Analyzing KANSAS' “Carry on Wayward Son” (1976)

Home , Carry On Wayward Son, Dave Hope, Dust in the Wind, Kerry Livgren, Leftoverture, Phil Ehart

Analyzing KANSAS’ “Carry on Wayward Son” (1976)

Matthew A. Bardin, BM

Eastman School of Music: Theory 481

The goal of this paper is to, after providing a brief historical context, show a show a multi- faceted analysis of the song “Carry on Wayward Son” by KANSAS. Specifically, I will be looking at the lyrics of the song and giving my personal interpretation of their meaning, The formal arrangement of each section of the song, an analysis of the chords and their harmonic function, the melodic content and notable aspects of each formal section, the use of syncopation, and KANSAS’ use of instruments and timbres over the course of their song. It is my goal that looking at this information will allow me to create a generalized statement that evokes the essential characteristics of the track.

KANSAS originally formed as a stereotypical ‘garage band’ out of Topeka, KS in the early

1970s. since their debut album in 1974, they have produced eight gold albums, three sextuple- platinum albums (of which Leftoverture (1976) is one), a platinum live album, and two different one million-selling singles.

Over more than 40-year tenure of the band there has been several changes in the band’s line up, including a hiatus where the band was broken up in 1984. Currently, Phil Ehart (percussion) and

Rich Williams (guitars) are the only two original band members still playing with the group.

While the specific group dynamics play an interesting part in KANSAS’ sound and popularity over the years, it is beyond the scope of this paper. Rather than the entirety of KANSAS’ history,

I will be discussing aspects of their 1976 album Leftoverture, and the track “Carry on Wayward

Son.”1

1 More information about KANSAS and their music can be found at their website: http://kansasband.com/

1 Leftoverture was initially released in 1976 through Kirshner, and would ultimately become one of KANSAS’ strongest, best-selling albums. At the time the album received mixed reviews.

Rolling Stone and other groups enjoyed the music, even going as far as saying that Leftoverture puts KANSAS right next to bands such as Styx and Boston, and that they (KANSAS) represented midwestern values of the American musical heartland. Other critics felt adversely about KANSAS, feeling that their music lacked the quality and intelligence of European progressive rock. It should be noted that when writing the songs that would ultimately become

Leftoverture, previous song writer Steve Walsh began to suffer writer’s block and Kerry Livgren had to write the majority of the songs on the album. “Carry on Wayward Son” actually appears on Leftoverture twice. The studio recorded version opens the album, and a live recording closes the B side of the vinyl. For consistency, and the fact that most people are familiar with the studio version, this is the recording that I will use for all of my analysis.

“Carry on Wayward Son” is the opening track of Leftoverture and was conceived by Livgren as the continuation and completion of the track “Pinnacle” which closed out KANSAS’ previous album, Masque. When listening to the tracks back-to-back, it is easy to pick up on different motives and grooves between the two songs. However the focus of this paper is on the aspects of

“Carry on Wayward Son” for more information on Masque, please see the footnote below.2

As shown on the album liner, “Carry on Wayward Son” has the following lyrics:

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

2 Masque was KANSAS’ second album, released in 1975. Information and audio from the album can be found at

2 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

Figure 1: Lyrics for “Carry on Wayward Son” (1976)

Looking at the lyrics we can see that they are arranged in a series of alternating four and six-line stanzas, excluding the second to last stanza from this pattern. Each of the six-line stanzas can be broken into two phrases that, as discussed later, have the same musical material. In looking at the break down of the structure of the text, I would say that “Carry on Wayward Son” is organized as a chorus followed by two VCUs3, followed by a bridge and one more chorus. Where each of

3 Verse-Chorus Unit.

3 the verses can be broken further into a repeated phrase, each chorus is followed by an instrumental feature, and the first chorus serves as part of the introduction for the track.

