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Purple fan

Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 658
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Steve, Kansas, and influences.


I have bought a two disk greatest hits from Kansas today. The strange thing about it is when I listen to a good number of the songs they come across as if they were the Dregs with vocals. There were a good number of nuances that seemed shared with Steve Morse's compositions. As an additional note, none of the songs were from the time when Steve Morse was in Kansas.

This has made me wonder, does everyone in these cases share similar influences, and has there been a case where Steve has admitted influnce by Kansas or vice-versa?

---
"Heavy isn't about being loud, heavy is an attitude." Roger Glover
3/4/2005, 5:17 Link to this post Send Email to Shadowcast
 
ByTor Profile
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Purple fan

Registered: 01-2004
Posts: 361
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Re: Steve, Kansas, and influences.


I would have thought a two disc greatest hits from Kansas would include at least a couple of Morse era songs!

There are a number of Kansas compilations available, some I dont think are very good. I'm not familiar with two disc "Greatest Hits" you describe.

 The two disc "30th Anniversary Collection". Has at least one Morse era song on it, I believe its from the Power album, the title is "All I Wanted" Another one I remember is called "Kansas Definative Collection", I know it has at least one Morse song.

As far as the influences go, I think its like you say, they share some common ground, probably listened to some of the same material when they were young and developing. Here is part of an interview from 1986 where Steve talks about early influences:



GUITAR: Steve, one thing that is unique about you is your incredible versatility. Can you give us some insight into your musical progression?

Steve: Probably my first use of the guitar was inspired by TV, maybe the Mouseketeers (laughs); It was the Beatles that really made an impact, as well as every other band that came along with a song that I wanted I to learn to play. That would include the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Yardbirds, and then on up through all of rock's progressions–Cream, Grateful Dead, Johnny Winter, Allman Bros., Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck. In the late 60s they would have those pop festivals where there were lots of different bands, as opposed to, say, a Kool Jazz Festival, where it's more stylized. It was predominantly rock but they would have these real off-beat entries in it. You'd have Cactus playing with Goose Creek Symphony, bands that no one's heard of now, but Cactus had this incredible guitarist, Jim McCarty, and Goose Greek Symphony was kind of this country jug band. It seemed just as normal as waking up every day to play a little of that kind of stuff. When I heard Mahavishnu it was the same thing. Of course I like Led Zeppelin and Mahavishnu. To me it seemed like great guitar playing and very powerful music one way or the other. The only reason I would ever think that it's a different class of music is because everybody keeps telling me it is. Classical guitar was the same thing. On an early Jeff Beck album he would play Greensleeves and Steve Howe played some Spanish style guitar. It was a pretty normal thing to not have just one hairstyle and one image, and that was the end of it and you're in that shell forever.

GUITAR: So you naturally just pursued those different sounds.

Steve: Sure, it seemed like a real normal thing at the time and it's something I'm real grateful for, that my "Wonder Bread" years, my formative years, were during that time.

GUITAR: Can you name a couple of particular milestones, moments of truth?

Steve: Seeing the Beatles on TV was unbelievable. Going to the pop festivals and seeing Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, etc. all on the same bill was amazing. So was seeing the Mahavishnu Orchestra play in my school cafeteria at the Univ. of Miami when they first came out. Seeing Jeff Beck play was a big thing, too. He was always a big influence. After Mahavishnu, when Beck had Jan Hammer playing with him was my favorite time for listening to him. Well, no, I take it back, the Rod Stewart era was, so Jeff Beck after the Yardbirds was kind of a milestone. Then it was seeing the classical guitar instructor from the Univ. of Miami, Juan Mercadal. He played a concert for the Classical Guitar Society in Augusta, Georgia, where I lived. It blew me away. He was so powerful and versatile. Again, heavy reinforcement in that area goes to Steve Howe. The first Yes album was a big turning point for me. He was a role model for me and I was trying to do the same thing. I had no idea if it was a good idea. The Univ. of Miami was a turning point. Learning theory from the instructors there was great, as was having students like Pat Metheny right along side you. I could name about 10 guys who were just utterly amazing, but not everyone's heard of them.

GUITAR: When you were studying classical music at Miami, what pieces were you focusing on?

Steve: My major was studio music and jazz, although my principal instrument was classical guitar. I was a very weird case. I didn't study much classical music. In one of the four years, I went to a local college in Augusta, at which time I did study classical pieces. It was the usual theory and analysis of popular symphonies, and a lot on Bach. Every study of classical theory centers on Bach.

