Pull Me Under

"Pull Me Under" is the first track and first single from Dream Theater's 1992 album Images and Words. It is also featured on the Live at the Marquee CD, Once in a LIVEtime CD, Live at Budokan CD and DVD and the Images and Words: Live in Tokyo VHS and DVD. It was released as the first single from Images and Words, and received positive critical reception and extensive MTV rotation.^[1] It is widely considered to be Dream Theater's signature song.

Overview

During development, the song held the working title "Oliver's Twist". In a radio interview, Mike Portnoy stated that "...it was just an 8 and a half minute song, and it was just a fluke for MTV and radio play to happen."

The song's abrupt ending was modified in their Greatest Hit compilation. When asked about the abrupt ending while at a drum clinic in Atlanta in 1999, Mike Portnoy explained "We had all this tension, and it just kept building and building, and we had no idea where to take it, you know? So we decided to just pull the plug on it, like The Beatles did with She's So Heavy."

The song was released as a promotional single and as a music video. Based on a shortened version of the song at 4:48 in length, the music video alternates between clips of the band performing and an obscure storyline. The band members were reportedly unhappy with the storyline, saying that it doesn't have anything to do with the song's subject matter.

Because it was the only Dream Theater single to achieve such success, "Pull Me Under" is the "hit" referred to in the Dream Theater compilation Dream Theater's Greatest Hit (...and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs).

Lyrics

Lyricist Kevin Moore refers to Shakespeare's Hamlet, as told from Prince Hamlet's point of view.^[2] The lyrics allude heavily to the play, echoing Hamlet's desire to give in to his urge to gain revenge for his father at the cost of his own sanity. Over the final moment of the song, James LaBrie can be heard singing the song's only direct quote from the play: "O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt". Therein, Prince Hamlet is pleading for escape from his mortal trappings.

O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

—Prince Hamlet in Hamlet, Act I Scene II^[3]

Reception

Chart positions

Chart (1992)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks^[4]^[5]	10

Legacy

"Pull Me Under" is a playable master track in Guitar Hero World Tour as the ending credits song for all five careers; this version does not share the ending of the canonical studio album version. The song is featured as a cover in Rock Revolution. It was used as the intro to the The Rick Emerson Show.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Kevin Moore, except where noted; all music composed by Dream Theater.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Pull Me Under"	8:11

UK promo vinyl
No.	Title	Lyrics	Length
2.	"Metropolis Part I - The Miracle and the Sleeper"	John Petrucci	9:30

US promo CD (PRCD 4724-2)
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Pull Me Under" (Edit)	5:54
2.	"Pull Me Under" (LP Version)	8:11

US promo CD (PRCD 4928)
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Pull Me Under" (MTV Version)	4:49
2.	"Pull Me Under" (Edit)	6:01

Personnel

Dream Theater

James LaBrie – background vocals, lead vocals
Kevin Moore – keyboards
John Myung – bass
John Petrucci – guitars
Mike Portnoy – drums, percussion

Credits

David Prater – production

Releases

CD, Single, Promo – Atco Records PRCD 4624-2, US 1992.
Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Single, Promo – Rock Ahead SAM 1030, UK 1992.
CD, Single, Promo – Atco Records PRCD 4724-2, US 1992.
CD, Single, Promo – Atco Records PRCD 4928, US 1992.

References

↑ Richter, Allan (August 22, 2004). "A Long Island Sound by Way of Topographic Oceans". The New York Times. Retrieved September 4, 2009.
↑ Thaler, Englebert (2008). Teaching English Literature. UTB. p. 163. ISBN 978-3-8252-2997-9.
↑ Hamlet: Act I, Scene II.
↑ Pull Me Under at AllMusic. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
↑ "Dream Theater Causing 'Chaos' With New Album". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved September 3, 2009.

External links

Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

Dream Theater

John Petrucci John Myung James LaBrie Jordan Rudess Mike Mangini Mike Portnoy Kevin Moore Chris Collins Charlie Dominici Steve Stone Derek Sherinian

Studio albums	When Dream and Day Unite Images and Words Awake Falling into Infinity Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence Train of Thought Octavarium Systematic Chaos Black Clouds & Silver Linings A Dramatic Turn of Events Dream Theater The Astonishing

Live releases	Live at the Marquee Once in a LIVEtime Live Scenes from New York Live at Budokan Score Chaos in Motion 2007–2008 Live at Luna Park Breaking the Fourth Wall

Compilations	Greatest Hit (...And 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs)

Boxed sets	The Studio Albums 1992–2011

EPs	A Change of Seasons Wither

Videos	Images and Words: Live in Tokyo 5 Years in a Livetime Metropolis 2000: Scenes from New York Live at Budokan Score Chaos in Motion 2007–2008 Live at Luna Park Breaking the Fourth Wall