While there is no one definitive text analysis for this, or any song, after reading through the text without music several times and listening to the song several times to see how Kansas worked with the material musically, I believe I have found a meaning for “Carry on Wayward Son”, at least for me. Without hearing from Livgren, there is no definitive answer. Based on my interpretation, I believe “Carry on Wayward Son” to be, at least on a surface-level, a self- reflection on a coming of age story. Looking at the opening phrase, we hear the chorus presented in the lead and backup vocals, without any instrumental harmony added. This makes sure that all of the listener’s attention is on the words, which are telling the main character of the song not to worry, things will work out if they keep going. After a long instrumental introduction, the solo voice enters singing the text of the second stanza. This set of text helps to set up the character’s dilemma: they are looking to improve themselves, to become better at what they are wanting to do and achieve some sense of satisfaction. The end result of this endeavor is given away at the end of the phrase with the text, “but I flew too high”, a reference to the story if Icarus.4 The second phrase of this verse is a series of contradictions meant to illustrate the confusion and desperation of the character; something that is only lifted when they are dreaming. From there the chorus returns, confirming for the listener that it is indeed the chorus. This is the only time in the song where consistent vocal harmonies are used. I feel this is to help illustrate the last line of the first verse: “I hear the voices when I'm dreamin', I can hear them say”. It is this line that also

4 In the myth, Icarus and his father build giant wings in order to escape from a prison. During their escape however, Icarus uses his wings and flies too close to the sun, causing the wax holding them together to melt. Icarus’ wings then break, causing him to plummet to his death.

4 gives me a retroactive analysis of the opening chorus and instrumental intro of the song. I believe that this line puts the opening into the context of the main character’s dreams, and that the instrumental transition is them waking up before moving into the verse. The second verse has a similar character to the first. The character in the song is still singing about how they are pretending to have everything figured out. The character has even surprised themself with the level of their deception, as shown in the line, “my charade is the event of the season”. In the following phrase of the verse, the weariness and craziness of this lifestyle is shown to be getting to the character through a metaphor of their boat being trapped in a storm at sea. Through this metaphor, Livgren moves back into the chorus, this time putting the voices on the winds of the storm. After the third iteration of the chorus, I feel that it has become apparent to the listener that what started out as an introduction has become a formal device. Every time the chorus occurs, it is immediately followed by a virtuosic instrumental break or series of solos. These solos, shown in more detail later, help to give the song its energy and turmoil as the main character is retelling their story. Following the third instrumental section, the listener reaches the bridge of “Carry on

Wayward Son”. In this section, I feel the main character has finished their story as now they are singing back and forth with the harmonized voices from the chorus. They are all speaking in a declarative voice now, rather than a reminiscent one. The main character is now telling the listener, ‘I faked it until I made it, so carry on.’ From there, the chorus is presented one more time, followed by the now expected instrumental section, which serves as the outro for the song.

In order to determine and verify the analysis of chords in this song, I first went through the song several times, working to determine where the most prominent chord changes occurred, and what kind of chord the motion moved to. My goal was to develop a general idea of approximately how

5 far from the established tonic KANSAS had moved, and where the move occurred. From there I loaded the audio file for the song into the Ableton Live 9 Suite software and slowed down the song to approximately 25% without altering the pitch. This allowed me to focus on different areas of the song and work out the new bass and harmonic motion with both my ears and a keyboard with ample time to determine where any errors in my transcription were, as well as find less noticeable chord changes. Using this method, I was able to construct the following chord chart. The keys and chord symbols are shown in italics:

(No chords; Melody implies C major) 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 E minor: Instrumental 1

A minor: i bVII. VI. bVII. i Once I rose above the noise and confusion i bVII. VI bVII. iv Just to get a glimpse beyond the illusion C Major: ii. I. bVII. I ii. I. V I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high A Minor: i bVII. VI. bVII. i Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man i bVII. VI. bVII. iv Though my mind could think I still was a mad man C Major: ii. I. bVII. I ii I. V I hear the voices when I'm dreamin', I can hear them say

C major: vi. I. V. IV Carry on my wayward son vi I. V there'll be peace when you are done vi. V. IV Lay your weary head to rest ii. I vi Don't you cry no more A minor: Instrumental 2

