hey, welcome to 12tone! in 1976, Kansas was
wrapping up rehearsals for their fourth album, Leftoverture, when on the final day, as they
were packing their gear to relocate to the recording studio, guitarist Kerry Livgren
brought in a new song he'd written the night before. now, Kansas was in a bit of a rough state:
after three albums, they'd toured with many of the biggest bands of the time and seen
a fair amount of play on album-oriented rock stations, but they'd failed to really break
through with a commercial hit. they knew Leftoverture was going to be their
last chance, and while they weren't enthusiastic about learning a new song so late in the process,
they saw potential in Livgren's last-minute addition. they took a risk and included it on the album,
and that one decision changed their entire career. as you might've guessed, the song Livgren
made Kansas learn on that fateful morning in Topeka would go on to become their biggest
hit, Carry On Wayward Son. let's take it apart. (tick, tick, tick, tick, tock) the song starts like this: (bang) so let's
talk about harmonized acapella intros, 'cause they seem to occupy a pretty weird space in
the world of classic rock. like, they don't happen very often, but the
songs that do them tend to be among the most beloved works by their artists. most famously, there's Bohemian Rhapsody,
but you also see it in You Give Love A Bad Name, Nowhere Man, Songs From The Wood, and
I've Seen All Good People. there's something about a harmonized acapella
intro that lets it serve as an effective shorthand for "pay attention, this is gonna be a good
one." so why is that? well, for starters, it's not easy. when you're singing without accompaniment,
you don't have a consistent, external reference pitch, so if you're not careful you tend to
drift out of tune. and when you add harmonies on top of that, those imperfections start
to pile up unless everyone's listening really closely to the people around them. a well-executed harmonized acapella intro
requires significant vocal and musical skill. on the flip side, these intros tend to use
fairly basic harmonization techniques, most often tight harmony, where all the voices
move in the same basic shape. this lays out a clear road map for your listener
to sing along with, so you have something that's both hard to do and easy to follow. that's a perfect storm for audience engagement. but perhaps more importantly, these sorts
of intros are unusual. form in rock music is a really complex topic,
and I don't want to get too deep into it here, but in general, the most common way to start
a rock song, especially one from the 70s, is with an instrumental intro. it gives you time to acclimate to the music
before the story begins. a harmonized acapella intro, on the other
hand, takes you from 0 to 60 right away, and that bold, in-your-face sound grabs your attention
specifically because it's not conventional. it's a rare spice: you tend to see it maybe
once per album, usually on a song that's also experimenting in other ways. it's a quick marker that this one's gonna
be different, and in music, different tends to be memorable. we'll talk more about what exactly these vocals
are doing when we get to the chorus, but first we need to talk about guitar riffs, because
honestly, Carry On Wayward Son is just 6 guitar riffs in a trenchcoat pretending to be a real
song. and I say that with love, because they're very good guitar riffs. like, check this out. (bang) oh boy. lot to talk about here. let's start with metric displacement. the riff starts with this motif: (bang) and
then three beats later, we hear it again. (bang) or, ok, technically the last note is
different, but it's the same rhythm, and the same contour, so it comes across as the same
basic shape. but Phil Ehart's drums make it pretty clear
we're in 4/4, so repeating that shape after only three beats changes its metric position. we've gone from starting on the downbeat to
starting on the backbeat. this shifts the emphasis, so while the first
time we're focused on the beginning, the second time we're listening for the end. by displacing the motif to a different beat,
they've changed the experience of hearing it. but we're not done with the meter just yet. if you've listened to the song, you may have
found yourself feeling a little uncomfortable with this riff, like it's slightly off-balance,
and there's a good reason for that: it's three bars long. in Western music, we mostly divide rhythms
up into multiples of two. that's especially true for higher-level rhythmic
structures like the number of bars in a phrase or the number of phrases in a section. we hear these groups of two so often that
they begin to just feel natural, and when we don't get them, it can be jarring, even
