Kansas – Carry on Wayward Son
About The Song
“Carry On Wayward Son” was the final song brought into rehearsals at Kansas’ downtown Topeka storage space, as the prog-rock band wrapped late-1975 preparations to record their fourth album.
“We had the album pretty well written,” remembers guitarist Richard Williams. “And it was the last day and we were basically going to pack up. We’d been working for a while, hashing out all the material so when Kerry (Livgren, Kansas’ guitarist/keyboardist) came in and said, ‘Oh, I’ve got one more song’ nobody really wanted to do it. We were just ready to move on and start recording but, ‘Sure, OK let’s hear it’ and so he started laying it out and, ‘Ooh that’s got some potential’ and we learned it a little bit and packed up.”
“Carry on Wayward Son” mixed guitar-hero thrust with an ambitious arrangement and singalong chorus anyone who’s heard it once can recall forever.
After it was recorded and released, the track would change everything for Kansas. The accomplished, 1976 album it opened, “Leftoverture,” would sell more than 6 million albums, giving a band previously yet to find commercial footing a new lease on life, career-wise. And lead to future hits like introspective acoustic cut “Dust in the Wind.”
Four decades later, “Carry On Wayward Son” continues to cause classic-rock radio listeners to crank up their stereos’ volume.
Video
Lyrics
Carry on my wayward son
There’ll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don’t you cry no moreAh
Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion
I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too highThough 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 dreaming
I can hear them sayCarry on my wayward son
There’ll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don’t you cry no moreMasquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man
Well, it surely means that I don’t knowOn 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 sayCarry on my wayward son
There’ll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don’t you cry no more no!Carry on
You will always remember
Carry on
Nothing equals the splendor
Now your life’s no longer empty
Surely heaven waits for youCarry on my wayward son
There’ll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don’t you cry
Don’t you cry no moreNo more!
