FAQ

In the liner notes of the album, there is a dedication: "This Album is Dedicated to the Loving Memory of ANDREA HELD LEONE and RALPH R. DOMINICI, SR. Who were they?

Andrea Held Leone was Mike Portnoy’s late mother who died in a tragic plane crash - the events of which were later the basis for the song “A Change of Seasons”.

Ralph R. Dominici Sr. was Charlie Dominici’s late father.

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Ytse Jam is an instrumental track on When Dream And Day Unite. It was a live staple for many years. But what does Ytse Jam mean?

Ytse Jam is Majesty written backwards. It doesn’t have any special meaning otherwise. Majesty was the name of the band until 1989, when they were forced to change due to another band having the same name.

“Ytse” is pronounced “yit-say”, and has become a kind of identifier for the fans. Several fan clubs over the time has called themselves something with “ytse”, with the conglomeration of fan clubs in the late ninenties/early 2000s called themselves the “ytseclubs”. The people using the mailing list very actively in the 90s called themselves “Ytsejammers”.

Ytsejam Records was the name of the record company owned by Dream Theater which released (exclusively) Official Bootleg recordings of old Dream Theater live shows, demo recordings and studio outtakes.

Ytsejam Inc. is the company that the members of Dream Theater is “employed” under.

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According to Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci, it was about a friend of theirs who was arrested for stealing and the experience he gained from that. The lyrics are abstract, with no direct references made.

The spoken word at the beginning of the song is taken from a documentary about prison life, which is the only direct reference of the songs lyrical content.

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The record company wanted a song more geared towards radio play, so they specifically asked Dream Theater to write a more accessible song. The music was written in two days, and then John Petrucci and Charlie Dominici went to write lyrics to the song. But instead they hung out over a few beers and started complaining about how everybody they knew used to have an attitude of “get a real job”, and how that changed once they got a record deal. “I always believed in you”. It was everyone, parents, friends, girls, acquaintances, bosses, but as soon as the record deal was in place everyone wanted to “know them”, being a musician was suddenly legitimized by having the record deal.

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The Killing Hand is a sci-fi lyric, inspired by the types of stories commonly seen on the Twilight Zone.

The main character of the story wakes up alone in the middle of a field. Standing up, he is facing a war memorial full of the names of many dead people. Seeing this horror, he finds a way to go back in time (which for some reason unknown to even John Petrucci is done by going to the bottom of the Ocean). Traveling back in time, but unable to interact with the past, he discovers that all the deaths could be traced back to one individual: The Killing Hand – a ruthless dictator ruling over the land with absolute cruelty. The character begs the spirits to give him a body to be materialized in, and with it he manages to somehow stop the Killing Hand by killing him. He travels back into the future. There, on the wall, is a new name – the characters own name. He realizes that he himself is The Killing Hand.

https://youtu.be/kNFUXXeJc-w?t=4m18s

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How long did it take to record ‘When Dream and Day Unite?’

It took the band 10 days to record the basic tracks, but the entire recording process was finished in three weeks.

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John wrote the song about his father’s struggle with cancer. John Sr. passed away in 1996, and “Take Away My Pain” was written about his death.

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JM has only briefly commented about LTL in interviews, but confirmation has been given by MP in other sources that this premise is basically correct.

Learning to Live was inspired by the AIDS epidemic. Particularly, the “from a common fear… reach for life” passage, but the rest fits snugly with the AIDS theme.

Some lyrics seems to have been lifted from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”: He had no time for pain, no energy for anger. Within a few weeks, it was over; the blinding stabs of hatred ceased and did not return. He was back in confident self-control on the evening when he telephoned Eddie Willers.”

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Pull Me Under had lyrics written by Kevin Moore. What were they about?