if you can't quite put your finger on why. I think it's particularly interesting here
because they sort of hide that inconsistency with the metric displacement: they're already
playing around the bar line, so it's not as obvious that it's the wrong length. this creates just enough cover for the uneven
meter to feel exciting rather than confusing. it feels like it's moving in slow motion. and finally, let's talk notes. in this first motif, we start by doing a lower
neighboring tone to emphasize the root: (bang) and then we jump up. the second time, we jump a little higher,
to give ourselves this triumphant, rising trajectory, building our way up, but then
it gets impatient and starts walking straight to the top. he makes it almost all the way to the octave,
but at the last second, he suddenly tumbles back down. (bang) this calls to mind one of the song's
most iconic lyrics: "I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high." it's the story of Icarus laid out on guitar. that shape covers the first two bars, while
the third has these big drops. (bang) the first one's a perfect 5th, dropping
just below the root, but the second… is weird. up to now, we've exclusively been playing
notes from the minor pentatonic scale, which isn't surprising. minor pentatonic, and its cousin the blues
scale, are the vocabulary of rock riffs. I mean, not exclusively: plenty of songs use
other notes and scales, but minor pentatonic is the default. and with good reason: it's the minor scale
without the difficult notes, so it kinda just… works. you can play these notes in any order, with
any rhythm, and it'll probably sound pretty good. for most of the riff, that's exactly what
they've been doing, but this F# isn't in A minor pentatonic. heck, it's not even in A minor at all. it's the major 6th. so what gives? well, the thing about minor pentatonic is
that, while it's safe, it's also limited: if you remove all the weird intervals, you're
left with nothing weird to do, and weird stuff is cool. so while minor pentatonic is the default,
it's not uncommon to see a couple extra notes, especially in accented positions. and that may seem counterintuitive: surely
the accented notes are where it's most important to reinforce the tonality, right? well, not quite. again, consider the purpose of these added
notes: they're spice. dropping a sudden major 6th in a minor progression
changes the emotional character, but it only works if you notice it. like, if I take that walkdown and add a #4:
(bang) can you honestly say it made a difference? did that feel more impactful? 'cause to me it barely even registers. but if I replace this F# with a E: (bang)
it's drastic, and for my money, worse. the use of an unexpected major interval at
the end of a descending minor line feels like you've fallen, and then you stand up, dust
yourself off, and, well, carry on. it's a little touch of hope to keep the song
going. it also serves as a useful pivot point to
bring us into the second riff: (bang) where a lot of things change. let's start with the most obvious: we've switched
to a triplet groove. instead of dividing each beat into two 8th
notes, it's split in three. triplet grooves have a more laid-back vibe,
and while I wouldn't call this relaxed, it certainly feels more open than the first riff. there's a lot of space in it that you can
really sink into. it's also only two bars long, releasing the
metric tension from the first riff. but it's not completely different: there's still the
same metric displacement, it's just a little harder to see. on beat 1, we hear a single
note played with a syncopated rhythm: (bang) and they hang on that until beat 4, where
they play a full chord with the exact same pattern. (bang) once again, we have an emphasis on
beats 1 and 4, tying the two riffs together ever so slightly. we've also changed tonal centers. I don't want to say we've changed keys, 'cause
that feels a bit dramatic, but this section is centered pretty heavily around E, the 5th
of our home key of A minor. they even go so far as to play it in E minor
pentatonic: (bang) which you can tell because it includes a B instead of a C. this harmonic
relocation provides some contrast, and because E isn't really a stable point in our home
key, the section doesn't feel stable either. it feels like a rubber band pulled tight,
and it's ready to snap back at any moment. when it finally does, we get a solo over our
first riff in A blues, and then a return to the second riff, but this time he plays a
screeching high E where the chords were: (bang) and these two sections showcase another important
part of building a song out of riffs: you have to evolve them. I mean, this is true for any song, but I think
with riffs it's particularly easy to get stuck playing them the exact same way every time,
