Dust in the Wind
Dust in the Wind is a song by the American rock band Kansas . It was first released in 1977 on the album Point of Know Return and released as a single in 1978 . The piece reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1978 , making it Kansas' most successful hit. A well-known live version of the piece can be found on the 1978 album Two for the Show .
The piece is a rock ballad that is actually atypical for the band Kansas . The single quickly sold over half a million copies and achieved gold status in the United States.
text
The song was written by Kerry Livgren - the band's guitarist and keyboardist - after reading a book about Native American poetry. He was inspired by the line “For all we are is dust in the wind” (“Because everything we are is dust in the wind”). This line can be found in the chorus of the piece. The theme is varied in many ways in the song, for example in the form of “Just a drop of water in an endless sea” (“Just a drop of water in an endless sea”). The song consists of three stanzas. Another stanza was written but never published.
music
The basic key of the piece is A minor . On the original recording, the vocals are accompanied by two guitars . The playing technique used is called travis picking; this is a fingerpicking with alternating bass.
The refrain follows each of the three stanzas . After the last verse, the refrain is performed twice, the last repetition being slightly varied. The chorus after the second stanza is followed by an instrumental part with a characteristic violin melody . The violin can then also be heard in the following verse and chorus, after the first part of the song is accompanied exclusively by guitar.
Another characteristic of the piece is the intro , which is repeated in the instrumental part and at the end of the piece. The upper part is repeated every three bars, while the chord grid always extends over four bars. This metric shift creates the typical chord progression:
- C - C maj7 - C add9 - C -
- A sus2 - A sus4 - Am - A sus2 -
- C add9 - C - C maj7 - C add9 -
- Am - A sus2 - A sus4 - Am
Cover versions and other uses
Sarah Brightman covered the piece on her 1999 album Eden . Has also been covered Dust In The Wind , among others, the Scorpions , the Eagles , by Melanie , Murray Head , Metalium , Eric Benét , Gabriel & Dresden , Dana Winner , Keren Ann and Paula Fernandes . From the Chilean punk rock band Los Mox! there is a Spanish version called Polvo en el viento , from the Spanish heavy metal band Mägo de Oz one called Pensando en ti . There is also an instrumental version by jazz guitarist Bernie Williams .
Dust in the Wind is sung by Will Ferrell in the film Old School , which was released in 2003, and can also be heard several times on the television series Highlander . The original version of the play is also used in the episode Fat Man and Little Boy from the Simpsons series . In the film Final Destination 5 , the song hints at future accidents. In the 2013 film Sources of Life , a generation story set in post-war Germany, Dust in the Wind is a kind of musical leitmotif.
Individual evidence
- ^ Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA): Dust in the Wind
- ↑ Tim Morse: Classic Rock Stories: The Stories Behind the Greatest Songs of All Time. St. Martin's Press, New York 1998, ISBN 0-312-18067-5 , p. 3 ( Google Books )
- ↑ Kansas website: Band History ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Database search at coverinfo.de
- ↑ simpsonspedia.net: Fat man and little boy
- ↑ Kulturwelle5.de: Film review: Sources of Life ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
