SONGS BY JOHN LUCKEN
  • Home
  • Songs
    • Archive I >
      • There's a place
      • Rejoice in the sun
      • Tomorrow & Yesterday
      • Travelin Man
      • One Step Beyond
      • The Dream
      • Right Then
      • Goodbye
      • Resolutions
      • The Nightmare
      • Solitaire
      • For You
      • The One
    • Archive II >
      • The Ways of Change
      • Lose Your Love or Die
      • Though You're Gone Today
      • Hello There Little One
      • Pacifier/Complicator
      • Love
      • Warning
      • Forever Evergreen
      • Those Times We Had
      • On Our Way
      • Nasty Habits
      • Slow Poke
      • War Child
      • Summer Breeze
      • Anytime Anywhere
      • Time Capsul
    • Archive III >
      • State of Mind
      • Tribute
      • Second Thought
      • Back Alley Blues
      • I Told You So
      • It Just Don't Hurt Anymore
      • Persecution Complex
      • Anxiety
      • Rock-n-Roll Star
      • Interlude in E/Triumph
      • Trouble-Maker
      • We Can Make a Difference
      • On Such A Night As This
      • Beyond Words
      • Voyager
      • The Uncelebrated
      • I'll Be Back For You
    • Archive IV >
      • Early Saturday Morning
      • I'm Leaving You
      • Friends are Friends
      • Renaissance
      • Another Buck
      • Days' Done
      • Haywire
      • Thing's aren't what they Seem
      • One
      • Baqtasia
      • The Seed
      • Loneliness
      • Dreamspun Reality
      • Try one more Time again
      • Tangled Lives
      • Derelict Shuffle
      • Heat Up
      • Our Love
    • Archive V >
      • Never Going Home
      • Come What May
      • Hide Away
      • Way Back When
      • Home
      • Heaven's Gate
      • Atlantis
      • No Matter
      • Another World
      • Say Your Prayers
      • Finding my way Back
      • Boogie Blues
      • Over the Crest of a Wave
      • Reasons People Change
      • Not Far Beyond the Dream
      • How Many Times
    • Archive VI >
      • Someway,Somehow,Somewhere
      • Sunrise
      • Instrumental 1
      • Instrumental 2
      • HalfWay
      • Fade Back-to Reality
      • Confusion
      • Take as you Give
      • Test of Time
      • Nothing can stop you
      • Steamroller
      • Doin' it Right
      • Easy
      • Impact
      • Sooner or Later
      • Melancholy Monday
      • Judgement Call
      • City of Thieves
      • No Rest for the Wicked
    • Archive VII >
      • Prologue
      • The Promise
      • Keyz Teeze
      • By The Way
      • I've seen you out there
      • Headline Story
      • American Dream
      • Say what you Mean
      • Outta sight-Outta mind
      • Roller Coaster
      • Oh well
      • 1976
      • Small Town Boy
      • After the Fall
      • Dolphin Sonata
      • Wake Up-It's Not A Dream (2017-18)
    • Impact-Ground Zero >
      • Steam Roller
      • Nothing Can Stop You
      • Sooner or Later
      • Confusion
      • No Matter
      • City of Thieves
      • Tomorrow & Yesterday
      • Fade Back-To Reality
      • Doin' it Right
      • Second Thought
      • No Rest for the Wicked
      • Try One More Time Again
    • Impact-Critical Mass >
      • Keyz Teeze
      • On Our Way
      • WarChild
      • Tangled Lives
      • Easy
      • Impact
      • The Uncelebrated
      • Though You're Gone Today
      • By The Way
    • The Uncelebrated (single)
  • Featured
    • 10 Year Website Anniversary
    • Halloween
    • Good Trouble >
      • Protests
    • Sheer Luck (Web Edition) >
      • Sheer Luck (CD Edition)
    • I'm Leaving You 2025
    • Featured Songs 2015-2017
    • The Evolution of Confusion
    • In Memoriam
  • What's Next
  • Feedback
  • The Studio
  • What Else?
    • Resist >
      • Election 2024
      • Election Day 2020
      • Election Day 2018
      • Wake Up-It's Not A Dream
      • (non) Partisan Political Message
      • March For Our Lives
      • Democracy Awakening
      • Action Links
    • Earth Day >
      • Earth Day (2016)
      • Earth Day 2017
      • Earth Day 2018
      • Earth Day 2019
      • Earth Day 2020
      • Earth Day 2022

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!



The Nightmare is a song I wrote in 1977 when I was 17 about a mythical horse that would take you on a journey into the netherworld if you dared to fall asleep. Not sure where the word "nightmare" originates, was trying to be clever I guess. This was my 10th song & is featured on Archive I. I still like to play it & may do an updated version sometime. Above, the slideshow
​features my gargoyle collection & a few pictures to get you in the Halloween spirit.

Here's an updated version of my song for 2023.
Special thanks go to Elton John & Engineer David Hentschel 
for the wind & bell tones I used during the intro & outro,
taken from the beginning of Elton's
Funeral for a Friend off the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album.
One of my favorite compositions.


She stands before me
With a fiendish grin
And teeth of fire
Call forth again--packs of wolves
From the Temple of Bones
​The bell toll--calls forth my soul
Beware...
You ride the Nightmare.

You think you're safe
Away from it all--but you can't see
Inside your walls
You may think twice
As you descend the stair
That knock you heard
It was the Nightmare.

The riderless horse
Waits at your door
And patiently seeks--the curtain of sleep
And fight as you may
You won't find the day--are you aware?
​You ride the Nightmare.

​(c) 1977 J.Lucken


Below is the original acoustic guitar & vocal version &
​handwritten lyric.


Picture

Here's a version I just dug up of a early practice session in 1986 of Robert Husk & I at my house on Pershing in San Bernardino.



Here's a classic from the 1970's and one of my all-time favorite instrumentals.
The Edgar Winter Group's
​Frankenstein 
Please click on the links above for his website
& a cool video of the song.


Below is a slideshow of some fun
​Halloween movies.



Finally,
I don't tend to believe in supernatural stuff,
but this was fun growing up.
​How many of you remember the
Ouija Board? 



Proudly powered by Weebly