6 A minor: i bVII. VI. bVII Masquerading as a man with a reason i bVII. VI. bVII. iv My charade is the event of the season C Major: ii. I. bVII. I ii. I. V And if I claim to be a wise man, it surely means that I don't know A Minor: i bVII. VI. bVII. i On a stormy sea of moving emotion i bVII. VI. bVII. iv Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean C Major: ii. I. bVII. I ii I. V I set a course for winds of fortune, but I hear the voices say

C Major: vi. I. V. IV Carry on my wayward son vi. I. V there'll be peace when you are done vi V. IV Lay your weary head to rest ii. I. vi Don't you cry no more A minor: Instrumental 3 Organ solo in E minor Guitar solo in A minor

C: VI5. V5 IV5 Carry on, you will always remember VI5. V5. IV5 Carry on, nothing equals the splendor II5. I5. bVII5 Now your life's no longer empty II5. I5. V5 Surely heaven waits for you

C major: vi. I. V. IV Carry on my wayward son vi. I. V there'll be peace when you are done vi V. IV Lay your weary head to rest ii. I. vi Don't you cry no more

E Major: Instrumental 4 Guitar Solo A minor: Outro5

Figure 2: Lyrics and simple chord chart for “Carry on Wayward Son” (1976)

5 Because of the popularity of this song there are a large number of transcriptions available from a variety of sources. Because of the method I used to create these transcriptions, I feel they are accurate to my ear. Other transcriptions may vary due to different methods or how the transcriber heard the material.

7 In addition to the above breakdown, I have also created the following chart as a graphic representation to show when each section occurs, its duration, and when there is a soloistic instrumental feature. I have also included occasional lyrics to help the reader stay on track with the progression and division of the vocal sections.

Figure 3: graphic representation of the form of “Carry on Wayward Son” (1976)

We can see that as a whole, the majority of “Carry on Wayward Son” is in fact comprised of instrumental features and solos (purple and yellow), despite Figures 1 and 2 both showing us that the song is comprised of 32 lines of text.

Looking at the chords in “Carry on Wayward Son” it can be seen that the music moves between the minor and major modes of its key rather frequently. This allows for KANSAS to create variance in their sounds, while still maintaining the familiarity of keeping the same chords.

8 Looking at the final line of each phrase in the verse, we can see the shift from A minor to its relative key, C major. KANSAS achieves this by pivoting on the D minor chord, which is predominant in both tonal centers. I feel that utilizing this shift towards the end of the verse as shown above brings a subtle emphasis to the end of the phrase and allows for the full modulation in the chorus to feel more natural. This movement is fairly common to KANSAS’ sound library during this time. Looking briefly at other songs from this time period, I have found that

KANSAS also utilizes this movement in “Miracles Out of Nowhere”, “Dust in the Wind”, and

“What’s on My Mind” to name a few. In addition to creating the chord chart above (Figure 2), I have also transcribed parts of each formal section utilizing the same method of slowing down the track and verifying notes with a keyboard. Below is my transcription of the verses which show this change in harmonic center in detail.

Figure 4: musical transcription of the verses of “Carry on Wayward Son” (1976)

9 When written out, the repetition of musical material between both phrases of the verse becomes more apparent. Because this shift occurs twice, I would formally organize the verse as AA’6 on a large scale. On a more micro-scale, I would categorize each A section as being made up of an ab pair. The change in tonality is occurring during this b section. Each of these smaller ab sections are made up of another aa’ and ab pair respectively. See the below figure for a graphic representation of the verses’ form.

Figure 5: formal breakdown of the verses from “Carry on Wayward Son” (1976)

In Figure 5 I have color-coded each section and shown where the modulations occur to give a better representation of what has occurred formally.

