Like A Nightmare [David Jensen Show, October 6, 1981]

Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a picture of intense, almost obsessive desire, tangled with a sense of dread. The narrator desperately wants to be present, to witness the object of their affection, and to feel their gaze. This yearning is immediately met with a paradoxical feeling of liberation: "Oh you know how I feel / When you set me free." This sets up a core tension between wanting closeness and experiencing a kind of freedom that feels unsettling. The dominant emotional landscape is one of a love or obsession that is both intoxicating and terrifying. The repeated phrase "Like a nightmare" is the starkest indicator of this. It’s not just a bad dream; it’s described as "an infection," "a disease," something that will "make your blood freeze." Yet, this terrifying experience is linked back to that same feeling of being "set free," suggesting a destructive allure. What’s particularly striking is the shift in perspective in the third verse. The narrator moves from wanting to be seen to expressing disbelief and betrayal: "I can't believe you / You can't be true." But instead of pulling away, they declare, "I'll bereave you," and then flip the script entirely: "I know how you feel / I'm gonna set you free." This reversal, from victim to potential liberator, while still framed by the "nightmare" motif, creates a dizzying, almost pathological dynamic. The repetition of "nightmare" devolves into a frantic, drawn-out "night night night night night night..." underscoring the inescapable, consuming nature of this feeling. This lyrical construction is effective because it captures the disorienting experience of being caught in a powerful, destructive emotional current. The contrast between the desire for connection and the language of disease and nightmares, coupled with the narrator’s own volatile shifts in agency, creates a raw, unsettling portrait of a love that feels more like a haunting. It’s the feeling of being trapped in something you desperately want, even as it destroys you.