The common explanation goes that it was inspired the questions raised by Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. Prince Hamlet swore vengeance on King Claudius for murdering his father, the former King, and then marrying his mother, still Queen. Hamlet’s famous Soliloquy was the passage in which the conflict in Hamlet’s mind is detailed, and the second verse of “Pull Me Under” coincides pretty thoroughly with it. Prince Hamlet was feeling conflicted about his revenge and death, and the famous soliloquy “To be or not to be” can be found directly referenced in “Pull Me Under”: “To take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them” and “To suffer the slings and arrows”. This soliloquy outlines Hamet’s contemplation of suicide and his fear of beign sent to hell for it.

Furthermore, the song lyrics state “Watch the sparrow falling gives new meaning to it all” which refers to Hamlet telling Horatio that if it is time to die, then so be it “There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows what is’t to leave betimes, let be.”.

“I’ll take seven lives for one, and then my only father’s son” – this refers to Hamlet taking, either directly or as the cause of events of his own actions, the lives of Polonious, Ophelia, Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes, Rozencrantz, and Guildenstern — and Hamlet himself (his fathers only son).

The very end of the song James can be heard singing this line from Hamlet: Oh that this too, too solid flesh would melt” This line in and of itself has some debate as to whether the word should be “sullied” or “solid” – even Shakesperian scolars disagree. It has been debated whether Shakespeare intended “solid” to be actually “sallied”, a form of the word “sullied.” The second quarto of Hamlet contains “sallied”, but the First Folio prints it as “solid”. Modern editors have been quite divided on the issue. Editors of The Arden Shakespeare have chosen to use “sullied”, while editors of The New Cambridge Shakespeare have decided upon “solid.” The reasoning for the use of “solid” is fairly evident, as it logically corresponds to “would melt”

Lastly, after seeing the video, in an interview, Portnoy said “Who the hell was that wolfman guy in the video anyway? We had written it based on something else entirely”. Portnoy noted that while Moore did not write PMU about Hamlet specifically, he did write PMU about what Hamlet was about. Same themes and ideas and so forth.

Pull Me Under has become the most known song by Dream Theater. It is their only “hit single”, giving name to the “Greatest Hit (… and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs)” compilation. It holds the record as being the most played live song.

The demo version (available on the Ytsejam Records release Images “And Words Demos 1989-1991”) was called Oliver’s Twist, and contained an additional instrumental section which was excised during the recording stages and later became a part of “Erotomania”.

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Exactly what the song is about is not known, but spiritual enlightenment seems to be the major theme. During the Images and Words tour, the band dedicated the song to Arthur Ashe, the pioneering African-American tennis player, who life was tragically cut short by AIDS.

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We decided to write a song about everything we’d been going through for the past three years - looking for a new singer, a new label & new management - just all the changes we made & all the frustrations we went through… but, have it coming from each of our four different perspectives. So, we broke it up, and said ‘Okay, you take the 1st verse, you take the 2nd verse,’ went away, wrote lyrics about our feelings about all the stuff we were going through, and then put it together. Then [we] wrote the chorus together. That was the 1st time we had ever done that, and it’s the only song on the album where the lyrics were actually written by everybody.

• Mike Portnoy

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Kevin Moore has said the girl in WFS was a friend of his who had a spiritual void and a hard time filling it, reaching for something to believe in. It dealt with her fears about belief and her grief over a loved one’s death.

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The intro has the samples "hold it now", "wait a minute" and "come on" in it, where are they taken from? In the song, some italian words (“ora che ho perso la vista ci vedo di piu”) can be heard. What do they mean?

? Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rapping (1979)

“Hold it now”

? Frank Zappa - Dancing Fool (1979)

“Wait A Minute”

? Public Enemy - Power To The People (1990)

“Come On”

The italian towards the end: Translated directly, it means “now that I lost my sight, I see better and more”. It was taken from the film Cinema Paradiso. It is directly connected to the lyric preceding it: “I can see much clearer now I’m blind”.

The video “Take The Time” has the first word as “adesso”, but the meaning is the same.