6 If looking at only the verses as a whole, I would categorize them as being Strophic in nature.

Figure 6: Introduction melody and lyrics

As mentioned above, the initial time this melody appears in the introduction and there are no chords harmonizing the vocal line. There are harmonies present in the backup vocals; they are simply moving in rhythmic unison below the Lead Vocals and filling out the harmonies that will appear in the chorus. (shown below). 7

Figure 7: Chorus melody, lyrics, and chords

7 I am unsure why there is a double flat cautionary accidental in measure 8. I attempted to create the example several times in Finale v25, and it appeared every time. Please disregard it

11 It can be seen that, using Classical music terms, the chorus is comprised of 2 phrases that form a parallel period. The cadence of the first phrase is a half cadence (I-V; measure 4) and the final cadence is a perfect authentic cadence (V-I; measure 8)

As mentioned above, following each iteration of the chorus text and melody is an instrumental feature. Over the course of the song, there are four in total, three of which feature a distinguishable solo. Because these instrumental features are always paired with the chorus, there is a strong argument for grouping together into one large chorus unit, and on a distant, macro- level analysis, I would agree with that conclusion. However, when looking at the material more closely we see some characteristics that lead me to categorize them as separate entities.

The first characteristic that fights pairing these two sections together is the duration. Each iteration of the chorus (and intro) is approximately 15 seconds. Referring back to my chord chart,

{give figure numbers} Instrumental 1 has a duration of approximately 50 seconds. Instrumental

2 is more in line with the chorus with a duration of only 15 seconds. Instrumental 3 and

Instrumental 4 are both longer, lasting approximately 55 and 60 seconds respectively. While also instrumental, the Outro of the song only serves as the final cadence and has the shortest duration of all the formal structures at approximately 10 seconds.

The second characteristic that separates the chorus from the instrumental sections is the key area.

All of the choruses have a tonal center of C. Specifically, they all are focused around the major mode of C. Each of the four instrumental sections focus on different tonal areas compared to the surrounding material: E minor, A Minor, E and A minor, and E major respectively. It is also

12 during these sections that KANSAS begins to move into slightly more complex musical material, compared to the verse and chorus. During the third instrumental feature, the opening of which is shown below, notice the lack of Bs and Fs in any form in the instrumental part. The remaining collection of notes outlines the A minor pentatonic scale8. The second section of this example shows the guitar part that backs the organ solo during this feature and leads into the guitar solo.

It is this section that shows what I believe to be the clearest example of syncopation in “Carry on

Wayward Son” along with the beginning of each vocal phrase. This section, centered around E, but is a little tonally ambigious at first because the sparse texture can make it difficult to hear nonharmonic tones.. Collectively, this syncopated riff is made up of an E scale conatining both the major and minor third as well as the major and minor 6th. However, notice in measure 8 that the C natural is serving as a transition to the next section (not pictured), and that the G natural is acting as a chromatic passing tone from the F# to the G#. Factoring out these notes we are left with all of the pitches that make up the E Mixolydian scale.

Figure 10: sections of Instrumental 3 showing A minor pentatonic and syncopation

8 This scale is built on the natural minor scale, but lacking scale degrees ii and vi.

This section is not the only section of “Carry on Wayward Son” to utilize pentatonic melodies; they occur as early as the opening guitar feature. Looking at the figure below, we see the opening of the instrumental section following the material in Figure 6. The D and F# in measure 3 work to imply a v/V chord that helps the guitar modulate into E minor for the following 8 bars. During those 8 bars we can see the use of an E minor pentatonic melody.

Figure 11: Guitar feature in Instrumental 1 showing use of triplets and focus on E minor pentatonic

These instrumental features, which as shown in Figure 3, make up approximately 60-65% of the material of “Carry on Wayward Son”, and allow for the performers to show off their virtuosic skills on their various instruments in a contrasting way from the verse and chorus of the song.

Notice that throughout all of the figures featuring vocals that the vocal line always starts on a weak beat of the measure. However, in each of the figures showing instrumental parts, the music always starts on a downbeat, even if the material is heavily syncopated after it starts. The vocal lines also have an almost exclusively duple subdivision to their beats9, wheress each instrumental section contains a strong mix of duple and triple subdivisions. See Figure 11 for an example.

9 Some of the inflections on long, held notes in the vocal line, such as in the final iteration of the chorus, imply a triplet division. However, this is of a more ornamental nature, so I did not include it in any figures.

