Dream Theater‘s breakthrough single, “Pull Me Under”, was a last-minute addition to their “Images And Words” album thanks to Derek Oliver, a former Kerrang! journalist. Originally titled “Oliver’s Twist” in his honour, the song was created in response to Oliver’s request for one more tune.
This song explores poetry and takes its cues from William Shakespeare’s well-known play, Hamlet. It expertly conveys the inner agony that the Danish prince experiences as he struggles with the strong need to get revenge on his father. Even if it means putting his own sanity at risk. The song effectively uses a straight passage from the play as it approaches its climax: “Oh that this too, too sullied flesh would melt”.
After eight minutes and eleven seconds, the music stops suddenly, mid-note. This surprising conclusion is a tribute to “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” by The Beatles from their legendary Abbey Road album.
During this era, guitarist John Petrucci and drummer Mike Portnoy wrote the majority of Dream Theater’s lyrics. However, “Pull Me Under” distinguishes out because it has lyrics penned by their keyboard player, Kevin Moore. This intriguing music appeared on their second album, Images And Words, which represented a turning point in their career. Unfortunately, their 1989 first album, When Dream and Day Unite, received little notice. Nonetheless, Dream Theater quickly developed a devoted following of progressive metal fans, and their popularity continued with the publication of their 1994 album, Awake. It is worth mentioning that this was Kevin Moore’s final CD before he was replaced by Derek Sherinian.
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Released as a single, “Pull Me Under” peaked at #10 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, cementing its reputation as the band’s most successful song. However, Dream Theater is not a band that only produces singles. This unexpected success presented a difficulty when their record label, Atco, sought additional tracks in the same style.
The band was completely caught off guard by the unexpected success of the song. “It’s over eight minutes long, never meant to be a single,” during an interview with Germany’s Gitarre & Bass, John Petrucci, the guitarist, reminisced about “Again, the songs being played on the radio were nothing like Dream Theater, but, for some reason, it must have stuck out to where people were calling the radio stations: ‘What is that band? Oh my God! I wanna hear that song again.'”
“And that kind of snowballed and grew, and ‘Pull Me Under’ became a rock radio hit,” he continued. “And I remember at the time I was living in New Jersey, on the East Coast of the US, and I’d turn on the radio and I’d hear it all the time. It was a cool feeling.”
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