and that gets boring. reinterpreting the riff by adding these extra
layers helps keep things fresh and exciting. each return also brings something new. from there we get another… riff? I don't know if it really counts as a riff,
but, like, this thing. (bang) rhythmically it's a play on the triplet
groove, using slower quarter note triplets instead for more drama. notewise, though, it's doing something interesting. the top note is clearly rising, going from
A to B to C, but the chords are moving in the other direction. if we listen to Dave Hope's bass: (bang) the
roots have a clear downward trajectory. these contrary walking lines create a really
satisfying sense of arrival, carrying us from A to G to F, so even though F isn't our root,
we get to settle in for a moment on a nice, comfortable major chord as we transition into
the verse. honestly, these next couple sections feel
like an intermission to me. and I don't mean that in a bad way: the riffs are intense,
and adding some calmer interludes is an effective way to prevent your audience from getting
overwhelmed by them. but I do feel like that's the main purpose
these sections serve, at least for me. it's a break from the action. and we see that in the musical structure. instead of riffs, we get this fairly sedate
chord progression: (bang) where we float from A minor down to F and then back up. it's a calm, smooth sound, with no sudden
leaps or striking chords. all the harmonic motion is nice and even. they do that twice, then bring the whole thing
up a perfect 4th. (bang) this is a pretty common trick in guitar-based music, 'cause
you can just move everything you're playing up a string. it creates a new harmonic location without
changing the underlying structure, so you get motion without disruption. in this case, though, it also creates something
a little weird: we were walking up and down in whole steps, which worked fine when we
were starting on A, but when we move to D, this same walk-down puts us on a Bb chord,
which isn't in the key. this creates a sort of tension that underlines
the lyrics that appear here: in each verse, the third line feels a little bit more desperate
than the rest of them, and that's partly 'cause it's trying to stabilize over this Bb chord.
and they're pretty clearly aware of that, too: for most of the verse, each chord gets
two beats, but here they add this rhythmic figure at the end: (bang) to extend and emphasize
the alien Bb. on the fourth line, though, they get rid of it, replacing it with a G
chord they hold for a full bar to set up a return to A. as for Steve Walsh's melody, the notes are
mostly just walking up and down in chord tones, but I do want to talk about the overall shape,
because it's got this beautiful, long, flowing phrase structure. each of the four phrases is different, and
each one sets up the next to create a single extended melodic journey. in each one, there are three notes that I
want to highlight: the first note, which we hear on beat 2 of the first bar, the central
note, a mid-phrase accent on beat 1 of the second bar, and then the last note, which
moves around a bit but it's the last one, it shouldn't be too hard to identify. in the first phrase: (bang) these notes are
A, A, and B, staying roughly as still as you can over these moving chords in order to establish
the root. in the second phrase: (bang) we've got A, E, and D. the melody's starting to
open up more. these are the three primary notes of the key,
so if the first phrase established the root, the second one reinforces it. we're seeing more motion, but we're sticking
to strong, powerful tones. in the third phrase: (bang) two things happen. first, our target notes are now F, E, and
D. this is a shift up in range, to match the shift in the chords, but it also puts us on
our first real color tone. F is the b6 of the key and the b3 of the underlying
D minor chord. it carries a sense of emotionality to it that
makes this line feel more poignant and sad than the previous ones. notice also the change in direction: the first
line trended slightly up, the second took a big upward leap, but this one's starting
high and walking down. that change points us toward a conclusion,
telling us the phrase structure is going to end soon. before it does, though, the other thing I
want to highlight is that the lines are getting shorter. for the first two, the last note was on beat
4 of the second bar, but here it's been pulled forward to beat 2. this makes room for the
rhythmic figure in the harmony, and putting it right next to that central note also increases
the sense of urgency. time is running out. that gets even more intense in the final phrase:
(bang) where our last note is on beat 1, pushing the central note to beat 4 of the first bar.
