Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas: how to bring a song to a new generation

“Carry On Wayward Son” is a song by the American rock band Kansas. It was written by band member Kerry Livgren, sn released in October 1976, with a Single version released in November 1976.

The song was popular from the beginning, entering the top 100 in the first month after release, the top 40 seven weeks later, and reaching no. 11 on the Hot 100 in 1997. Also, it was certified gold in 1990 and certified platinum 4 times.

It was also popular outside of America, reaching no. 6 in Canada, no. 51 in the UK, and no.58 in Australia (Wikipedia).

So what makes this song popular?

In the following pages, I will detail which criteria (in my opinion) this song meets.

Afterward, I will discuss how its inclusion in the CW show supernatural (2005-2020) revived its popularity and introduced it to a new, younger audience.

Story:

The song is about searching for truth and meaning, according to Livgren, and about self-encouragement. I think that listeners connect to the story because that we all experience (or at least understand), what it is like. Also, the promise of a happy ending (“there will be peace when you are done”) gives hope to the listener, who may be struggling with this same search.

The lyrics also reference the widely known story of Icarus (“I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high”), further helping the audience connect with its meaning, because it is familiar.

There is also a story behind the song – it was the last song to be written for the album, on the last day of rehearsals, so the first time the band played it was in the recording studio.

The story is also biographical (see link above), helping the song sound more authentic, therfore creating empathy in the listener.

Intro and Hook:

The song has no instrumental intro, starting immediately with acapella, harmonized singing – hooking the listeners to the story.

Another hook of the song, in my opinion, is the first guitar riff. I think so because it is the most memorable of the riffs used in the song, and also the riff that was kept in the trimmed-down single version of the song.

Speechiness:

The song, and especially the verses and the bridge, are fairly speechy – making it easier for the audience to sing along.

Similar but different:

While being a fairly regular rock song, it is set apart by its instrumentation – with the music and instrumentation changing a lot between each part of the song.

Broad agreement:
As said at the beginning of this book, the song was very well received by the public and was also played on mainstream radio (“became an FM radio favorite” – according to Wikipedia).

A broad agreement can also be seen in the fact that both older generations, and younger generations, who often differ in musical taste – are both fans of this song.

Interactiveness/ moveability:

If you watch videos of people listening to this song, you will often see them “air guitar” to the riffs, and sometimes even “sing” the guitar parts, as well as the lyrics.

Here, for example, is a video of a Youtube reactor listening to the song as it played in a movie (08:37-09:12).

Melody, harmony, instruments, effects, orchestration:

I do not know a lot about this topic, but I found this cool video explaining how the song is built, and how it helps the story and emotional connotation of the song.

Covers that revive it (more on that later):

The song was covered both by popular bands and by independent artists. In the next few pages I will share some of my favorite covers.

A cover by Panic! at the disco:

A cover by First to Eleven:

A cover by acapella group Voiceplay:

Use in different media (full lists here, and here):

When a song is used in movies, shows, and games, it is a testament to its popularity – from all the songs the creator could choose, they decided to pick this one.

here are a few examples in video games:

– Guitar hero (2006; 2009)

– GTA 5 (2014)

and from TV and movies:

– Fear Street 1978 (2021)

– South Park (2007)

– The Office (2007)

– supernatural (2005-2020)

Makes you feel like part of a group – The supernatural (SPN) fandom:

This song played in every season finale recap except the first (where it played in the recap for the penultimate episode), and quickly became the show’s unofficial theme, and the theme of its fans’ community (fandom).

If you scroll to the comment section of any of the videos (of the song and its covers) – chances are you’ll find many comments about the show. Fans of the show search this song and listen to every version of it they can find.

Both the show’s cast and crew, and the band, commented on this in various interviews.

The show’s creator, Erik Kripke, said:

“At the end of season 1, we were cutting the first of the ‘Road So Far’ trailers. We wanted to do a recap to remind everyone what happened all season but we really wanted to do it in a way that wasn’t the same old avalanche of exposition. [Producer] Phil [Sgriccia] and I looked at ‘Carry on Wayward Son’ and set it to this long recap and it just came to life because the lyrics seemed to fit what the brothers were going through…And then we tried to do another ‘road so far’ for the finale set to Triumph’s ‘Fight the Good Fight’ and it was just obvious it just didn’t take the way that ‘Carry on Wayward Son’ took. You could just tell from fan response that people were not digging it.”

Billy Greer, Kansas’ bass guitarist, commented on how the show introduced the song (and the band) to a new young audience:

“It was really strange, a few years ago all these young girls started showing up at Kansas shows, and we didn’t know what was going on. I said, ‘How are you a fan of this band? You’re too young to really, you know ‘ … They said, ‘No, We know about you from Supernatural… they play your song on there”

Finally, I want to return to the topic of covers, as there are some that were specifically created for (or inspired) by the show:

The first was sung by actors in the show’s 200th episode, titled “Fanfiction”, acknowledging its importance to the fandom

The second is a fan-made cover, inspired by the show, that ended up being featured in the finale episode of the series

I must admit, I am not a big fan of this cover – mostly because I first heard it in the finale episode, where it played immediately after the original, and just couldn’t compare to it.

To conclude, in this book I briefly reviewed the history of the song, what (in my opinion) makes it good and popular.

I also discussed the song’s appearance on the Tv show “Supernatural” and how it introduced the song to a new, young audience.

On a personal note – I am a big fan of this song, and of the rock genre in general – all thanks to this show. Had it not introduced me to the genre, I would probably never have heard of it.

Thank you for reading 😊