People of the South Wind

"People of the South Wind" is a progressive rock single recorded by Kansas and written by Kerry Livgren for their 1979 album Monolith. Following the success of previous singles "Carry On Wayward Son", "Point of Know Return", and "Dust in the Wind", the song became the band's fourth Top 40 hit.

The song was named after the Kaw people who gave the state Kansas its name. In the Kansa language, the tribe's name could roughly be translated to "People of the South Wind". Likewise, the song was also written about the tribe. After the Monolith tour, the song was not performed live again until the mid-1990s because the band believed fans did not like the album.

Two music videos for the track exist. The song, along with three other tracks from Monolith ("On The Other Side", "Reason To Be", "Away From You"), depict the group performing on stage (except "Reason To Be" which shows the group performing in a cave) where they are looked upon by the figure that appears on the cover to Monolith. A separate video for "People Of The South Wind" was also released and has received airplay on channels such as VH1 Classic. This video is essentially the same as the original but omits the scenes involving the Monolith character, giving more focus on the band's performance.

Chart Performance