Yesterday’s Tomorrow, Today | Dream Quest | Logical Lyric Analysis

In a video I released I quoted this song and it seemed like no one knew it, this is not surprising but slightly disappointing, but now it gives me an excuse to take a deeper dive into Yesterday’s Tomorrow, Today by Dream Quest. Lyrics from Metal-Archives.

This song starts with a spoken section that is not exactly connected with the song but still worth thinking about. The spoken section seems to try to set the stage by stating that the people need to adjust to the changing world, the changing being that there is nothing left to amuse people, specifically listed are concerts and restaurants. This then starts the debate on if life alone is enough to live for.

From there we jump into the first verse
I built my house
Firm upon a foundation of sand
Piece by piece building a shell of a man
Bottle of wine
Warm my spirit while I have time
Thinking I am wise
Safe in my room with a view

This shows us right away the errors the singer has made, a life built around a bad foundation, living as a puppet and not really living. Form there we see what appears to be carelessly taking care of themselves with the wine. And finally getting to the idea that the singer things they are wise and save in their room, a room, presumably, in the house built on sand.

We then get to the chorus and this really shows us what this is all about
I am the king of
Lies that are loyal unto me
If I stay in my kingdom
I make the rules so
I pick the fools
And I know it won't be me

Let’s try to break this down. You rule over the lies, meaning you get to pick and choose the truth. As long as you pick those things then you know you are right and therefore you can’t look bad. A more complex wording of this idea might that if you fully believe something then it must be true so it doesn’t matter what others believe.

This is clearly a very dangerous way of thinking, and applies surprisingly well today. The more everyone is closed off to opposing ideas the less progress we can make.

Verse two expands on this
Big fish is me
In an ocean the size of a seed
Swimming the shallows of my piety
Sun in my eyes
I avert them to buy me some time
Longing for the deep
Safe in my pool, nothing new

Here we see that it is easy to be the biggest fish in a small pond. One definition for piety, thanks google, is a belief or point of view that is accepted with unthinking conventional reverence. Do with that as you will. We also see this Sun in my eyes line and that I believe is the idea that the singer knows that at some point the kingdom will fall but chooses to ignore it. The problem is that after you have seen a larger world it is harder to be content with your little pool that is always the same.

This song caps out with two more choruses and that’s it. There is a lot in here and it takes a little digging but overall the point is to think and be willing to grow. If you dismiss everything that seems to disagree with something you believe you can’t learn anything. Don’t blindly sing along but don’t dismiss new ideas either. Just Think Before You Sing.

Now that you have the answer you could go comment the name of the song to answer the question in the comments. How will I know if you read this post? If you make the rules then you can pick the fools.