Kansas - Carry on Wayward Son

“Hang on, Eddie. Surely you’ve messed this up. This isn’t one of a rotation of power metal, punk or nu-metal like you usually post. You mean you’ve been listening to genres outside of those and holding out on us this whole time?” Yes, believe it or not, I’ve been known to dabble in the classics. And when it comes to Kansas, I mean, how can you not? I mean, literally, you can’t not; it’s on the radio six times a day.

But at least that’s for a good reason! At the peak of their powers in the 70’s and 80’s, Kansas were the gold standard of progressive, album-oriented rock. Born out of - no shock here - Kansas in the good ol’ US of A, the band have had more members and styles than they’ve had period appropriate hair and beard combos but they’ve maintained their easy listening, clean sound whatever they’ve been up to.

My pick for the song of the week is arguably the song that has maintained their presence on the aforementioned AOR playlists for nearly fifty years now, Carry on My Wayward Son, a tune that the word classic can quite happily buddy around with without getting any weird looks. It’s a staple of any classic rock album, has been featured in more media than Eric Roberts and quite frankly still rocks to this day. I defy anyone to hear that opening guitar hook and not be, well, hooked.

So I’ll leave you with this audio gift and implore you to rock out to your hearts content. Also, if you’re going to take anything away from the video for this song, please let it be the absolutely breathtaking combo of lead singer Robby Steinheardt’s period appropriate hair and beard combo. The legend goes that ZZ Top turned him down for making the rest of the band look like they weren’t even trying*.

*this statement not based in fact or reason.