The song starts with Jordan Rudess using his Haken Continuum Fingerboard (an addition to the keyboard that allows for smooth sliding between notes) and his lap steel guitar, drawing references from Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", Tangerine Dream, Marty Friedman's Scenes, and Queen's "Bijou". Octavarium also pays homage to progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd by having a runtime of 24 minutes and exploring many complex rhythmic and melodic ideas. Dream Theater also uses a sixteen piece orchestra in this song, and throughout the rest of the album of the same name. This gives the album an orchestral feel that is fairly common within the progressive rock genre.

Octavarium has five parts, and starts out an octave higher than The Root Of All Evil, though in the same key.

Beginning with a lengthy Continuum / lap steel guitar solo by Jordan Rudess, this section is told from a first-person perspective. It portrays the thoughts of a person as he decides on what to do in the course of his lifetime, as well as his wish to never become an ordinary person. This seems to draw from the "Carpe Diem" theme that influences the EP "A Change of Seasons" heavily.

He succeeds in living an extraordinary life, but reflects upon it, and ends up wishing he had become an ordinary person, 'Someone like Him'. This is also in line with the 'Full Circle' theme of Octavarium: "this story ends where it began".

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Wikipedia