Analysis of Kansas´ Carry on Wayward Son

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Recommended: Effect of natural disaster

Some songs are so well known that whoever you meet, they can sing them. “Don’ Stop Believin’”, “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2”, “Tiny Dancer”, “Come Sail Away”; these songs helped define a generation, and another great example of that is Kansas’ “Carry On Wayward Son” (1976). This song is a song that virtually everyone can recognize and even sing along to. Inside the lyrics to this song is a myriad of images that people have been fighting over their overall meaning for a long time. But what many people never notice is the correlation that this song has with the aftermath of natural disasters, and how people deal with the issues that arise from the disaster. The song opens up with the chorus, saying “Carry on my wayward son/ For there’ll be peace when you are done” (Kansas). This line foreshadows some sort of issue that the protagonist is having trouble either getting through or finishing. “Lay your weary head to rest/ Don’t you cry no more” (Kansas) almost seems to foreshadow sleep or even eternal sleep in death. The a capella format of the beginning also adds a haunting element before the song proceeds to present both the main theme from the song and also the triplet ‘breakdown’ for lack of better words. The first verse begins with only a piano accompanying the lyrics. “Once I rose above the noise and confusion/ Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion” (Kansas) implies a veil around the protagonist, preventing him from knowing what is going on, or perhaps he is keeping himself from finding out. “I was soaring ever higher/ But I flew too high” (Kansas) shows that he seems to like what he saw, but san unknown object prevents him from being able to either get or stay there. At this point the guitar, bass, and drums enter, gi... ... middle of paper ... ... Denial turns into anger which can manifest itself as blaming a whole range of people, objects, or deities. From anger, people begin bargaining both with deity to help them if they obey, or even with insurance companies by being willing to take a pay cut to get more assistance. Eventually this can lead into depression and a lack of hope that anything can happen. This can be caused by any sort of situation and seems to take some people a lengthy amount of time to get out of sometimes. Finally, there comes acceptance of the fact that this has happened and it all will work out. With what I have observed with the tornado passing through Washington IL, people go through this cycle on their own terms. While I can never know what they are truly thinking, many people seem to have moved very quickly into the acceptance phase within less than a week of the tornado occurring.

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