Drastic Measures
	Produced by Kansas and Neil Kernon
	Released on September 1983
	US CHART POSITION #41
	Find it at GEMM
QZ 38733 cover [high resolution photo]

K ronomyth 10.0, Kansas Deux: Carrion, My Wayward Son. There was no more gold in Kansas, and the Walsh miners had little interest in elefantium, so the band’s fortunes began to wane. But John Elefante wouldn’t let Kansas go down without a fight, even if it meant retooling the unit into an ‘80s rock band a la Journey, Foreigner or Styx. A la la la l’elefant, sang the few remaining faithful, but it didn’t feel the same. The opening “Fight Fire With Fire” is a fine, fiery opener, but it’s not an accurate measure of the album. The second track (and, in an unfortunate bit of business, the second single) sounds like a lame Steve Perry song (i.e., like a Steve Perry song). Not content to let Elefante (and his dinotwin) do all the whining, Kerry Livgren kicks in the cranky “Mainstream,” just to make it perfectly clear that they’re unhappy with the music business. And to make it perfectly, perfectly clear, the elefantes underline Livgren’s exclamation point with “Going Through The Motions.” Writing mainstream music that rails against the need to write mainstream music... ah, the delicious irony of it aaaggh. (Sorry, that must have been me choking on the six dollars I spent for all this used irony.) If you’re looking for the old Kansas (you know, the one they show on the front of the brochures), it reappears but briefly on “End of the Age.” But that age ended a while ago, with Audio-Visions. Without Walsh, without Steinhardt, without the pretense to prog’s tricky licks, Kansas is just another dinosaur on rollerskates. I’m sure there’s a market for John Elefante’s music (“Andi,” “Get Rich”), I’m just not sure it’s in Kansas. The digitization of the band’s logo on the cover is fair warning where things are headed, so if you don’t want to go there, save your money.

TRACK LISTING

1. FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE    (John Elefante/Dino Elefante)    3:40
2. EVERYBODY'S MY FRIEND    (John Elefante/Dino Elefante)    4:09
3. MAINSTREAM    (Kerry Livgren)    6:36
4. ANDI    (John Elefante)    4:15
5. GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS    (John Elefante/Dino Elefante)    5:43
6. GET RICH    (John Elefante/Dino Elefante)    3:43
7. DON'T TAKE YOUR LOVE AWAY    (John Elefante/Dino Elefante)    3:44
8. END OF THE AGE    (Kerry Livgren)    4:33
9. INCIDENT ON A BRIDGE    (Kerry Livgren)    5:37

CREDITS

PHIL EHART -- drums
JOHN ELEFANTE -- keyboards, vocals
DAVE HOPE -- bass
KERRY LIVGREN -- keyboards, guitars
RICH WILLIAMS -- guitars
Boxcar PeeWee -- additional background vocals
Terry Brock -- additional background vocals
The Gang of Men -- additional background vocals
Kyle Henderson -- additional background vocals
Neil Kernon -- additional keyboards, engineer, mixing
The MegaPeople -- additional background vocals
David Pack -- additional background vocals
Jim Vest -- steel guitar
Women at Work -- additional background vocals
Drennon Studio -- art direction
Glen Wexler -- photography

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