or maybe it's beat 3? I dunno, this three-note model kinda falls
apart on this last line 'cause both these notes are accented. we're basically doing an abridged version
of that F-E-D walkdown from the third phrase, then suddenly dropping all the way down to
G to set up a return to the start. looking at all these lines together, though,
I do think it's important to recognize that none of them end on A. it's our root, the
point we want to come back to, but every time we're left hanging, waiting for it to come. it always seems like there's a little bit
further to go. and speaking of urgency, there's one last
thing I want to mention in the verse: in the second half, the band comes in, and the tempo
speeds up significantly. it's easiest to hear in the isolated vocals:
compare this: (bang) to this. (bang) when I was younger, this always felt
awkward and sloppy to me, and honestly it still kinda does, but it also adds this raw,
frenetic energy that I do think serves the song. in a 2017 interview, rhythm guitarist Richard
Williams described the chaotic experience of recording Carry On. Livgren wrote it too late for the band to
rehearse, so they mostly learned to play it in the studio, and they didn't have much time:
in Williams's words, "the version that you hear is probably the first time that we actually
got it right." they were putting it together as they went,
and that frantic productivity comes across in the music. the acceleration may be jarring, but it feels
natural, a little mistake that provides some insight into the very human process of making
an album. anyway, this brings us to the chorus. the chords are reminiscent of the verse: (bang)
but they've added an extra C chord here to create a more dynamic contour with more different
kinds of motion. but I promised I'd talk about the vocals,
so let's do that. because of the tight harmonies between Walsh
and back-up singer Robby Steinhardt, it doesn't really feel like there's a single melody. like, I think Walsh's high part is the easiest
to pick out, but they all blend together, so the overall effect is more like a melodic
contour without a clearly defined range. as such, I'm not gonna be talking about note
choices. it's mostly just chord tones anyway. but I do want to highlight the overall shape. unlike the verse, the chorus phrases are mostly
the same, so let's just look at the first one: (bang) here, we have another interpretation
of that Icarus image. there's a quick rise up, covering over a perfect
fifth in a beat and a half, then the rest of the phrase is a slow, gentle glide back
down to where we started. it's a soothing, encouraging melody, matching
up perfectly with the lyrics: carry on, my wayward son. there'll be peace when you are done. for the final line, they switch it up. the band drops out and we get our acapella
singing again, with a new contour: (bang) while the other three lines were all calm
and comforting, they didn't end on the I chord, so they still had some instability. here, we finally wrap things up with a nice,
solid return to the root, communicating the clear sense of finality we've been waiting
for this entire time. we're finally home. from there we get the first riff again, then
some more vocal sections, and then we're into the bridge with some brand new riffs. first, there's this one: (bang) where we get
blasted by 16th notes. outside the triplet section, the rhythms have
mostly stuck to 8th notes, with just the occasional 16th creeping in for decoration, but here
they've become a central rhythmic feature, with a rapid walk down the entire minor pentatonic
scale. (bang) faster rhythms are obviously more exciting,
so the sudden appearance of a new subdivision says we've just gotten to the fun part. as soon as we get to the bottom, it switches
gears again, slowing down to 8ths as we bounce back up to D, and then it starts syncopating,
hitting every off-beat 8th note. (bang) the notes themselves are, again, minor
pentatonic, but that's fine: good riff writing is all about balance. the rhythm here is demanding so much attention
that adding fancy notes on top of it would wind up being distracting. better to stick to a simple scale like minor
pentatonic, where all the notes just work and the rhythm has the space to shine. the only thing I really need to highlight
in the notes is the ending: half the time, they do the thing I just played, where they
slide from D down to C: (bang) while in the other half they just hang on D for the rest
of the bar. (bang) C is a fairly stable point in the key,
while D isn't, so alternating between the two ending notes gives us this seesaw effect
between closure and momentum. the next riff takes that syncopation idea
and cranks it up to 11: (bang) with almost every attack occurring on an off-beat 8th
note. using the same rhythmic concept ties the two
riffs together so they make sense as a single section, but all the details are different. removing the 16th-note run makes this feel
less frantic, while leaning harder on the syncopation makes it more intense. and to really hammer that point home, they
syncopate the last note even more, playing it a 16th note early. if I push it back to the offbeat 8th: (bang)
