The Eternal Kansas City
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| "The Eternal Kansas City" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Van Morrison | ||||
| from the album A Period of Transition | ||||
| A-side | "The Eternal Kansas City" | |||
| B-side | "Joyous Sound" | |||
| Released | 1977 | |||
| Recorded | Autumn 1976/early winter 1977 | |||
| Genre | Folk rock, R&B, gospel | |||
| Length | 5:26 | |||
| Label | Warner Brothers | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Van Morrison | |||
| Producer(s) | Van Morrison | |||
| Van Morrison singles chronology | ||||
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"The Eternal Kansas City" is a song by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was the key song on the 1977 album, A Period of Transition,[1] and was his first single released since "Gloria", in 1974.
Biographer Howard DeWitt believes that the song makes the listener feel as if in a church, because of the "mystical choir", featured at the beginning of the song: "Excuse me do you know the way to Kansas City?". "Then an almost jump arrangement makes 'The Eternal Kansas City' an excellent rhythm and blues influenced song."[2]
Johnny Rogan describes the song as "The only song on the album where there was evidence of Morrison's mysterious majesty, it blended the lily-white sound of Anita Kerr Singers with strong gospel overtones."[3]