carry on wayward son

Topeka's great hope broke through to the mainstream with this prodigal progressive rocker. 'Carry On Wayward Son' became an unlikely first hit for Kansas. Kerry Livgren wrote the song of spiritual searching as a sequel to 'The Pinnacle', from their previous album, Masque. He says it was the last song that he submitted to the rest of the band during the pressured songwriting rehersals before they started recording: " We were completely done with this record. We were finished with 'Leftoverture' - we were working on tightening up the songs cause we were going to leave in a couple of days to go to the studio, and I was sitting at home, and my dad had bought me a piano at a garage sale. And I was living in my parents basement - cause we were so poor we didn't have no where else to live at the time. My dad bought me this old piano - and it was down in the basement - and I sat down there, and I started playing this song - and I thought man, this is kind of neat, you know. And I kept working on it and working on it, and it turned into 'Wayward Son'. And I came in the last day of the rehearsal and thought, the guys are going to hate me - and I said guys, I got one more song, and I think we ought to listen. And so I played it for them, and everybody's kind of looking at each other - yeah, this is maybe happening, and we didn't even have time to learn the song. So we went down to Bogaloosa, LA, where we recorded, and somewhere along the line we made the decision - yeah if we pulled something else off the album and put this song on - and we literally learned COWS almost as we where recording it. And once we stood back and listened to it, we began to realize - this song was moved not only on to the album, but to the front! It was like the opening cut, and it turned out to be our 1st hit. It was kind of a good thing I brought it up at the last minute."

Steve Walsh recalls: "One thing that was about 'Wayward Son' is, we all liked it. We all liked the song, and gravitated toward it. So that the concept of writing a hit single or coming up with a hit single - we had been beaten up over the head for the past three albums - you guys have got to come up with a hit single. And so the next album would come along, and now you've really got to come up with a hit single. Well, this album, Leftoverture - we all liked the song, so we just missed it - we didn't think it had a chance in hell, because we liked it so much! Too much to be a hit single. Little did we know."

The album was recorded in Bogaloosa, LA in a place called the Studio in the Country that Livgren considers: "In the middle of a swamp. It was literally in the middle of a swamp. You could walk out of the studio and there were gators, you know, and mosquitoes the size of B52s and stuff. It was really an unusual experience - we used to have armadillos walk into the control room and stuff. It was an interesting place to record. It was a great place to record in a way - we were isolated, and we were there to work. And that's what we did."

'Carry On Wayward Son' went to number eleven on the US pop chart and was Kansas' only hit in the UK, reaching number fifty-one. It peaked in Canada at number five. The song has become a staple of classic rock radio and is featured in the video game 'Guitar Hero II'. Livgren says: "I was in a local restaurant a while back, washing my hands in the rest room. A kid, 8 or 9 years old, came up to the sink next to me. Just as he got there, 'Wayward Son' started playing over the little speakers in the ceiling. The kid says 'Awesome! That's one of my favorite songs from my game! Have you heard it mister?' I thought - if I tell that kid that I wrote that song and played the licks in his game, he'd think I was a lunatic. Moral: you never know who might be standing next to you. I tried the game once. I was horrible."








http://www.kansasband.com/

Carry on my wayward son,

For there'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry no more

Once I rose above the noise and confusion

Just to get a glimpse beyond the illusion

I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high

Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man

Though my mind could think I still was a mad man

I hear the voices when I'm dreamin', I can hear them say

Carry on my wayward son,

For there'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry no more

Masquerading as a man with a reason

My charade is the event of the season

And if I claim to be a wise man, it surely means that I don't know

On a stormy sea of moving emotion

Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean

I set a course for winds of fortune, but I hear the voices say

Carry on my wayward son,

For there'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry no more

Carry on, you will always remember

Carry on, nothing equals the splendor

Now your life's no longer empty

Surely heaven waits for you

Carry on my wayward son,

For there'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary head to rest

Don't you cry no more