Episode 132 is live, and the wheel has spoken! This week on the Rock Roulette Podcast, we’re diving into Leftoverture by Kansas. Does this 1976 prog-rock classic still carry on? Tune in to hear our thoughts on its epic sound and musicianship!
Leftoverture is the fourth studio album by American rock band Kansas, released in 1976. The album was reissued in remastered format on CD in 2001. It was the band’s first album to be certified by the RIAA, and remains their highest selling album, having been certified 5 times platinum in the United States.
Steve Walsh began to experience writer’s block prior to the recording, and his contribution to the album would ultimately be limited to co-authoring three songs; it fell on Kerry Livgren to fill the void. The new compositions retained much of the classically inspired complexity of Livgren’s previous work. As with their previous album, Masque, Kansas recorded Leftoverture at Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The Studio in the Country was so named because, as Livgren described on In the Studio with Redbeard radio show in the episode spotlighting Leftoverture, “it was in the middle of a swamp. We’d walk out of the studio and there would be gators in front of the studio, mosquitos the size of B-52s and at times armadillos would run into the control room.”
Leftoverture opens with the song “Carry On Wayward Son“, which Livgren wrote as a sequel to “The Pinnacle“, the final song from the previous album Masque (1975).
The album’s title, Leftoverture, is a portmanteau of leftover and overture.
Kansas
Steve Walsh – organ, piano, additional synthesizers, vibraphone, lead and backing vocals
Kerry Livgren – electric guitar, piano, clavinet, Moog, Oberheim and ARP synthesizers
Robby Steinhardt – violin, viola, lead vocals on “Miracles Out of Nowhere” and “Cheyenne Anthem”, backing vocals
Rich Williams – electric and acoustic guitars
Dave Hope – bass guitar
Phil Ehart – drums, percussio
Additional Musicians
Toye LaRocca, Cheryl Norman – children’s voices on “Cheyenne Anthem”
Production
Jeff Glixman – producer, assistant engineer, remastered edition producer
Bill Evans – engineer
Edwin Hobgood, Ray Black – additional studio assistance
George Marino – mastering at Sterling Sound, New York City, New York
Jeff Magid – remastered edition producer
Artwork
Dave McMacken – graphic design
Intro Music/Wheel Spin Music by LiteSaturation from Pixabay
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