GUITAR: Did you work on Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin?

Steve: I did on my own before I went to college, thinking some of it would be applicable to guitar, and in a way it is. What you play on guitar is really dependent on what the song is. The neat thing about rock is that you can push it so many different ways. You can hit two notes, E and B (an E5 chord) and put anything you want over it. Of course, not if you want airplay . . . (laughs)

GUITAR: After you became successful, who continued to get you excited?

Steve: Unbelievably enough, the list gets longer now, 'cause I'm really starting to appreciate all the stuff that I don't know and don't do so well, and there's no end to the list now. I could include all the innovators who have a style that's not common, and go from there to all the guys who just play regular guitar and play it great. I haven't heard a good guitar player who hasn't influenced me in some way. It's not so much "Oh, I got that lick." It's more like hey, I like the fact that the guy can play real good rhythm, say Pete Townshend. I always forget him as an influence because he's just a great guitar player, but when I do clinics and things, my perception is that all the guitarists want to know about is the soloing aspects.

GUITAR: The focus is always on chops.

Steve: Yeah, but that's another thing. There are a lot of good guitarists, and I always forget to mention Eric Johnson, 'cause he's remained an influence. Here's a guy who can seemingly handle anything. He handles country as well as rock, and very few people can do that, whereas I'm the biggest fan of Albert Lee for his country playing, but Eric can go from that Texas swing country stuff to rock without even blinking an eye.

3/4/2005, 17:44 Link to this post  
 
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Purple fan

Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 658
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Re: Steve, Kansas, and influences.


quote:

ByTor wrote:

I would have thought a two disc greatest hits from Kansas would include at least a couple of Morse era songs!

There are a number of Kansas compilations available, some I dont think are very good. I'm not familiar with two disc "Greatest Hits" you describe.

 The two disc "30th Anniversary Collection". Has at least one Morse era song on it, I believe its from the Power album, the title is "All I Wanted" Another one I remember is called "Kansas Definative Collection", I know it has at least one Morse song.



The one I have is called The Ultimate Kansas and just has the original lineup of the band. By the way, thanks for that interview excerpt By-Tor.

---
"Heavy isn't about being loud, heavy is an attitude." Roger Glover
3/4/2005, 19:29 Link to this post Send Email to Shadowcast
 
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Purple fan

Registered: 01-2004
Posts: 361
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Re: Steve, Kansas, and influences.


Ultimate Kansas, not familiar with that one.

I've learned over the years that for me, I try to stay away from all these different compilations and greatest hits packages as much as possible.

I get the most enjoyment from listening to a bands complete albums. I like the familiar order of songs, and being able to hear the bands progresions from album to album.

An example is the four disc Zeppelin box set (the one with the crop circles on the front). I bought that when it first came out because my old vinyl was worn to the point of no return (great song!). Jimmy Page did a pretty good job of selecting songs to fit onto the four disc format, but he changed the song order around, and I really missed the familiar feel of the original albums. Make a long story short, I eneded up buying the seperate albums anyway.

Guess it depends how much you like the band to begin with.
3/4/2005, 20:55 Link to this post  
 
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Purple fan

Registered: 12-2003
Posts: 192
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Re: Steve, Kansas, and influences.


I bought "Power" a few months ago, after seeing it really cheap. I don't mind it at all, although the oh-so-american vocals are a bit annoying. Steve's performance is solid if not awe-inspiring, and he had co-writes on nearly every song. One of those albums which would never get a release these days, but not bad for it's time.
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JohnH Profile
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Purple fan

Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 1457
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Re: Steve, Kansas, and influences.


quote:

ByTor wrote:

Ultimate Kansas, not familiar with that one.

I've learned over the years that for me, I try to stay away from all these different compilations and greatest hits packages as much as possible.

I get the most enjoyment from listening to a bands complete albums. I like the familiar order of songs, and being able to hear the bands progresions from album to album.
Guess it depends how much you like the band to begin with.



I'm the same.....I never have bought box sets...some bands I'm not that interested in so I just go buy the greatest hits...but if I'm really interested I buy the whole catalog. Am pretty burned out on live albums after buying too many DP live albums with bad vocals on them.

John

4/4/2005, 8:30 Link to this post Send Email to JohnH   Send PM to JohnH
 


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