 The track quotes lyrics from the original 's " Paradise by the Dashboard Light " ( " It was long ago and it was far away " ) , as does the next track , " Wasted Youth " , a spoken word fantasy monologue ( a remixed version of " Love and Death and an American Guitar " from Steinman 's Bad for Good album ) . The 1977 song 's opening line " I remember every [ ... ] little thing as if it happened only yesterday . I was barely seventeen " opens this track also , but instead of being " barely dressed " the protagonist " once killed a boy with a Fender guitar . " Influenced by The Doors , Steinman wanted to write a piece where " the rhythm wasn 't coming from the drums so much as the voice — the rhythm of the spoken voice and the heartbeat behind it . " 