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In videos, on the “Live at the Marquee” album cover, as well as on the album cover of Images and Words itself, a burning heart is displayed quite prominently. What is this symbol, and what does it signify?

According to Portnoy, it was originally Kevin Moore’s idea and is essentially a copy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The barbed wire represented obstacles and difficulties, the heart endurance and strength, and the fire their energy and passion.

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The owner of BearTracks Studios, where DT recorded Images and Words, was Jay Beckenstein of the band Spyro Gyra. He was asked to do a guest appearance on “Another Day” during the Images and Words recording sessions, as is explained on Live in Tokyo.

He would later return to play a sax solo on “Through Her Eyes” on “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory”, although this version was not used on the album (but can be found on the single). He also performed a live sax solo on “Take Away My Pain” on the live album “Once in a Livetime”, and would perform the “Another Day” sax solo live on the live album “Metropolis 2000: Scenes From New York”.

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The liner notes for Images And Words contain the following Thank You’s. “All of our friends in the following bands: Meanstreak, Fatez Warning (Jus’ Kiddin’!!), Crumbsuckers/Heavy Rain/Pro-pain, Watchtower, Hittman, Mystery Play, Skitzo, Monolith, Enforce, Primo, Bruce Dickinson, Marillion & Crew, Winger & Crew, Zebra & Crew.”

Meanstreak was an all-girl thrash metal band founded in 1985 by guitarists Rena Sands and Marlene Apuzzo. On bass was Lisa Diane Pace, Yael Devan was on drums and Bettina France on vocals. They released an album called Roadkill in 1988, and opened for several famous thrash metal bands like Flotsam and Jetsam, Anthrax and Overkill. Mike Portnoy became good friends with the drummer, and during a trip to LA for the Foundations Forum Music Convention, he and John Petrucci ended up hanging with the drummer and the two guitarists. After a few days, John Petrucci hooked up with Rena Sands, and a short while later Mike Portnoy hooked up with Marlene Apuzzo. These would turn out to be relationships lasting to this day. Some years later, John Myung would also end up getting together up with Lisa Martens Pace. The band didn’t last, and broke up finally in 1994, with Rena and Marlene both becoming more or less full time housewives (although you’ll often find Rena out playing local shows in the New York area).

Fates Warning was a band that early on became friends with Dream Theater, even thanking them on their own album “Parallels”. But the thank you was misspelled as “Dream Theatre”, and thus the on purpose misspelling of “Fates Warning” in the thank you for IAW.

Crumbsuckers was a NY thrash punk/metal band that crossed paths with DT at many concerts in the NY area. They changed vocalist and became Heavy Rain in 1989, but disbanded in 1990. From there, several members started the band Pro-pain. Mike Portnoy stated that the members of Crumbsuckers were responsible for landing DT its first record deal with Mechanic in 1988.

Watchtower is a progressive metal band with Ron Jarzombek as the most well-known member.

Marillion had brought on Dream Theater for their New York Ritz concert in November 1989 as a support act, which incidentally would be Charlie Dominici’s last show with Dream Theater. DT would also open for Marillion at Sundance in Bay Shore, Long Island in june of 1990. This is infamous for having Steve Stone as the vocalist, where he constantly shouted “Scream for me Long Beach”, which would’ve been great had they actually been playing at Long Beach. These were some of the biggest shows for DT at that point in time. The friendship with Marillion continued, with Steve Rothery and Steve Hogarth both appearing at the Dream Theater Uncovered gig at Ronnie Scott’s.

Dream Theater also opened for Winger in february of 1989. Zebra was also a band Dream Theater opened for (and later would feature a cover song of on Black Clouds & Silver Linings bonus disc).

The rest of the bands are various local thrash metal bands that were commonly seen in the same circles as Dream Theater in the early days.

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The song stops so suddenly on my album? Do I have a misprint? Should I ask for a refund?

