This week my buddy Deke and I are on a our 4th show in the series called “In Depth” and each episode we will pick an album and dive a little deeper in to it. We decided we would do a mini-Queensryche series and go from their E.P. up to ‘Promised Land’. We are now up to their 3rd Full Length album and 4th release with 1988’s ‘Operation: Mindcrime’. So, if you like a little Queensryche then come check it out as you get some fun facts and our thoughts on the sound, the songs and the band. How much to we love or hate this album…find out by clicking below…
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“Silent Lucidity” by the progressive metal band Queensrÿche will be the point of discussion today. The song was released on Valentine’s Day in 1991 and was on their triple platinum selling album ‘Empire’. “Silent Lucidity” was the band’s top selling single ever in the U.S. where it reached #1 on the Album Rock Tracks and all the way to #9 on the Billboard Top 100. The song was even nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Song.
The version I have is a 2 CD set out of the UK. It was released individually each a week apart, but the version I have has them both compiled in to one set. In the UK, it doesn’t look like this was released until August 1992. There is supposed to be a Free Fold-Out Banner Poster, however, my version does not have it included…darn it. In the 2 CD set, “Silent Lucidity” kicks off both discs so we will only discuss the song once. The set then has three songs from ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ all performed Live and one bonus track called “Last Time in Paris”.
“Silent Lucidity” was a ballad, which was not something the band was known for doing. The song is absolutely beautiful with the whole lullaby feel, the wonderful orchestration added and lastly, Geoff Tates vocals perfectly fit the mood of the song. It felt like you were in a dream state while listening to the song which was exactly the impact the band was intending.
The song was supposedly inspired by the book ‘Creative Dreaming’ by Patricia Garfield, PhD which explains how to control your dreams…which I don’t think I have ever been able to do that. The song is about lucid dreaming which is the where you are actually aware that you are dreaming and as the book states, you can actually have control over parts of the dream. During the song, there is actually a voice that is explaining how to do just that. They state…”Visualize your dream. Record it in the present tense. Put it into a permanent form. If you persist in your efforts, you can achieve dream control.”
What is one of the greatest concept albums of all time? That is right! It is the Queensryche masterpiece, ‘Operation: Mindcrime’. The band is celebrating this album with a Super Deluxe Edition Box Set and it is full or wonderful things. You get 4 CDs, 1 DVD and a book all included in a wonderful and sturdy box. It look like a lot of time was spent on the packaging. And if you look at the back cover, it tells you everything you are going to get…or does it? More on that later.
Before we get to the meat of the box set, the CDs and DVD are housed in a tri-fold cardboard sleeve that is all black with the exception of the logo on the front. The CDs slide in to slots on each side while the DVD is housed in its own mini-cardboard sleeve which slides in to its slot in the middle fold. It is not my favorite way to house CDs as you have to be careful not to scratch them when you insert or pull it out.
When I hit up Noble Records for the big metal collection he was selling, it wasn’t all Def Leppard Singles I purchased. There was a Queensryche in there as well and it was a single from my favorite album ‘Operation: Mindcrime’. The single was for the song “Eyes of A Stranger” which was only moderately successful as it only reached #35 on the US Mainstream Rock chart. It was played on MTV, but for me it was played constantly as that album was on repeat for most of 1988 and has been played every year (multiple times a year) ever since.
For those that don’t know, ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ was a concept album and this song, “Eyes of a Stranger” was the final track on the album and a culmination of the whole album story. This 12″ Single is a Limited Edition Gatefold that contains a Video Story Board of the video shot for the song. The gatefold has pictures from the video and sums up the story as seen below.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 