Location, Location: Rock Cities & States

There was a time when new bands would feel compelled to promote where they came from as a means of capturing fan’s attention. Sometimes their musical sound would match well with their locality, but a band name had very little to do with what the music stood for.  In the time of “geography bands” (the 70s), their stories are as vast as their locations.

Atlanta Rhythm Section (ARS)

In an era when being a serious musician was looked upon as more worthy than being a rock star, ARS’s players continue to aspire to be accomplished musicians. They have successfully taken the band from their Atlanta-based “Southern Rock” roots- to blues/jazz- to middle-of-the-road smooth (Yacht) rock. They openly identified early with other “musicianship-based” bands such as Little Feat,  Steely Dan, and Fleetwood Mac (before Nicks/Buckingham) and found a fan base via the usual slog of performing as an opening act for established stars (i.e. Roy Orbison). Signed to Decca in 1972, ARS would see their chart success peak with 1977’s single “I’m So Into You” reaching #7 in the Billboard charts (#2 in Canada) while being enthusiastically embraced by the local Atlanta music society.

The band would memorably appear with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at the city’s Chastin Park, and later in 1978, be asked to play the White House for Georgia’s own President Jimmy Carter in honor of his son Chip’s 28^th birthday. Atlanta Rhythm Section continues to appear at outdoor festivals today, with their last album (With All Due Respect) released in 2011.

Black Oak Arkansas

If any band could prove that rock and roll was just a seat-of-the-pants business, Black Oak Arkansas is a perfect example. A bunch of like-minded high school friends, the newly formed group would clean out an old grain bin on the edge of their hometown of Black Oak for jamming purposes. They embraced a blend of rock, southern blues, and gospel while raising hell in their small town (population just 262 in a 2010 census). Soon they ran into trouble with the law, being arrested for grand larceny (stolen equipment from two local high schools). The members were ultimately sentenced to 26 years in prison, only to have their sentences suspended. This set the tone that would stay with the band well into middle age.

Nearly every original member would hold a public nickname (i.e. Rickie Lee “Risky” Reynolds, Stanley “Goober Grin” Knight, and Wayne “Squeezebox” Evans) but none would be as famous as Jim “Dandy” Mangrum, their raspy vocalist. As a frontman, Jim Dandy would treat the audience to outrageous stage antics and sly double-entendre lyrics such as “Getting Kind of Cocky” and “Hot Rod.” Ironically, their biggest hit (#25 on the Billboard charts) would be 1973’s “Jim Dandy To the Rescue,” a 1957 original recording by R&B singer LaVern Baker. BOA boasts over 50 players who have come and gone since their first recording in 1970. With over 24 studio and live albums, their most recent, The Devil’s Jukebox, was released in 2023.

Boston

If you attended a high school party in 1976, you couldn’t avoid the steamroller first album from Boston. The album was huge, chock-a-block with memorable themes, harmonizing guitar riffs, and the soaring vocals of Brad Delp. Boston became one of the bestselling debut albums in rock history with over 20 million units sold and spawning three top 5 singles.

After completing graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, guitarist Tom Scholz began recording songs he’d written over past years. He used the income from his R&D job at Polaroid to build a studio in his basement. While some of the equipment he designed himself, Scholz played all the instruments except drums (Jim Masdea) and vocals provided by Delp that ended up on demo recordings.  After a couple of years of rejections (including future blockbuster “More Than A Feeling”), a pair of Boston rock promoters showed interest and put Scholz in touch with Epic Records, who subsequently requested an audition. Quickly cobbling together some local musicians (the band’s original lineup) they passed the showcase and were signed to a 10-record contract. But one problem quickly came to the fore: the record company wanted the band to re-record the demos in their L.A. studio.

This did not match Tom Scholz’ musical vision, so he sent the newly formed band to California and continued to clandestinely work on the demos in Boston with drummer Masdea. He later over-dubbed Brand Delp’s memorable vocals in LA. While ensconced in his basement studio, Scholz asked co-producer John Boylan what they should name the band.  He reportedly replied, “This a Boston album, with Boston all over it.”

Chicago

One of the most successful groups in American recording history, Chicago Transit Authority was pushed to change its name after a year. With the namesake governmental agency threatening legal action, the shortening of the name would hurt them not at all. From their start in 1969, Chicago would outperform most other bands of the late 60s, quickly gaining a fan base along with hit singles that seemingly appeared every other month. The brainchild of woodwind playing Walter Parazaider, he visualized, “My idea was to make horns an integral part of a rock band.” He met trombonist James Pankow and horn player Lee Loughnane at the city’s DePaul University while gaining his Bachelor of Arts degree. Recruiting the other players from the city’s blues and rock scene, the band would become “complete” once they found tenor Peter Cetera Jr.

From the Polish and Hungarian-populated South Side of Chicago, Cetera had been a student at a Chicago-based catholic preparatory seminary (“My mother wanted me to be a priest”). He experienced Parazaider’s band playing live, (then under the banner of The Big Thing ) and made himself known to them. He was quickly snatched up as one of the band’s three singers. The rest became Platinum and Grammy history.

Kansas

The Kansas name was always in flux. As far back as 1970, guitarist Kerry Livgren had started a band with the name “Kansas” but merged it with a rival band called “Topeka.” The new group called itself “ White Clover.” Two big things happened with this iteration of the band: Livgren began writing his own material and he began playing with the soon-to-be original members Steve Walsh (vocals/keys), Rich Williams (guitar), and Dave Hope (bass). In 1971, the name “Kansas” returned when Hope left the band and Livgren worked to fuse their sound with rock/psychedelia and jazz.

It was a complex formula that didn’t initially play well in the heartland, and the band imploded by 1973. Around this period, drummer Phil Ehart invited Livgren to join a re-formed “White Clover” after he returned from England and discovered that the progressive music movement was alive and well outside of the Sunflower State. With renewed energy, “White Clover” sent a demo tape to Don Kirshner who was building a new record label. He was very interested in the band, but the “White Clover” name had to go. Kirshner was intrigued with the geography name, as he felt “Kansas” better defined the band’s sound.

The third iteration of Kansas would hit paydirt in 1977 with their breakout single “Carry On Wayward Son” (#11 on Billboard) and 1978’s “Dust In the Wind” which reached #6. The members have stated that the soft tone, echoed landscape, and Steve Walsh’s vocal on “Dust” was the closest they came to putting their prairie roots on tape.

-Steve Valvano

Photo: Kansas, 2008 (Glenn Smith Presents, Inc. via Wikimedia Commons)