The song intentionally cuts off like that, because part of the song deals with how sudden death can be. The sudden ending of the song is just like an unexpected death of a person.

Another explanation is that it was inspired by The Beatles’ Abbey Road side A ending, and MP explains that the melodies are building up and it just “pulls the carpet out from under you”. When asked about the abrupt ending while at a drum clinic in Atlanta in 1999, Mike Portnoy explained “We had all this tension, and it just kept building and building, and we had no idea where to take it, you know? So we decided to just pull the plug on it, like The Beatles did with She’s So Heavy.”

The song’s abrupt ending was modified in their Greatest Hit compilation.

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This is a parody entitled “Fly Me To The Glass Moon” which was played as the after-show music to many DT shows. It was performed by Chris Santaniello and Eric Yip and was arranged by Kosaku (last name unknown), who has worked with many DT-related artists including LTE. The following can be found on Kosaku’s website here: Chris Santaniello is the greatest Frank Sinatra impersonator in the world”,this is how I tell people about him. When we (Kosaku and Chris) were in NYU music technology program we had to do several recording projects and since we were big DT fans we wanted to do DT covers, but since our friend Eric Yip knew the entire Images and Words album, and Chris was such a big Sinatra fan as well, he came up with this great idea of “Frank does DT(swinging DT)”. Chris just went home and arraged everything and came up with the now famous FrankSinatra Fly me to the Glass Moon, but since Eric was such a great guitar player and he could play Petrucci licks in his sleep, we put in the whole DT solo section to show off his guitar greatness. Yes Eric played the entire solo, no punch-ins.

We had our laughs but we weren’t going to do anything with it, but after we graduated and I started to work with Jordan Rudess, I got to meet Dream Theater. Then all I could think of was how to let the guys hear this “Frank Glass Moon”. Time had past and I got to know Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci well from Liquid Tension sessions and “Yes!”, I played it for them. Many of you know already that Mike loved it and wanted to take it with him so he can play it after the show. Chris freaked out and I was very excited about this. We also visited DT in NJ and Chris had such a good time, “I finally get to meet the band I’ve admired most over the last few years, and they’re complementing me? This is weird”-Chris. After few weeks of their tour we started to hear about it on the internet, so we decided to come out and let the DT fans know about us, and here it is - the clip of Frank DT, and hey, we kept going and made a new one too. Now that we have our own little studio set up we can work on it anytime we want instead of using the beautiful and “everything is always operational” NYU Studio A. I hope the world will like this one as well, ENJOY! There is also another parody entitled “Strangers in the Sand”, done in the same style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCGE_4Ad4T0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P8b1cDtbRQ

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“A Change of Seasons” was originally planned to be released on “Images and Words”. The track was cut on the strict understanding that the label would allow them to record and release it at a later date. The song was re-worked slightly and was released in 1995 as an EP with several cover songs.

In addition to this, they also cut “To Live Forever” and “Don’t Look Past Me”.

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The popularity of “Pull Me Under” was basically an overnight success and vaulted the band into a very lengthy world tour that was very successful. “Pull Me Under” was very successful on hard rock/metal radio and it’s low-budget music video was played extensively on MTV.

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While the band searched for a vocalist after firing Dominici, the band wrote most of the music that would end up on ‘Images and Words’ instrumentally from 1989 to 1992, when the album was released.

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Being prepared was a key element that contributed to the successful recording of Awake. Unlike our previous studio releases, this one had the benefit of hundreds of live performances shaping sounds and developing new ideas for equipment and instrumentation. This, coupled with a trusting relationship with our producers, resulted in a truer expression of creative vision. We are very pleased with this recording and excited about playing it live.

• John Petrucci

I had a great time recording, and working with John and Duane was a pleasure because not only do they get amazing sounds, but they truly understand the music.

• James LaBrie

With the recording of this album, sonically I think we’ve all made individual improvements. Each of us has a distinct sound, you can hear each instrument by itself and also hear how they all work together.

