RIP Robby Steinhardt, violinist for the rock group Kansas
Here’s Steinhardt, in a song that I particularly remember because it came out not long after the death of a family member of mine:
From the Rolling Stone obituary:
Steinhardt’s wife, Cindy Steinhardt, confirmed his death on Facebook. Cindy said Steinhardt was admitted to the hospital with acute pancreatitis in May. Not long after, he went into acute septic shock and was placed on life support, and although the outlook was “very grave” at he time, he managed to recover. However, several months later, just as he was about to be released from medical care and moved to a rehab center, Steinhardt suffered another sepsis.
I’ve written about the dangers of sepsis in this previous post.
This is interesting:
Steinhardt was born May 25th, 1950 in Chicago, and was adopted by his parents, Ilsa and Milton Steinhardt, when he was four days old. One year later, as a biography on Steinhardt’s website notes, the family relocated to Lawrence, Kansas, where Milton worked as a music professor and eventually became the Chairman of the Music History and Literature Department at Kansas University. Steinhardt grew up playing and studying classical violin, but in 1972, he joined a fledgling rock based out of Topeka, then known as White Clover.
So Steinhardt seems to have been fortunate to have been adopted by a very musical family, and to have been musical himself.
More:
Steinhardt shared vocal duties with Walsh, with the pair switching between backup and lead; but it was Steinhardt’s violin that helped distinguish Kansas’ sound from other bands…
In a 1992 interview, Livgren offered this assessment of Steinhardt’s contributions to Kansas, saying: “Robby had a totally unique function as a violinist, second vocalist, and MC in a live situation. Robby was the link between the band on the stage and the audience.”
Steinhardt also had major Big Hair.
The song “Dust In the Wind” is very evocative for me, and Steinhardt’s violin is a big part of it. RIP.
Yet another one gone. It’s quite astounding how many rock musicians from the 60s, 70s, and early 80s had classical training, or if not that, then some serious music theory.
Rick Beato has a great video up on today’s, what he calls, “low information music”: 1 to 4 chords that present no real tension, no unexpected key or time signature changes, etc. IOW, boring as hell.
Yet another one gone. It’s quite astounding how many rock musicians from the 60s, 70s, and early 80s had classical training, or if not that, then some serious music theory.
physcsguy:
Or really pushed themselves to grow as musicians without formal instruction.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon said that they didn’t read or write music, yet they wrote many great songs of some complexity.
The other day I was looking into “Fixing a Hole” from “Sgt Pepper” and discovered that Paul was playing harpsichord and John played bass. We also know Paul played drums on his first solo album and John played piano on “Imagine.” George learned to play sitar well enough for Beatles songs. He also had one of the first Moogs in the UK and he used it to good (understated) effect on “Abbey Road.”
I’m not saying the Beatles were giving single-instrument specialists a run for their money, but it seems they had a great deal of raw musical talent and the drive to expand their abilities.
huxley:
Then of course – there’s the Bee Gees.
None ever had a music lesson or could read or write music. They had perfect pitch, all played instruments by ear, and Maurice in particular was a fine musician on many instruments and he helped arrange music for other artists. Barry played rhythm guitar throughout their career, Maurice played keyboards and bass guitar, and Robin could play also although he didn’t do so in concerts. They were all intensely musical from a very early age, and wrote over a thousand songs in addition to their 5-decade performing careers. Their father was a drummer and bandleader and their mother a band vocalist, and their father apparently could also play tons of instruments by ear.
Dust in the Wind personal trivia.
1. Livgren is playing an Ovation guitar. I play one of those. 😉 Not as well of course, but it’s what I have always played.
2. DitW was voted on by my High School graduating class to be “our” year’s song, & that was vetoed by the Principal & his exec. “Too depressing & fatalistic.” Can’t remember what the 2nd choice was. Didn’t seem to matter…I was depressed & fatalistic after his veto.
3. Those tuxedos with the ruffle-shirts…Yep. Wore a few of those back in the day. I’m sure there’s even photographic evidence somewhere. Have mercy!
Neo, if you’re not already familiar with it, you will likely find this amateur music video of “Dust in the Wind,” with faded images from the 1970s, at least as evocative as the official version. The youtube.com listing by “useless director” says, “Filmed in 1977 by my dad, this music video nearly became ‘dust in the wind’ until it was restored from its failing 8mm format.”
https://youtu.be/1qxSwJC3Ly0
huxley,
I mentioned it the other day but the Paul McCartney series on Hulu is really good. It’s six half hour episodes and it’s Rick Rubin and McCartney talking music and his career.
