worth every penny.  On a scale of 1 to 5 [5 being “buy this now”, 1 being “don’t even think it”] I give the concept songs a 4.5, the album as whole a 3.

Interview with Phil Ehart - By Tom Popson, January 27, 1989, Chicago Tribune

Jon Lord - Concerto for Group and Orchestra

“Attempting to talk about a piece of music you have just written is difficult.  There is no retrospect.  So, without the benefits of hindsight, I will try to put into words what I hope will be apparent in the music...The problem of putting together two widely different field of music, ‘classical’ and beat (to label but a few) has interested me for a long time.  In fact, doing away with’ labels’ altogether has interested me for a long time.  The idea is, then, simply to present, in the First Movement, the group and the orchestra as antagonists, and in the Second and Third Movements, as unexpected allies…”

-          Jon Lord, 1969

Concerto for Group and Orchestra has a long and interesting history.  In June 1969, Deep Purple fired original vocalist Rod Evans and original bassist Nick Simper.  The remaining founders [Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice] all decided to take their music in a harder direction.  They replaced Evans and Simper with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, respectively.  The new line-up began almost immediately to work up new material for their new direction.  However, the group’s management had seized upon a chance remark from Jon Lord that he’d like to “do something” with an orchestra.   When they asked him if he was serious about this, he told them yes, at which time they informed him they had booked the Royal Albert Hall for a September performance and that he’d better get to work.  So the keyboard player of a rock band who had no experience writing classical music had three months to come up with a score.   A new hard rock album from Deep Purple would have to wait.

One of Jon Lord’s influences was composer Sir Malcolm Arnold, who had written numerous symphonies and chamber works as well as movie scores [Bridge on the River Kwai anyone?].  Jon Lord asked Sir Malcolm to look over his work-in-progress.  Sir Malcolm not only liked what he saw, he offered to conduct the piece himself.   This support was most helpful because the band was apprehensive at best, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra was outright hostile.  After a half-hearted run-through of the piece with the LPO, Sir Malcolm gave them a good tongue lashing, telling the musicians they played “like a bunch of cunts.”  Ian Gillan waited until the last moment to write the lyrics, having done so the afternoon of the performance over a bottle or two of wine.  Sir Malcolm and Jon Lord managed to pull it off, with a stirring performance on September 24, 1969 that was recorded and released.  Deep Purple played the piece once more almost a year later [August 1970], this time with the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.  Their conductor wasn’t as supportive as Sir Malcolm.  He made changes to Jon Lord’s score.  After this performance, the original score vanished.

Conductor Paul Mann contacted Jon Lord about the possibility of performing the Concerto on the 25^th anniversary of its debut.  Lord thought about trying to reconstruct his lost score, but given that Deep Purple toured heavily after Ritchie Blackmore left the band, he thought the task was too daunting and too time-consuming.  In 1998, the unthinkable happened.  While Deep Purple was on tour in the Netherlands, he was approached in Rotterdam by a Dutch composer named Marco de Goeij.  He told Lord “I think I’ve recreated your Concerto.”  On his own initiative, de Goeij spent the better part of the previous two years transcribing the original Royal Albert Hall performance.  He watched the performance as filmed by the BBC, and listened to the album over and over again.  He did it for free, for the love of the music.  It was a sheer act of musical altruism if there ever was one.  Lord and Paul Mann got together to look at de Goeji’s transcription.  The transcription wasn’t complete, but enough of it was there for Lord and Mann to fill in the blanks.  Once completed, Deep Purple and the London Symphony Orchestra [conducted by Mann] performed the Concerto on September 25^th and 26^th, 1999, just over thirty years to the day after its debut.  