• John Myung

Upon finishing the never-ending world tour for Images and Words, the five of us found ourselves bursting with creative excitement ready to explode. The shrapnel of these ideas is what you are now listening to. I feel that Awake is our most diverse and complete work to date, and I hope it is as enjoyable for you to listen to as it was for us to create.

• Mike Portnoy

I had fun experimenting with keyboard sounds with John & Duane. I’m very happy with the raw quality we came up with.

• Kevin Moore

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… that actually was inspired by a story that James told me about one of his friends. He told me about one of his friends who he used to work with at a factory… James, I guess he worked with him like years & years ago. Anyway, this guy is still working at that factory & he [James] just met him like, I guess, recently, and he was talking to him about how he’s got all these great benefits now and everything, but… and so that struck me as… that struck him, you know, it’s kind of affected him and I thought about it too, and I was just thinking about how people kind of let life live them instead of living life sometimes, you know. And just get caught up in just being secure and having money, you know, to survive, which is a noble thing for some people. But some people don’t even give themselves a chance, you know, this guy happened to be a musician who still had a dream about becoming a serious musician and making a career out of it, but it was obvious that he was never going to do anything about it. And this is kind of like a ‘do something about it’ song.

• Kevin Moore

With the benefit of hindsight, 6:00 seems to actually be about Kevin’s thoughts about leaving the band and the indecisiveness that preceded it. Lyrically it’s about a guy who finds himself in a situation he doesn’t want to be in. He wants to move on, and if that involves giving everything up, he’s willing to do so…

If you don’t take life by the reins and chase after something you both love and need, then things will pass you by. The opening line is: “6:00 on a Christmas morning”, and it means, are you getting up for the right reasons, is it for Christmas or is it for work?

• James LaBrie Kev was saying there was this conflict within the character, getting up for Christmas and sort of losing the meaning of it.
• Kevin Moore

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“… a person that’s… it’s not male or female, it could be either. And it’s dealing with a person who has suppressed their feelings for so long and has finally had enough of it and feels that the only way that they can really live life to it’s fullest is to live from the inside out. And that’s basically what this person has come to terms with. And they’re sick of society inducements and they feel the only way that they can go on with life is to live it the way they feel is the truth…”

“It was a concept that I came up with, and basically it deals with a rage against conformity.”

• James LaBrie

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According to KM, it’s connected to the theme of “The Mirror” with betrayal and disillusionment being the main theme. There also seems to be religious symbolism in the lyrics.

Lie includes themes of betrayal, with both points of view, about not wanting to give up on somebody who is a lost cause, but then realizing that they’re worthless in the end. A deceitful, hurtful person who is willing to do all that they can to milk another person for personal gain. Portnoy has claimed that Lie, much like all of Moore’s lyrics from Awake, it is really about Moore’s desire to leave the band.

Lie was originally part of “Puppies on Acid” in its demo form. After being split into two songs, this second part took on the name “Kittens on Crack” in it’s demo form.

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… that song is more or less just reflecting the duality that exists between a man and a woman; the spiritual side of the relationship & how they both can compliment one another.

• John Myung

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What is a space-dye vest, and why is it important?

I was looking through a clothing catalog and saw a picture of a girl modeling this piece of clothing called a space-dye vest. And, so, I fell in love with her [laughs] for some strange reason & so the minute I did that, the minute I was just like obsessed with this person, I was like, ‘why am I doing that?’ and I noticed that I was doing it a lot lately. And I think the prime reason that I was doing that, and this is what I figured out at the time, was that I had just come out of a relationship where I’d gotten dumped, basically, and so I think the situation was that I wasn’t finished giving all that I was ready to give, so I was just, like, throwing it around, you know, just aiming it in different directions. It was a total case of projection. And this song is just trying to sort it out and just kind of admitting that I’m just kind of lost. So it’s kind of a dark song. It was very cathartic though.

