The song is about taking hold of your dreams or lucid dreaming. "Anybody Listening" is another masterpiece from this album. If you want a taste of Geoff Tate's vocal ability check out "Take Hold of the Flame" live in Tokyo.
I like your perspective on the lyrics. Here's another. A child has a nightmare that a loved one dies. He teaches the child dream control so there are no more nightmares.
It's about lucid dreaming and explaining the concept to a child so he can take control over his dreams, particularly the ones that frighten him, so that he can then begin to enjoy the fascinating dream world once his "soul is set free to fly!" All the while the father is watching over the child through the night as if singing the child a lullaby-- you can hear hints of Braham's Lullaby at the end with the cellos.
At first listen, I wasn't quite sure what to make of the middle interlude. It sounded like a nightmare. But when you understand what the lower register voice is saying, he's just instructing the child how to go about the process of having a lucid dream. No one actually dies, but during a dream it can seem absolutely real and devastating, as most of us know. Beautiful song! And Geoff''s vocals kill as usual! Thank you for a VERY satisfying analysis! I love to hear reactions from musicians, engineers, and vocal coaches because all of you have trained ears that hear and appreciate on such a more technical level! I enjoyed your take quite a lot! This Queensryche song was very much a ballad, but a bit of an outlier in Rycheland. QR has their own special brand of intensity and flavor which is heard in pretty much all their songs. There are so many to recommend, it's hard to pinpoint just a few. But I'll try: 1. All of "Operation Mindcrime" 2. "Take Hold of the Flame" live in Tokyo 1984 3. "Anybody Listening? 4. "One More Time" 5. "Walk in the Shadows" 6. "Roads to Madness" 7. "The Thin Line" 8. "Della Brown" (bluesy) Enjoy the diversity. They're brilliant!
You need to check out 'Walk in the Shadows' on their album "Rage for Order". Queensryche is an insanely good band. Everyone will tell you that "Operation: Mindcrime" is one of the greatest albums ever made. And they aren't wrong. But I think "Rage for Order" is worthy - you will love them both. Geoff Tate is one of the greatest vocalists ever, and Chris DeGarmo's guitar's are gorgeous.
I love the Pink Floyd reference! When 'Silent Lucidity' first hit the radio, people were calling up to request the "new Floyd song" haha. Forget the fact that Queensryche had been around for more than a decade at that point lol
Cool reaction and love how you pick out the production aspects of the track. If know one has told you yet or you haven't discovered on your own, Queensryche worked often with the late Michael Kamen on orchestration, including this track.
Dude...this song just hits all the feels for me...just lost both of my parents in the last 2 years...this review and song just helped me break through those walls...
Holy moly. I love this reaction. I must not know what sibilance means. I thought it meant distortion on consonants, which I don’t hear in this song. But I must be wrong. Can you explain it? Edit: And is sibilance actually in the voice or is it in the recording? At the beginning you make it sound like it’s his voice, but then you said you might hear it in my voice because of this microphone. Genuinely interested. And also are you possibly talking about vocal fry?
Sure thing! Sibilance is just the sort of hissing sound that can come from S's and T's when we speak. Condenser mics (which studio vocals usually use) are very sensitive to this and over exaggerate them most of the times. It can be tricky to take care of while preserving the natural tone but can be very sharp to the ear if it doesn't get fixed 👌🏽 Seems to only be an issue in this song during the verses. Pay attention to some of the exaggerated S's
