“Silent Lucidity” by Queensryche

Chris DeGarmo wrote "Silent Lucidity" after reading Patricia Garfield's 1974 book Creative Dreaming, a guide to reaching into the subconscious for a lucid dream, and the Queensrÿche guitarist made it the dreamiest thing on Empire, the band's fourth album, from 1990. It went out as a single in 1991: a heavy metal band's power ballad, all 12-string and acoustic guitars from DeGarmo and Michael Wilton, Eddie Jackson on fretless bass, Scott Rockenfield's drums held in check, and Geoff Tate singing, whistling and playing keyboards.

Peter Collins produced, Jimbo Barton recorded and mixed, and DeGarmo has said the aim was a lush, dreamlike landscape, from the vocal to the orchestration. It became the band's biggest hit, number 9 on the Hot 100 and number one on the Album Rock Tracks chart, and picked up two Grammy nominations in 1992.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.