• Kevin Moore Kevin Moore saw this photograph in a fashion magazine of a beautiful model wearing a space-dye vest and he fell in love with her. He carried that magazine around with him for ages, but he realized that the only way the innocence could be kept, so that he could retain that love for her, was if she stayed on the page. If he’d met her, all that would have been lost.
• James LaBrie

Space dyeing is a technique used to give yarn a unique, multi-colored effect. While a typical skein of yarn is the same color throughout, a skein of space dyed yarn is two or more different colors that typically repeat themselves throughout the length of the yarn. Space dyed yarn is sometimes referred to as dip dyed yarn.

“Space-Dye Vest” was long left out of any live setlist - the first appearance of the song was in 2011. Mike Portnoy stated that had he known Kevin Moore was about to leave the band, the track wouldn’t have been on the album, and for that reason refused to play it live without Moore on stage.

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6 O’ Clock

?The Dead (1987)

“- Six o’clock on Christmas morning! And for what? – Well, isn’t it for the honour of God, Aunt Kate? – I know all about the honour of God, Mary Jane”

They came from John Huston’s movie “The Dead” which is based on James Joyce’s short story “The Dead” which is available separately (from Penguin books in the US) or as part of “Dubliners” (a collection of Joyce’s short stories).

The words are (from the book):

–No, continued Aunt Kate, she wouldn’t be said or led by anyone, slaving there in that choir night and day, night and day. Six o’clock on Christmas morning! And [all] for what?

–Well, isn’t it for the honour of God, Aunt Kate? asked Mary Jane, twisting round on the piano-stool and smiling.

Aunt Kate turned fiercely on her niece and said:

–I know all about the honour of God, Mary Jane, but I think it’s not at all honourable for the pope to turn out the women out of the choirs that have slaved there all their lives and put little whipper-snappers of boys over their heads. I suppose it is for the good of the Church if the pope does it. But it’s not just, Mary Jane, and it’s not right.

The Mirror

?Falling In Love (1984) ?Damage (1992) ?Light Sleeper (1992)

“What am I doing ?”

“What are you doing ?”

“I haven’t behaved as I should”

“Everything you need is around you. The only danger is inside you.”

“I thought you could control life, but it’s not like that. There are things you can’t control.”

The woman’s voice (“Everything you need is around you. The only danger is inside you.”) is Mary Beth Hurt’s, from a movie called “Lightsleeper”, directed by Paul Schrader in 1992. It also starred Willem Dafoe and Susan Sarandon.

The male voice is Jeremy Irons’ from the movie “Damage,” from Louis Malle, also in 1992. (Jeremy Irons in Damage) The feeling that (3:23) I HAVEN’T BEHAVED AS I SHOULD. You know, what you were saying in Hartley about passion… You were right. I was distanted. I know I was. (Mary Beth Hurt in Lightsleeper) (3:26) EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS AROUND YOU, THE ONLY DANGER IS INSIDE YOU

(Jeremy Irons in Damage) (3:34) YOU SEE, I THOUGHT YOU COULD CONTROL LIFE… (3:39) BUT IT’S NOT LIKE THAT… There are things you… (3:42) THERE ARE THINGS YOU CAN’T CONTROL The man and woman saying “What are you doing?” after the first verse are Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep from the movie Falling In Love.

Space Dye Vest

?A Room With A View (1985) ?The Fifth Estate : Trouble With Evan (1994)

“…he’s the sort who can’t know anyone intimately, least of all a woman. He doesn’t know what a woman is. He wants you for a possession, something to look at, like a painting or an ivory box, something to own and to display. He doesn’t want you to be real, or to think, or to live. He doesn’t love you. But I love you. I want you to have your own thoughts and ideas and feelings, even when I hold you in my arms…it’s our last chance.”

The first sample in SDV is from the Merchant/Ivory film “A Room With A View”.