Figure 12: Part of guitar solo in the 4th instrumental feature showing a change to E major, and a strong use of triplets

This section also stands out because it is the only section that modulated to the major dominant key area. Content-wise, it contains chromatic passing tones (measures 2 and 4) as well as borrowing notes from the parallel minor key (measure 6). These are all characteristics that have been used previously in the song. (see figure 10)

Unlike the examples mentioned above, there is one section of the song that is mostly unique in its material: the bridge. While its’ vocal material does begin on weak beats like the rest of the song, it is unique in the quality of its chords. This section of the song is the only one to contain power chords10, and the bridge is exclusively comprised of them. This makes is slightly more

10 Chords containing only the tonic and dominant.

15 difficult to analyze the key area and function of the chords as the lack of a third makes the chord quality ambiguous. However, the chord-root progression and the pitches of the vocal line contain enough information for me to say that this section is focused around C like the chorus.

Figure 13: Melody, harmony, and lyrics of the bridge section of “Carry on Wayward Son” (1976)

I find the cadences of “Carry on Wayward Son” to be worth mentioning as well. In Rock music there is a large number of plagal cadences and chord motion. In the ’12-bar blues’, which is a standard rock progression, we see a I-IV-I-V-IV-I progression. While this style is not exclusive, we can see variances of it in “Carry on Way Ward Son”, specifically in the chorus and the bridge. But the more interesting cadential aspect of the track, in my opinion, is the use of traditional authentic (V-I) and deceptive (V-vi) cadences that lead into every iteration of the chorus material. The verse always ends on a G chord that leads into an A minor when starting the chorus, and the bridge moves from a G5 chord into the same motion. Whether or not one includes the A minor chord as its own entity, or as a passing chord to the tonic C major of the chorus is a matter of interpretation and how the analysist hears the music. Personally, I hear the

16 A chord as having enough presence to be counted because of the chordal 7th in the vocal line11, and its placement on the downbeat of the chorus phrase.

One small aspect of “Carry on Wayward Son” that still deserves mentioning is the outro. It is comprised of a slower level set of triplets and a fade out that is only heard one other time during the song: leading into the first verse from the first instrumental section. Because of that, this small gesture serves to encapsulate the majority of the song into one large scale unit; acting like aural/metaphorical bookends for the main content of the song. The use of the larger triplet units also help create a feeling of slowing down from the song’s relatively consistent tempo

(approximately 126 beats per minute) to help prepare the listener for new material (the first verse and the second track of the album, respectively) The placement of the first set of quarter note triplets (approx. 1:05 into the song) helps to identify the first chorus without any instrumental backing and the first instrumental feature as an extended introduction to the track.

In this track, there are both lead and backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, bass, drums/percussion, piano, electric organ and synthesizers. The instrument list as well as the following chat were created from information on the album liner for Leftoverture, listening to the track, as well as viewing the music video online (see “Works Cited”) The following figure is an approximate representation of when each of the instruments and vocals are present as time progresses through the track.

11 See Figure 7

Figure 14: presence of various instruments at any time during “Carry on Wayward Son” (1976)

For this graph, I represented each instrument as a different color, and worked to condense the graph as much as possible, creating bars that indicate approximately how long an instrument is heard for. The more blocks present, the denser the sounds are. Notice that there in general, the song is densely packed with different sounds, but there are slight variances as the song progresses. The densest sections line up with the instrumental sections (See figure 3), which is to be expected based on the characteristics and material discussed thus far. There is a general build up from the opening that repeats more slowly as the first verse progresses. The second verse (just after the 2-minute mark) has all of the same timbres as the first, but they are present for the entirety of the section. Generally, the bass and percussion occur uninterrupted until the end of the track. We can see some general thinning of the texture in order to allow the soloists in the last 90

18 seconds of the song more audible. There is also a general fade out ending in the organ/synthesizer sounds.

In addition to the musical and formal aspects discussed so far, there are several production elements12 present in the final album version of “Carry on Wayward Son” that understanding can help the listener understand what is happening. The first effect that is presented happens right at the onset. During the intro/chorus, there is a slight distortion and chorus effect applied to the voices. The chorus effect creates copies of the original recording and slightly detunes them in order to create the sound of a larger ensemble. The distortion of this section is minimal and could almost be overlooked as a timbral choice on the part of the singer. However when listening closely, you can hear the slight digital transformation, especially on a remastered version. In this context the distortion helps give the ‘voices’ their own character that is differentiated from the main character’s part being sung by the solo vocalist. In addition to the chorus, these effects also occur during the refraining “Carry on…” lyrics of the bridge.

