Dopo la buona prova di Song For America, giunge verso la fine del 1975 il terzo lavoro in studio dei Kansas, Masque. In copertina c'è il celebre dipinto intitolato "L'Acqua", dell'artista del Cinquecento Giuseppe Arcimboldo. La creatività musicale della band non arresta neanche in questo disco, anzi.
It takes a Woman’ s Life (To Make A Man) è una canzone strutturata un po’ alla Down The Road del disco precedente, con un cantato che rimane subito in mente, il pianoforte e l’organo in evidenza, sassofoni: in sostanza un buon pezzo di rock, molto orecchiabile. Poi si passa al blues di Two Cents Worth, con un bell’inizio del basso di Dave Hope e le chitarre di Rich Williams a intrecciare riff e assoli, soprattutto nell’intermezzo centrale in cui finalmente subentra un po’ di violino e i sintetizzatori. E’ una canzone che parla di alcoolismo.
Il grande inno di questo album è ovviamente la traccia 3, Icarus (Borne On Wings Of Steel), in cui finalmente Robby Steinhardt compare con uno dei protagonisti del pezzo. Già dall’intro ci troviamo di fronte a fraseggi molto progressive, più che nella due canzoni precedenti. Il cantato è stupendo, con il genio, compositore, tastierista e chitarrista Kerry Livgren che talvolta affianca il virtuoso tastierista Steve Walsh, uomo dalle notevoli doti vocali. E di nuovo voliamo insieme ad Icaro per cieli infiniti, sulle ali del violino incantato di Steinhardt e con le tastiere che suggellano il tutto, per poi riprendere la chitarra e il cantato su synth.
Lento è invece l’attacco di All The World, che man mano diviene più trascinante, sopratutto quando subentra Phil Ehart con la batteria e poi i sintetizzatori che formano la solita, meravigliosa melodia nel tipico stile dei Kansas. Child Of Innocence è un altro bel pezzo rock, dove Robby Steinhardt canta con la sua grandissima e potentissima voce, e la chitarra di Rich Williams è la vera protagonista.
It’ s You è una perla, pura e semplice, un folk rock meraviglioso, in cui il violino impera incontrastato, con il suo riff ben arrangiato. Altro pezzo veloce intriso di rock progressivo è Mysteries and Mayhem, soprattutto nell’introduzione, dove assistiamo ad una vera proliferazione di passaggi e stop della sezione ritmica. E poi il finale è tutta gloria: The Pinnacle, un pezzo maestoso, con un attacco epico, in cui la voce del tastierista-cantante Steve Walsh raggiunge vette inarrivabili e tutta la band è in generale in grande spolvero: insomma un vero esempio di Rock Sinfonico, con le lettere Maiuscole.
Masque è un tentativo disperato di emergere dall’oscurità, un disco snobbato che raggiunse solo il numero 70 nelle classifiche americane, all’epoca (1975-1976) poco orientate verso il prog. Masque, che diede l’impulso alla composizione di capolavori del calibro di Leftoverture e Point Of Know Return, è parte integrante della discografia classica dei Kansas ed è in assoluto uno dei dischi più suggestivi che la band abbia mai inciso. Masque racchiude meraviglie, un preludio al grande successo dei dischi successivi.
Elenco tracce testi e video
02 Two Cents Worth (03:10)
(Livgren, Walsh)
Well I been drinkin' again
And I know it's a sin
But I just can't refuse an old friend
Cause life is gettin' me down
And I been two times around
And there ain't nothing but pain around the bend
I'm not made for the time
I'm born in the wrong century
There's too much craziness here
In twenty-five years I have used all the tears in my eyes
Now this old world is a fright
You know my future ain't bright
And I'd just crawl in a hole if I could
Or maybe live out in space
Or some other far away place
And not come back to this earth till it's good
Oh but I'm dreaming again
I know that I'm here till the end
There's too much craziness here
In twenty-five years I have used all the tears in my eyes
Well you might think that I'm all wrong
The things I say in this song
I really wish I could see it your way
Cause there's a storm rollin' in
And it just might be the end
So I'm praying we'll all get away
Now my cup is running dry
The weight of the world gets me down
There's way too much craziness here
In twenty-five years I have used all the tears in my eyes
There's nowhere to turn
So I'll just have to learn not to cry, no more
It's all I can do till we find something new
But I'll get by you know I'll try
In twenty-five years I have used all the tears in my eyes.