Singles	"Status Seeker" "Afterlife" "Pull Me Under" "Metropolis—Part I: "The Miracle and the Sleeper"" Take the Time "Another Day" "Lie" "Caught in a Web" "The Silent Man" "Burning My Soul" "Hollow Years" "You Not Me" "Home" "Through Her Eyes" "As I Am" "Constant Motion" "Forsaken" "A Rite of Passage" "Wither" "Raw Dog" "On the Backs of Angels" "Build Me Up, Break Me Down" "The Enemy Inside" "Along for the Ride" "The Looking Glass" "The Gift of Music" "Moment of Betrayal" "Our New World"

Other songs	"Space-Dye Vest" "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" "Twelve-step Suite" "Stream of Consciousness" "Instrumedley" "Octavarium" "Illumination Theory"

Tours	Majesty Shows Early Dream Theater Shows When Dream and Tour Unite Pre-Images and Words Shows Images and Tour Music in Progress Tour Pre-Awake Shows Waking Up the World Tour A Change of Seasons Tour Home for the Holidays The Fix for '96 An Evening of New Music Touring into Infinity Deep Purple/ELP/Dream Theater Tour An Intimate Evening with Dream Theater Pre-Scenes From a Memory Scenes From a Memory Tour Metropolis 2000 World Tourbulence Escape from the Studio Train of Thought Tour Gigantour 2005 Octavarium Tour Chaos in Motion Tour Progressive Nation 2008 Progressive Nation 2009 The Final Frontier World Tour A Dramatic Turn of Events Tour Along for the Ride Tour 30th Anniversary Tour The Astonishing Live

Associated acts	Liquid Tension Experiment Mullmuzzler/James LaBrie Band OSI Platypus The Jelly Jam Explorers Club Transatlantic Neal Morse Adrenaline Mob Flying Colors The Winery Dogs Metal Allegiance Bigelf The Ox & The Loon Bonzo Bash Cygnus and the Sea Monsters Amazing Journey Yellow Matter Custard Portnoy, Sheehan, MacAlpine, Sherinian Nightmare Cinema Avenged Sevenfold

Other	Discography Songs by lyricist Majesty Demos Lifting Shadows G3 Gigantour The Human Equation Roadrunner Records A Sort of Homecoming

Book Category Portal

William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Characters

Soliloquies

Words and phrases

Terminology

Influence

Performances

Moscow Art Theatre (1911–1912)
Richard Burton (1964)

On screen

Adaptations

Films	The Rest Is Silence (1959) The Bad Sleep Well (1960) Ophelia (1963) Johnny Hamlet (1968) One Hamlet Less (1973) The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet (1977) Strange Brew (1983) Hamlet Goes Business (1987) The Lion King (1994) Let the Devil Wear Black (1999) Dating Hamlet (2002) The Banquet (2006) Karmayogi (2012) Haider (2014) Hamlet A.D.D. (2014)

Novels	Gertrude and Claudius (2000) Ophelia's Revenge (2003) The Dead Fathers Club (2006) Something Rotten (2007) Hamlet's Father (2008) The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (2008)

Plays	Hamletmachine (1977) Dogg's Hamlet (1979) Fortinbras (1991) Hamlet (2005)

Musicals	Rockabye Hamlet (1973) The Lion King (1997)

Television	1959 Australian TV Production Hamlet at Elsinore (1964) Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1980) Hamlet (1992) Hamlet (2009)

Parody

Songs

"My Robin is to the Greenwood Gone" (16th century)
"Pull Me Under" (1992)
"Song for Athene" (1997)

Opera/Classical

Hamlet (Thomas)
Amleto (Faccio)
Hamlet (Tchaikovsky)
Tristia (Berlioz)
Die Hamletmaschine (Rihm)

Story within a story

Films	To Be or Not to Be (1942) Acting Hamlet in the Village of Mrdusa Donja (1973) To Be or Not to Be (1983) Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) Renaissance Man (1994) In the Bleak Midwinter (1995) Hamlet 2 (2008) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2009) Three Days (2012)

Plays	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) Stage Blood (1974) I Hate Hamlet (1991) To Be or Not to Be (2008)

Novels	Hamlet, Revenge! (1937) Theatre of War (1994) "The Undiscovered" (1997) The Shakespeare Stealer (1998) Interred with Their Bones (2007)

Television	"The Producer" (1966) Slings & Arrows (2003)

Art

Ophelia
Affe mit Schädel

Video game

Last Action Hero (1993)
Hamlet (2010)

Intertextuality

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