These lines are spoken by actor Julian Sands’ character, George Emerson. In this pivotal scene, he’s trying to convince the woman he loves, Lucy Honeychurch (played by Helena Bonham-Carter), who is engaged to be married to someone else, that she’s making a horrible mistake and that she truly belongs with him instead.

Another interesting connection between SDV and A Room With A View is that Kevin based most of the song around a chord progression that’s actually from the background music in movie! It only appears a couple of times in very short sections, but it’s definitely the same chord progression that Kevin used in SDV.

This sample was taken from TV commentator Jim Hill of KCBS in Los Angeles during the O.J. Simpson police chase:

“Some people gave advice before about facing the facts, about facing reality. And this is, this without a doubt, is his biggest challenge ever. He’s going to have to face it. You’re gonna have to try, he’s gonna have to try and, uh, and, and, and get some help here. I mean, you know, now no one can say they know how he feels…”

The following is from an episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien (unconfirmed):

“That’s what they say that, like that in Houston, or something. They say ‘yeah, it’s 180 degrees, but it’s a dry heat.’

“In Houston they say that?

“Oh, maybe not, I’m all mixed up.”

“Dry until they hit the swimming pool.”

These samples have been identified as being taken from the documentary “The Trouble With Evan,” from a Canadian series called “The Fifth Estate”:

Evan’s stepfather: (unintelligible talking)”…I’ll get up with the sun…she doesn’t, she doesn’t want you to sleep in…I don’t care what you do, I don’t care what you say, you’re grounded… that door gets locked, that door gets locked at night by 9 o’clock. If you’re not in this house by 9 o’clock, then you’d better find someplace to sleep…you think you can go to your mom’s house and sucker her into it?…”(unintelligible talking)

Evan: “I can move out on my own, uhm, get a job, get my own place… I’ll go to the mall whenever I like… they tell me I’m much too young…” Irene Raceu explains that the documentary is about child abuse. As Irene explains, “The show was filmed by some researchers because the parents supposedly complained that Evan was a problem child, had all sorts of behavior problems, etc. So they set up cameras in the house for many months and filmed what went on”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRegdeSiTMY

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Who is the Cassandra mentioned in the song Voices?

The verse goes:

Maybe I’m just Cassandra fleeting Twentieth Century icon bleeding Willing to risk salvation To escape from isolation Cassandra was a figure in Greek mythology who was the object of the god Apollo’s affections. He gave her the power to tell the future, but when she would not return his love, he made it so that no one would ever believe the prophecies she gave, although they were right.

She foretold the downfall of the city of Troy, but no one she told would believe her. So she knew it was going to happen, but couldn’t warn anyone.

Petrucci wrote Voices about mental illnes, particularly schizophrenia, while using religious themes to make the song more metaphorical and vivid. “…There was a guy who felt that his skin was inside out.” Petrucci said. “I read that and was like ’Oh my God! That’s unbelievable; I’ve got to write about that.”

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As noted in the album’s liner notes, John Purdell (Awake’s producer) sang the backup vocals. John Petrucci sings them live.

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The band wrote over two albums worth of material of which a substantial amount didn’t end up being released on the album. The record label, at the time, was going through various changes and wasn’t giving the band the green light to begin the recording process. In the meantime, the band continued to write music.

All of the demos written in these sessions were released on Ytsejam Records on the “Falling Into Infinity Demos”. The tracks were:

Raise The Knife Where Are You Now? Take Away My Pain You Or Me Anna Lee Burning My Soul The Way It Used To Be Lines In The Sand Just Let Me Breathe Peruvian Skies Trial Of Tears Cover My Eyes Hollow Years New Millennium Speak To Me

Notable changes to the released version of songs were “You Or Me” which was rewritten slightly by Desmond Child and called “You Not Me”.

Burning My Soul was split into two songs - the instrumental break section was excised and made into its own piece called “Hell’s Kitchen”.