04 All the World (07:13)
All the world's forgiving the change is all around
And people everywhere have seen the light in what they've found
It's a happy place in the human race
When all our lives are lived forgiving
All the world's for living when love is what you find
Despair and loneliness you've got to leave them far behind
Tell the clouds to go let the feeling show
It's great when life is full of living
Everyone's aware they know to change the world we've got to care
And people all should know should have happened long ago
Or could it be that I just now found out
Life is meant to share and it means the same thing everywhere
Living everyday, helping people on their way
Cause sometimes life gives everyone some doubts
Can I have time? Is it right what I feel?
At times I doubt what I normally know is real
But right now I don't know what to do
And it's all because of you
I could tell you if I knew that you'd believe
As slight and elusive as life sometimes is
Right or wrong as we both know we all can be
I could never have denied that I need you by my side
'Cause without you life don't seem that much to me
I can see an old man cry, it's his time to die
And life no longer gives him any breaks
He hasn't got a home, no one to call his own
Still he tells no one that it is more than he can take
When the time is so unkind, an empty future plays in your mind
When the darkness cries out to you, can you escape it?
What can you do?
All the world's forgetting the hate that filled our hearts
The times of selfish reasoning that keeps all apart
This world was meant to share, let them know you care
By making someone's life worth living
All the world's believing that this felling's got to stay
till all the world is living
till all the world is giving
till all the world is loving every day
05 Child of Innocence (04:38)
Sweet child of innocence
Living in the present tense
Father Time will take his toll
Rack your body and steal your soul
What became of all the years
Are you drowning in your tears
Who will catch you when you fall
Who will hear you when you call
I will comfort you, take your hand and see you through
I will take you through the door
Who do you think you are
Try to live forever and you won't get far
I wait behind your door
Makes no difference if you're rich or poor
Though you're weary and afraid
Still you try to flee my blade
Come and walk in my new land
If you'll only take my hand
In the image of those who have walked before me here
I am cast in the web of an ancient spell
I am holding on to life, I'm drifting in the stream
Everything's much clearer now
We live within a dream and never wake
Judge not by what you see
More than you can count are here with me
Give up your foolish pride
All that walk the earth have died!
07 Mysteries and Mayhem (04:20)
Well I'm trying to tell you about a thing I thought I saw
It came to me in a dream one night
When a voice began to call
I heard my name being summoned as I looked around to see
A hooded judge and jury
There was no mercy there for me
Well I can't make it, I just can't figure it out
This dream is drivin' me crazy
I gotta know what it's all about
The mark is upon me, and the mark of Cain brings fear
A cold wind's blowin' right down my back
I'm runnin, I'm runnin' from a figure that's dressed in black
I think my legs are made out of lead
Cause I'm runnin' but I'm going nowhere
The bad dream is coming closer and closer
I got a feelin' he'll always be there
Forever is a long time to spend in agony
And the demons of confusion have got a place for me
The mark is upon me, and the mark of Cain brings fear
I was tired, so tired of runnin'
I had to turn and look around
I saw eyes that looked right through me
And a voice that made no sound
My body froze and I stood and stared, unearthly face before me
From the depths of a hooded nightmare, I saw what could not be
Mysteries and mayhem from the pinnacle I see
There's no answer when there's no question
The mark of Cain bears hard on me
08 The Pinnacle (09:35)
I've so much to say, and yet I cannot speak
Come and do my bidding now for I have grown too weak
My weary eyes have seen all that life can give
Come to me, O young one, for you I can forgive
I stood where no man goes, and conquered demon foes
With glory and passion no longer in fashion
The hero breaks his blade
Cast this shadow long that I may hide my face
And in this cloak of darkness the world I will embrace
In all that I endure, of one thing I am sure
Knowledge and reason change like the season
A jester's promenade
Lying at my feet I see the offering you bring
The mark of Cain is on our faces, borne of suffering
O, I long to hear you say it's not been wrong
I stand before you now, a riddle in my song
The answer is that sweet refrain
Unheard it always will remain
Beyond our reach, beyond our gain
Trapped in life's parade, a king without a crown
In this joy of madness, my smile might seem a frown
With talons wrought of steel, I tore the heart of doom
And in one gleaming moment I saw beyond the tomb
I stood where no man goes, above the din I rose
Life is amusing though we are losing
Drowned in tears of awe.
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