Over the entirety of the track, there is a moderate reverb effect added. This helps simulate a larger performance space by increasing the amount of time it takes the recorded signal to fade away. This effect is most clearly heard when the texture is at its thinnest: the introduction vocals and percussion, the first A section of the first verse, and the outro.

12 The majority of my knowledge on production and recording effects comes from the experience of creation and composition of computer music. However, for an overview of the most common effects, see http://blog.dubspot.com/understanding-audio-effects-an-overview/ or https://www.mediacollege.com/audio/effects/

19 Similar to reverb is the echo effect. An echo takes the signal and repeats it while fading out the repeated signal until it completely dies away. Both of these effects increase the decay time of recorded signal. Echo effects can be heard applied the voice at the end of the track (the held out high notes at approximately 4:23)

Panning is intentionally arranging sound to come out of the left or right speaker in a stereo set up. This can create a better sense of space when listening to a track, and can result in interesting, binaural effects when listening to tracks with heavy panning through headphones. When listening to “Carry on Wayward Son” through headphones, the most noticeable use of panning is at: 1:07 (the piano is panned left throughout the entire track), 2:30 (the chorus is more spread out in the stereo field than the solo vocals), 3:05 (probably the clearest example of panning. As the organ solo moves rapidly across the keyboard the sound pans completely left to right and back again in approximately 2 seconds), and the following section of guitar interludes. (each guitar is located on one side of the stereo field)

There are other effects used in the recording process, but their possible use becomes hard to determine in “Carry on Wayward Son” due to the high density of content. For example, I feel that the decay of the final note could have three possible ways of creating the sound:

1. a high-pass filter13 could be gradually applied to create the fading out of lower frequencies. 2. the gradual changing of notes on the electric organ/synthesizer knobs. 3. one of the guitar’s playing a high note could have had their volume increased at the very end of the track to bring back their pitch.

13 A filter that blocks all frequencies below a certain threshold.

20 Without speaking with the producer or audio engineer who mixed the recording session, it is extremely difficult to say, but based on my hearing, I am inclined to believe that options one and three are more likely.

In this paper it has been to goal to present the above characteristics and figures with enough of a musical analysis, to develop a condensed generalized description of “Carry on Wayward Son”.

Based on the materials presented in this paper, I would describe “Carry on Wayward Son” the following way: A now classic Progressive Rock song, KANSAS’ “Carry on Wayward Son” is a coming of age story presented through syncopated, harmonically shifting vocal passages and virtuosic instrumental features and solos.

21 Works Cited:

Admin, Dubspot. “Understanding Audio Effects: An Overview of Types and Uses”. Blog post, published 07 July 2016. Accessed 07 Aug 2018. http://blog.dubspot.com/understanding-audio- effects-an-overview/

Ehart, Phil, Steve Walsh, Rich Williams, Robby Steinhardt, and Dave Hope, performers. "Carry on Wayward Son." By Kerry Livgren. Recorded August 1976. In Leftoverture. KANSAS. Sony Music Entertainment, 1976, Vinyl recording.

¾"Carry on Wayward Son." Recorded August 1976. In Leftoverture. KANSAS. Sony Music Entertainment Japan, 1976, Remastered 2001. Compact disc.

KANSAS website. https://kansasband.com. Accessed 05 Aug 2018.

KANSAS. “Carry on Wayward Son”, music video. 1976. YouTube video, 5:50. Published 15 Feb 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5ZJui3aPoQ

Media College. “Audio Effects”. Accessed 07 Aug 2018. https://www.mediacollege.com/audio/effects/

Neister, Alan. “Leftoverture”. Rolling Stone Magazine. online album review. Originally published 27 Jan 1977. Accessed 06 Aug 2018. https://www.superseventies.com/kansas.html