If only everybody could love something as much as Paul McCartney loves music. True genius.
The series is called ‘McCartney 3,2,1’
Kansas is an interesting case study. They had a pretty decent amount of success but not huge but they have two iconic songs that almost everybody over a certain age know. ‘Dust In The Wind’ and ‘Carry On Wayward Son’.
I seem to remember some survey that claimed ‘Carry On’ as the most played song on classic rock radio. Don’t know if that’s accurate but it is a staple.
And speaking of versatility…
I’m pretty sure the guys in For King & Country are classically trained musicians…& I know they have a family history in the music business…but in concert they literally (& I mean literally) THROW their instruments to one another & change who’s playing what right in the middle of a song. So by the time the song’s over…almost everyone on stage is playing a different instrument than the one they started with.
Griffin:
I’ll check the Paul interviews. Behind the boyish exterior and silly love songs there’s one fiercely burning talent.
Sir Paul even has a classical catalog:
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/mccartney/guides/paul-mccartney-classical-works-guide/
I’ve heard his “Ecce Cor Meum” and it sounds like good classical music to me.
Frank Zappa’s music is mostly an acquired taste, though “Peaches en Regalia” is pleasant enough that NPR used it as theme music for a show.
–Frank Zappa, “Peaches en Regalia”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFQKP3Ehucg
Zappa wins the monster musical talent award for doing all of it — rock, classical, jazz, R&B, doo-wop — at a high professional level. He seems to taught himself *everything*.
He released 62 albums.
The thing I like about Kansas is that their music reminded me of the midwest or southwest, and sometimes the plains therein. Another musician that gave me that feeling is Pat Metheny.
Even though it’s not the best representation of the above, in honor of huxley’s love of the Beatles, here is “And I Love Her” by Metheny. I’d never heard it before, but it is very nice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYcZ6s3z1jg
This one is Metheny’s music used as a score for an early Kevin Costner film “Fandango”. It’s a wedding scene supposedly set in Santa Fe’s Plaza (probably isn’t). Metheny really likes synth. and reverb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIaU94SXj9Y
TommyJay:
That is a lovely rendition of “And I Love Her” from Metheny! Those middle period Beatles melodies, before Revolver-Pepper, could be so amazing and touching.
And that actually is Santa Fe Plaza, though radically transformed into a movie set. I haven’t seen “Fandango.” I might have to get to it. I think Kevin Costner does his job as a Hollywood leading man.
My sister looped on a Pat Metheny album to get through a hideously hard statistics project.
Sorry, never cared too much for Kansas.
Now, if the Bee Gees had done MacArthur Park….
Kind of liked Dust In The Wind. Kind of obvious, though. Ashes to ashes and all that. Point is, what do we do in between?
As to boring music, I have a friend whose Pandora algos must be something else. The music sounds modern but there is NO MELODY. People are just doing the lyrics, dragging out the vowels, with some kind of musical backup which has no connection to the singer. Yeah, they go up a couple of notes, down, here and there. Thinking about leaving the concert whistling a new song…it is to laugh.
And I’ve heard the same kind of thing in department stores and various other places in bits and pieces.
There’s a lot I don’t get and this is one more.
huxley,
I like the Peaches en Regalia. Quite a pastiche. That clarinet passage at 0:41 is wild. Bartok cranked up to 11?
Great song! Man, that man had some hair! I bet he got it wrapped up in those strings more often than he’d have liked. Lucky boy to be adopted by such a family. Chance has more effect upon our lives than we choose to admit.
Sorry Neo, but that is about the tritest sappiest song there is. As if the thoughts therein had never occurred to everyone on the planet before.
I like the Peaches en Regalia. Quite a pastiche. That clarinet passage at 0:41 is wild.
TommyJay:
I heard that as synth. Hard to say. According to wiki:
____________________________________
Ian Underwood — keyboards, flute, saxophone, clarinet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaches_en_Regalia
____________________________________
Everyone else, including Zappa, are playing rhythm. So Underwood is carrying the whole melody/harmony load himself.
After Underwood left Zappa, he went on to a helluva studio session career on keyboard.
Zappa was quite demanding. Musicians with a Zappa cred usually did OK.