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.