I think it's a lot less exciting. before we get to the second half of the riff,
I want to talk about note choices. much like the second riff in the intro, we've
shifted tonal centers, building our walk-down on E, with a similar effect. this time, though, it's not just E minor pentatonic. no, on the third beat, we hear C#, which is
a very unusual note in A minor. in E, though, it's not that hard to explain. remember the F# in the first riff? the major
6th that decorated the minor scale to lift it up a bit? yeah, well, C# is the major 6th in E, so I
read this as a callback to that. we've moved it into a new tonal context, but
it's the same device. that new context puts us on a note that, on
paper, is pretty hard to justify in our home key, but that's the thing about analysis:
it's not about how it looks, it about how it sounds, and because of this underlying
musical vocabulary, it sounds like it fits perfectly. it's interesting, though: the vocal melody
seems perfectly happy to use minor 6ths, but whenever the riffs break from minor pentatonic,
it's with a major 6th. they don't tend to happen near each other, so there's not really
a clash between them, but they give the two parts different emotional characters. anyway, the second time, they play a different
ending: (bang) where they do that D to F# drop from the main riff, then start walking
up in half-steps toward A. this turns the C# into, like, a sort of foreshadowing. it reminded us of the major 6th thing so that
when we suddenly heard an F# we knew it was pulling us back to A. but we don't quite make
it: after the G#, we pop up to C natural, delaying the resolution and contrasting with
the C# from earlier to clearly re-establish us in A minor. so yeah, that C# is doing a lot of work. after a couple solos, we return to the main
riff to reset, and then we hear this: (bang) crashing through with some big, punchy stop-time
chords using that same 1-4 accent pattern. this is basically the verse progression, but
the dramatic delivery makes it feel entirely different. now, instead of a sedate, drifting line, you
feel each new chord hitting you like a truck. the gaps between chords are filled by Walsh
belting out some incredible high notes: (bang) and importantly, he's mostly singing alone. Steinhardt harmonizes the "Carry on", but
the rest is just Walsh, drawing a stark contrast between this and the rich, blended choruses. while the choruses are encouraging you from
the outside, here the defiance feels like it's coming from within. in the second half, they drop the stop time,
switching back to arpeggios like a normal verse, but with Walsh still sitting on those
high notes to keep the energy up. next there's another chorus, then we suddenly
shift to the triplet riff from the intro. it's the first time we've heard this since
the beginning of the song, and it's the first time we've entered it from somewhere other
than the main riff, so even though we've heard it before, the new groove still feels like
it comes out of nowhere, one last twist before the song ends. but… we're not actually done yet. once we settle into that triplet groove again,
they throw another curveball, because it turns out there's another riff they've been saving
until the very end: (bang) here, we continue the triplet groove, but now it's centered
on F#, which… ok, I'm sure some of you rolled your eyes
when I made such a big deal about this note in the main riff, but look at this! at the
end, with the narrative resolved, we get this new riff, with a new center, and that center
just happens to be the note they've been using to break out of minor pentatonic the whole
time? that's awesome. notewise, this is, itself, mostly F# minor
pentatonic. the first bar is on F#, then we do this pentatonic
trill, playing power chords on the notes above and below the root before returning. those two neighboring notes happen to be A
and E, the centers of our previous riffs and the most important notes in our home key,
so recontextualizing them as ornamentations encircling a new root is a really powerful
effect. but more than notes, the exciting thing here
is the rhythm. in a triplet groove, the standard approach
is to accent the first and third notes in each beat. we saw this in our previous triplet riff,
and we get it in the first bar here, but when they hit those other chords, they're on the
second note. (bang) the effect is kinda like 16th-note
syncopation, with the emphasis being pulled in between the expected cracks, but with triplets. it's a really unexpected, exciting pattern,
adding yet another cool rhythmic idea just when you thought the song was over. and that's pretty much it. they go back and forth between those two riffs
for a while, then end with this: (bang) hanging on an F major chord and leaving the door open
for further exploration. this same figure set up the very first verse,
so it's not so much a conclusion as it is an invitation to write your own ending. to keep moving, rise above the noise and confusion,
and above all, to carry on. anyway, thanks for watching. as always, this song was chosen by my patrons
on Patreon: the poll to pick the next one goes up over there next week. oh, and don't forget to to like, share, comment,
subscribe, and above all, keep on rockin'.
