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Sept. 18, 2009
I don't think we're in Kansas® anymore
When we start talking about the Violin and Mainstream Rock
and Roll in the same sentence, you have to admit, it’s kind of a
rare occurrence. There’s only a few bands that have tried to
incorporate the centuries old instrument into modern mainstream
rock. Don’t get me wrong, I know there’s plenty of strings on lots
of songs. Dylan’s “Desire” has got the fiddle on most tracks. The
Who featured one on the song Babba O’Reilly. John Mellencamp has a
full time violin player in the band. And when I went to see
Springsteen last time, his band was touring with the fiddle player
from the “Seeger Sessions” album.
But, in my mind, the primary band that used violin in
mainstream rock, has got to be the band Kansas. I recall seeing
them, and my ticket stub says the show was on June 14, 1992 – at a
place called Sun Tan Lake, in Riverdale, N.J. It wasn’t the
original line-up, (in fact, I don’t think it was the original
violin player) and they shared the bill with Peter Frampton and
Blue Oyster Cult. By the way, tickets were $25 bucks, but that was
for 3 bands. Ahh, those were the days.
So now we get to fast-forward to 2009. A few months ago, I
came home from one of my “used music buying excursions,” with a
bunch of old records, including a few by Kansas. It’s great,
because the records are so cheap to buy now, that even if the disc
doesn’t play, it’s still great just to have the artwork on the
cover. Nowadays, you just don’t get that kind of connection with
the small CD jewel case.
So I’m listening to Monolith, the one with the strange
futuristic Native American Indian/Spaceman theme on the cover, and
it seems like the normal Kansas type rock songs. You know, lots of
keyboards, drums, power chords everywhere, and maybe one or two
cuts that kind of make you go “yeah, I think I remember that one…”
And then I put on “Song for America.” Now, you’ll have to
work with me here, as I’ve never heard this album before. I put
the needle down on the record and head over to the couch. And the
first song comes on, and I’m like, “Hmmm, very acoustic. Did they
do an acoustic album? And about half way through the song, I’m
like, “this is really weird.”
And then the second song comes on. And it’s more of the same.
It sounds like the first song, but this is like a laid back
acoustic-funky singer songwriter trip going on. Definitely not the
norm for Kansas.
The same thing happens on the third song. I think to myself,
“What the heck is going on here?”
I physically now have to get off of the couch and find out
what is going on.
OK, I’m now at my turntable (by the way, the turntable is
right next to the couch), and I am now in the process of finding
out what is going on. I look at the album cover, and it says
“Kansas.”
I look at the record label, and it says “Kansas.” And then, I
look at the number of tracks listed for side one, and compare it
to how many I see on the actual record.
And it’s different.
Houston, we have a problem.
I turn the record over to side two, cue up the first song,
and look at the album cover. 1975 era Kansas with power chords and
synthesizer noise comes blaring out of the speakers. OK, side two
sounds normal.
So, I’ve got a misprint! Not a label error, or a typo, this
is much more serious. Someone, apparently in 1975, fell asleep at
the record plant and mistakenly put someone else’s music on side
one of Song for America.
I can’t believe this. It took me 35 years to finally get this
album, and now I only have side two. I wonder, how many were
printed like this, and most of all, who the heck is the artist on
side one?
I turned to the internet to see if I could find some answers.
I sent out two emails – one, to Kerry Livegren, who was the guitar
player for Kansas, for something like 12 years. I asked him if
he’s ever heard of/remembered anything like this happening, and if
he knew who the other artist was. A few days later, he did reply,
but the only thing he said was “Wow, that’s a real collector’s
item.” No explanations, or referrals to anyone else. Weird.
I also sent an email to the guy listed as engineering the
album (who now runs some studio in the Midwest), but I never heard
back.
Feeling like I should go back to square one here, I carefully
listened to the mystery songs again, and took some notes. Song 1
was something about “Ohoopy River Bottomlands…….” And on I went,
taking notes on lyrics as best I could for that side of the
record.
Finally, after a few misspellings and dead ends, I got a hit
on the song. It turns out that what I had was Side One of an album
by Larry Jon Wilson, called “New Beginnings.” The year? 1975. And
the song is actually “Ohoopee River Bottomland,” and thankfully,
there were some mp3 files online to listen to. The other 4 songs
checked out as well.
I couldn’t find an email address for Mr. Wilson, but I did
come across a fan website, so I left a message on that, asking him
if he knew anything of the mishap at the record plant. It’s funny,
because Wilson’s records are on the “Monument” label, and Kansas
is on the Kirshner label. The only explanation I have is some
smaller labels must have been printed by bigger companies, and
this must be one of the examples of that partnership.
So it turns out that the records by Mr. Wilson are pretty
rare. From what I’ve read on the Web, Wilson became a
singer/songwriter in the 70s and gained a lot of respect from the
alt-country performers, like Townes VanZant and Guy Clark. His
songs (at least the ones I have) feature a full band, and it’s
kind of a country/soul/singer-songwriter groove.
I find it great that a record plant mistake leads to a new
artist discovery 35 years later.
So, you’re now wondering if Larry Wilson ever got back to me.
Well, not yet, but someone else did. Roland Heiss, who lives out
near Ellensburg, WA., emailed me because he saw my post on Larry’s
fan-site. And he, too, was wondering if Larry replied. It was
interesting, because Roland sent me his youtube video link, and
there he was, playing a Towne song on his acoustic guitar.
Oh, and he collects records, too. He told me a story of
buying a Nazareth record years back, and boy, was he mad when he
listened to side one, and Molly Hatchet came blaring out of his
speakers…
Cripes! Before we get too much more into this, we better get
back to our original topic.
Which was…oh yeah, rock and roll and violin. It turns out
that violinist Aaron Meyer will be in Hood River at the United Way
Benefit on Sept. 17. Aaron is known for all kinds of music styles,
including rock, but he told me in his interview that he’s playing
a solo show, and, get this, he’ll be playing back-up tracks behind
him and playing his violin on top of those. Kind of a one-man-band
deal.
But, I just have one suggestion – make sure, whatever you do,
don’t use Side One of Kansas’s Song For America…….
An
interview with Aaron Meyer
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