Kansas
Dust In The Wind

THE REVIEW

This is not a review of an entire album, but only of one of its tracks. I don't know if this can be done, if in the end the editors will approve it, but I'm taking the risk.

While writing, I'm seeking support from the official website of this band, about which I know nothing and whose name I only discovered more recently. Before the Internet, "Dust in the wind" was simply in my heart, along with the people who introduced it to me, sung by a guy with no name or history, and even with a title we attributed based on the chorus. It remained that way for several years (about eight), then one boring evening, Google provided in seconds a frame and a context to a picture that had been put aside in a corner of my memory, after being much loved.

I absolutely don't know who the Kansas are, what they do and what they've done, I don't know what kind of music they play, but I can tell you (if you're interested) that in 1978 they released "Point of know return" (very cool psychedelic colored cover) and the single "Dust in the wind" reached 6th place on the charts of that time. Who knows what the kids who bought and maybe appreciated this CD were like (it would be more correct to speak of vinyl considering the period), I for my part stumbled across this song exactly twenty years later.
Thanks to a friend engulfed in great romantic turmoil, an uncle (of the friend) owner of the largest record store in my area, a battered radio and an anonymous cassette. Typical of my friend who, you should know, was a bit strange, one evening started telling me about his sufferings while in the background this piece was playing. Small detail, the background was excessively long... then I thought "Either Loris is slow to speak, or he's boring and time never passes, or it's this song that's eternal."

Pretending nonchalance, I approached the radio and with a quick play of fingertips on FFWD, STOP and PLAY (I was training my fingers for chat and text messages, but I didn't know it yet) I confirmed the tragic truth... to avoid finding that song on tape every time, Loris had wisely decided to record a full 90 MINUTES of "Dust in the wind", full tape space. A nightmare, if it weren't that... that song entered my soul that evening and every evening thereafter.
A sweet yet poignant ballad, guitar, voice, and violins punctuating a few words (the track is short, unlike my friend's sound experiments) but they have an enveloping rhythm that won't let you go, that makes you want to yield and close your eyes, to dream and smile and a bit even cry.... the wonderful instrumental interlude of violins alone performing the theme, introducing the second verse in simple counterpoint, with the guitar closing with the same chords as the opening.

Each time I listen, it ends with a feeling of suspension, emptiness, incompletion, almost a sonic enjambment that, however, is interrupted, leaving you curious to know what that missing verse would have wanted to say. I don't know if this is due to the fact that the famous cassette was recorded from a dusty vinyl and therefore was "enriched" by a series of rustlings that made everything much more... dusty! No one ever could tell me who those singers were, and I wasn't even sure I wanted to find out... it was enough for me to revel in those notes and be moved by those honest lyrics that struck me from the first listen ("I close my eyes only for a moment and the moment's gone, and all my dreams pass before my eyes of curiosity [. . . ] Don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the immense sky, it slips away and all your money won't another minute buy...").

There was nothing more than this, an endless cassette and 6 friends listening to it in a small white 126 car, feasting on cheap beer and slice pizza while growing up every day.... and precisely because for a moment I closed my eyes and that moment was gone and all my dreams passed before my eyes, now I can do nothing but rethink about everything that's no longer there, to my friends whom I don't see anymore because now they have kids and a family, to me who's far from them and from the places that for so long were only "ours", to the time that passes and to us who are increasingly dust in the wind... thank you Kansas. All we are is dust in the wind.

P.S.
A few months ago, I met by chance one of the famous 6 in a pub, after not having seen each other for at least 4 years. Knowing about my skill with CDs and mp3s, he asked me for a commemorative CD of those moments... guess with which track it started... and his thank you SMS is one of the nicest I have ever received...