WCSX Classic Cuts : Dust in the Wind
WCSX Classic Cuts
Kansas: “Dust in the Wind”
The Hook: Thank the wife of its writer, onetime Kansas keyboardist and guitarist Kerry Livgren, for this song being part of the band’s catalog.
Album: Point of Know Return
Year: 1978
Writer: Kerry Livgren
Stats: Kansas’s only Top 10 hit peaked at number-six on the Billboard Hot 100
Background: Kerry Livgren didn’t actually write the music for what would become “Dust in the Wind” with Kansas in mind. According to drummer Phil Ehart, it was originally a finger exercise for Kerry to do on acoustic guitar. Ehart tells how it became a Kansas song.
Kansas drummer Phil Ehart on how “Dust in the Wind” started out as a fingering exercise for keyboardist-guitarist Kerry Livgren. OC:…is history. :22
“He came up with that just to kind of practice his dexterity on the guitar. And his wife heard him practicing and thought it was kind of pretty and said, ‘You know, you ought to put some lyrics to that or something.’ So he did, but he didn’t really think we’d like it. He didn’t think Kansas would have anything to do with an acoustic song. So he came to practice and showed it to us, but with a lot of reservations. I remember Steve Walsh just saying, ‘Man, that’s a great song. Let’s work on it.’ And the rest is history.”
