On Fri, 19 Feb 1999 11:47:28 -0500 (EST) "Terry A. Smith"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> ps so what, specifically, is the Damnations TX's song "Kansas" about?
> There's no lyrics in the record, so I haven't been able to ferret out the
> words precisely, but the tune apparently involves the "bloody Kansas"
> pre-Civil War period (or maybe post-Civil War?). I thought it was pretty
> neat that a band has enough historical savvy to make a (very good) song
> out of a fairly obscure historical reference point. Or maybe they're
> singing about the rock band...
Off the top of my head, Kansas was called "Bloody Kansas"
in the decade or so leading up to the Civil War because it
was a hotbed of unrest and violence due to the fact that it
wasn't certain which way it would enter the Union -- slave
or free. Thus it became sort of a magnet for extremists on
both sides of the slavery issue. Shoot-outs, murders,
lynchings, and what we would call terrorism today, all took
place in Kansas in the 1850s, as both sides tried to win
the upper hand. In a way it was a ghastly foreshadowing of
what was to come.
It's an interesting and mostly successful songwriting
attempt in an album full of good songs. I especially like
the imagery of (I'm paraphrasing here) the singer being
frightened of "an old man standing there hot as a pepper."
I get the image of some fanatical John Brown-type ready to
kill everyone in sight or maybe a bitter slaveowner come to
retrieve his "property." I don't know if the word
"salivating" used in the song was in common parlance at the
time, but poetic license I always say...
I don't think I'm reading too much into a story song like
this, but I've given this album a couple of hard listens
and am finding that it keeps getting better with each
playing. And it's one of those rare albums that actually
gets better as it goes along. The last half is certainly as
strong as the first. This is an impressive effort.
Intelligent, well-written, country-tinged rock and roll.
William Cocke
Senior Writer
HSC Development
University of Virginia
(804) 924-8432