In addition to performing the Concerto, the music program featured songs from each member’s solo careers.  Vocalists Miller Anderson and Sam Brown each performed one song from Jon Lord’s Pictured Within album.  Ronnie James Dio sang two songs from Roger Glover’s Butterfly Ball project. The Steve Morse Band performed the Dixie Dregs song Take It Off the Top.  Ian Gillan performed two songs from his solo catalog.  Ian Paice played the old Deep Purple instrumental Wring That Neck with a horn section.  After Wring That Neck the full band took the stage.  They played several Deep Purple songs with the orchestra.  The songs:  Pictures of Home [Machine Head], Ted the Mechanic [Purpendicular], Watching the Sky [Abandon], Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming [Purpendicular], and for the encore…Smoke on the Water, of which Dio sang the second verse.  It’s hard to imagine a version of Smoke on the Water with brass, but it’s entertaining.  Steve Morse sounded more comfortable playing this piece than did Ritchie Blackmore.  I think he was a lot more open to the idea than was Ritchie in 1969.  The entire performance was released on CD [Live at the Royal Albert Hall] and on DVD [In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra].  Unlike the London Philharmonic in 1969, the LSO were very enthusiastic about performing with Deep Purple.  What a difference thirty years makes.  After these performances, Deep Purple did the unthinkable and took this show on the road.  They and the orchestra played the Concerto in over 30 cities around the world [in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico City, throughout Europe and later in Japan].  But the story of the Concerto doesn’t die here…

Roughly a year after this tour ended, Jon Lord retired from Deep Purple.  He was 61 at the time, there were other musical things he wanted to do with his life, and a heavy touring schedule left little if any room for pursuing such interests.  His classical composition and recording career began to flourish.  His classical works include:

Boom of the Tingling Strings [2004] – a piano concerto of four movements recorded in Odense, Denmark with pianist Nelson Goerner and the Odense Symfoniorkester [conducted by Paul Mann];

Durham Concerto [2008] – a concerto commissioned by Durham University to celebrate its 175^th anniversary.  This concerto has soloists on cello, violin, Northumbrian pipes, and Hammond organ [played by Jon Lord himself].  This was recorded with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra [conducted by Mischa Damev];

To Notice Such Things [2010] – a six-movement suite for solo flute, piano and string orchestra.   Jon Lord created this work in memory of his close friend Sir John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole of the Bailey.  This was also recorded by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra [conducted by Clark Rundell].

But what about the Concerto for Group and Orchestra?  After leaving Deep Purple, Jon Lord took the Concerto on the road again and played it another seventeen times.  With more than forty public performances of the Concerto, Lord had the opportunity to fine-tune the score so it could receive a proper studio recording.  For this recording Jon Lord wanted to use different singers and guitarists for each of the Concerto’s three movements.  As with Durham Concerto and To Notice Such Things, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra [conducted by Paul Mann] played on the studio version of Concerto for Group and Orchestra.

Track Listing:

Movement One – Moderato-Allegro:  Darin Vasilev - guitar

Movement Two – Andante:  Joe Bonamassa – guitar; Bruce Dickinson, Steve Balsamo, Kasia Laska – vocals;

Movement Three – Vivace-Presto:  Steve Morse – guitar.

Guy Pratt – bass

Brett Morgan – drums

Jon Lord – Hammond organ

The First Movement features guitarist Darin Vasilev.  Vasilev is a Bulgarian guitarist from the band TE.  I wondered how Jon Lord came to invite him to contribute to the studio version of the Concerto.  After a bit of research I found out why.   In 2009-10, TE performed the Concerto with Jon Lord in Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine, so Vasilev was more than familiar with the material.  Vasilev shreds a bit, but he doesn’t overdo it.  His solo is shorter than that of Ritchie Blackmore from the first performance in 1969, but it works fine.

The Second Movement is the vocal bit.  At first it was a bit jarring to hear someone else sing Ian Gillan’s words.  After many listens one gets used to how something sounds. I knew nothing of Steve Balsamo and Kasia Laska, but they were a pleasant surprise.  They didn’t sing much – just the first couple of verses.  I knew what to expect from Bruce Dickinson – he pulled off his parts with his usual flair.    Joe Bonamassa was very good, though is appearance here was brief.

What’s my favorite part of the Concerto?  The Third Movement.  Steve Morse reprises his role from the Live at the Royal Albert Hall set.  It is good to hear him play with Jon Lord one final time.  He doesn’t copy his solos from the Albert Hall.  Jon Lord gives him the leeway to play what he wants to play.  Ian Paice is a hard act to follow on the drums, but Brett Morgan does a more than capable job.  Jon Lord was his usual, spectacular self.

Concerto for Group and Orchestra is a fitting epitaph for Jon Lord.  He always wanted a studio version of his Concerto.  Before he passed away, he approved the final mixes of this release, so at least he knew what it sounded like.  This was his first classical composition, and 43 years after its debut, this studio version has gotten it right.  It is a joy to listen to.