Lyrical Comparison: Prog Rock & Modern Radio Rock
Dream Theater
‘A NIGHTMARE TO REMEMBER’
Movement 1:
A nightmare to remember
I'd never be the same
What began as laughter
So soon would turn to pain
The sky was clear and frigid
The air was thick and still
Now I'm not one to soon forget
And I bet I never will
Picture for a moment
The perfect irony
A flawless new begining
Eclipsed by tragedy
The uninvited stranger
Started dancing on his own
So we said goodbye
To the glowing bride
And we made our way back home
Life was so simple then
We were so innocent
Father and mother
Holding each other
Without warning
Out of nowhere
Like a bullet
From the night
Crushing glass
Rubber and steel
Scorching fire
Glowing lights
Screams of terror
Pain and fear
Sounds of sirens
Smoke in my eyes
Sudden stillness
Blackened silence
No more screaming
No more cries
Stunned and bewildered
Cold and afraid
Torn up and broken
Frightened and dazed
Stunned and bewildered
Cold and afraid
Torn up and broken
Frightened and dazed
Quick Note:
‘A Nightmare to Remember’ is a song
about a car crash that the songwriter was
involved in when he was a child,
‘Pumped up Kicks’ is a fictional story of
a boy who finds his fathers gun and goes
on a school shooting spree.
‘Pumped up kicks’ length = 4:16
‘Nightmare to Remember’ length = 16:11
 The song structure of Nightmare
to Remember is pretty standard
when it comes to prog rock,
there are no significantly
repeated sections, however due
to it’s length it is split up into 3
separate movements, similar to
classical music.
 The song structure of Pumped up
Kicks follows that of a regular
modern rock song eg. Verse,
Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge
and then finally a chorus
reapeated multiple times for an
outro.
 The story told by Pumped up
Kicks is pretty obvious once the
lyrics have been read, this is due
to the fact that singer uses a Kurt
Cobain stlye grunge voice for the
Verses, making most of what he
says incomprehensible.
 The above is completely
opposite for Nightmare to
Remember, the whole song is
sung in a clean voice except for
movement 3, where the drummer
does growl vocals. The lyrics
themselves are very well written,
with the main message being
hidden behind metaphors and
oxymorons. Eg. The last stanza
of movement 2 contains the
lyrics:
Hopelessly drifting
Bathing in beautiful agony
i am endlessly falling
Lost in this wonderful misery
In peaceful sedation
I lay half awake
And all of the panic inside starts to
fade
Hopelessly drifting
Bathing in beautiful agony
Lyrically, this is my favourite
part of the song, as it describes
the peacefulness of being on a
sedative such as morphine
Foster The People
‘Pumped up Kicks’
Verse 1:
Robert's got a quick hand.
He'll look around the room, he won't tell
you his plan.
He's got a rolled cigarette, hanging out
his mouth he's a cowboy kid.
Yeah he found a six shooter gun.
In his dads closet hidden in a box of fun
things, and I don't even know what.
But he's coming for you, yeah he's
coming for you.
[Chorus x2:]
All the other kids with the pumped up
kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun
my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up
kicks you'd better run, better run, faster
than my bullet.
Verse 2:
Daddy works a long day.
He be coming home late, yeah he's
coming home late.
And he's bringing me a surprise.
'Cause dinner's in the kitchen and it's
packed in ice.
I've waited for a long time.
Yeah the slight of my hand is now a
quick pull trigger,
I reason with my cigarette,
And say your hair's on fire, you must
have lost your wits, yeah.
[Chorus x2:]
All the other kids with the pumped up
kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun
my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up
kicks you'd better run, better run, faster
than my bullet.
[Whistling]
[Chorus x3:]
All the other kids with the pumped up
kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun
my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up
kicks you'd better run, better run, faster
than my bullet.
Movement 2:
but at the same time being in
agony trying to remember what
has happened, it does this
through a clever use of
oxymorons, such as ‘beautiful
agony’ and ‘wonderful
misery’.
Lying on the table
In this unfamiliar place
I'm greeted by a stranger
A man without a face
Hopelessly drifting
Bathing in beautiful agony
i am endlessly falling
Lost in this wonderful misery
In peaceful sedation
I lay half awake
And all of the panic inside starts to fade
Hopelessly drifting
Bathing in beautiful agony
"Tell me does this hurt you?"
Said the faceless man
"Can you move all of your fingers?"
Can you try your best to stand?"
I asked about the others
Is everyone ok?
He told me not to worry
As he turned and looked away
Hopelessly drifting
Bathing in beautiful agony
i am endlessly falling
Lost in this wonderful misery
In peaceful sedation
I lay half awake
And all of the panic inside starts to fade
Hopelessly drifting
Bathing in beautiful agony
Movement 3:
Day after day
And night after night
We burden the oppressed
Did they ever see the red light?
Over and over
Scene by scene
Like a recurring nightmare
Haunting my dreams
How can you prepare
For what would happen next?
No son should ever
have to see his father such a mess
It's a miricle he lived
It's a blessing no one died
By the grace of god above
Everyone survived
Life was so simple then
We were so innocent
It will stay with us forever
A nightmare to remember

The instrumentation for
Nightmare to Remember
contains the regular rock band
setup with an added keyboard
that plays all the odd
instruments across the album,
that the song is featured on,
making it very complex. The
oddest instrument used in
Pumped up Kicks is the
whistling, but even though it
has strange instrumentation it
is still a modern radio rock
song.