Reviewed by Tony Cummings

A gripping, literate book from one of the most thought-out believers in rock culture. Part 1 chronicles Kerry's search for meaning, the highly-gifted keyboard player travelling the rock 'n' roll highway with Kansas but never finding a satisfactory destination to his intellectual and spiritual pilgrimage. Succinctly detailing his "relentless pursuit of meaning down a variety of dead-end paths", leading to a climax with an account of his conversion in an Indianapolis hotel room in 1979 and ending with Kansas' Vinyl Confessions' bearing creative and spiritual fruit. That was the book as it originally appeared (in the US only, in 1983). But it doesn't stop there. In 1990 Kerry wrote Part 2. Anybody hoping for a detailed behind-the-scenes account of the fine but sorely-used AD (Livgren's post Kansas all-Christian band) though there are enough sad, rather than bitter, comments about the "shoddy lack of professionalism" of the Christian record business and the Church's unrealistic and unbiblical expectation of a preaching ministry to instantly materialise in a rock band which resound with the impact of truth. He's on less sure territory when he sounds off against the "dreadful sameness" of rock music or displays his distaste for rap. Sometimes the subjectivity of differing aesthetic tastes can cloud the issue. The book ends with an account of Kerry's fine instrumental album 'One Of Several Possible Musiks' which Cross Rhythms still hasn't reviewed (next issue, Ed.). Overall, Pt. 1 is an exploratory example of a rock spiritual biography and though Pt. 2 could and maybe should have been twice as long, this is a book which will bless the Livgren enthusiast and challenge the searcher.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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