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“Raise The Knife” was the first song written by the band in the Falling Into Infinity sessions, but the song never made it onto an official release until 2006’s live release “Score”, although it was released on the 1999 fan club cd “Cleaning Out The Closet”.

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Yes, the song was slightly rearranged for the sake of the CD. The original version - played live at some Christmas shows before the recording of the CD - was almost twice as long, thanks to a 4 minute long instrumental section. This instrumental section was lifted from the song and recorded separately as “Hell’s Kitchen”.

During parts of the World Tourbulence 2002 tour, the band resurrected this early version of “Burning My Soul”.

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On all of DT’s previous albums, the recording was done instrument by instrument. Each band member would record all his tracks and then they would all be mixed together at the end.

During the Falling Into Infinity sessions, the songs were recorded one at a time. Each member would lay down the tracks for one song, then that song would be mixed. The end result was that each song had it’s own characteristics and variances that would be missing with the previous method.

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Hell’s Kitchen is the neighborhood in New York City where you can find Avatar Studios, the site of the recording of Falling Into Infinity.

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“Peruvian Skies” is based on an article that Petrucci read about an abused girl in Peru, which is where the title came from.

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It was written by John Petrucci in memory of his late father who died of cancer in 1996.

“Another Day” was written about his struggle with the disease.

Who is Gene Kelly? And what does “Singin in the rain” means in the song?

Gene Kelly is one of the greatest actors of the 50’s-60’s. He starred in the all-time classic musical “Singing in the Rain”. John Petrucci’s father indicates that since Gene Kelly died, he won’t be “singing in the rain” anymore

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She is a fictional character that James invented after being “deeply moved” by some articles he had read about child abuse and incest.

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The story is losely based on the movie “Dead Again” with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, directed by Kenneth Branagh.

This is Mike Portnoys brief summary: MP: It’s a story about a person in the modern day, 1999, who keeps having flashbacks or dreams of this other world, this other life, and he goes to a hypnotherapist and gets regressed. He finds out that he is in fact the reincarnated soul of this girl that lived in the 1920s. And as the album goes on, he investigates this girl’s life and finds out that she was murdered at a young age, and she was caught up in this love triangle with two brothers. And that’s where Metropolis pt.1 gets tied in with The Miracle and The Sleeper. Basically, it’s a kind of murder mystery thing, where he’s investigating the murders, and throughout the entire album, you’re led down one path toward solving the mystery, but at the end it sort of twists into some different places, and you can find some clues at the end of the album that lead you to believe something else. It’s very involved, and it’s constantly shifting back and forth in time. It’s like Pulp Fiction, where you’re jumping back and forth between the past and the present, and it’s totally non-linearly, so you never know exactly where you are. It’s absolutely mandatory that you have the lyric sheet in front of you to understand who is speaking, and what time frame they’re speaking from.

Here’s an old analysis I found in my mailbox from 16th of November, 1999. Sent to me by one Yvette Boertje. Dream Theater- Scenes from a Memory Cast of Characters: Nicholas, Victoria Page, Julian Baynes (the Sleeper), Senator Edward Baynes (the Miracle), The Hypnotherapist

This is a story where past and present come together. And create great confusion.

Nicholas (living in the present: 1999) wants to find out who he was in his previous life and visits a hypnotherapist for regression therapy. Nicholas wants to find some answers to dreams that have been plagueing his mind.

In his previous life he was a woman, a mystery to Nicholas, her name is Victoria Page who died in 1928. In his sessions he sees her as he looks into the mirror. Nicholas realizes that this woman’s life is etched in his minds own memory. But there is something wrong. He needs to uncover it.

He is not quite prepared for the journey that follows. Vague images and voices tell him in bits and pieces what happened to Victoria. She was murdered in a house that Nicholas is strangely drawn to in his dreams. He knows it is his mission to solve the crime once and for all.

In a newspaper article concerning the murder he reads about a witness who saw Victoria and a man. Victoria was already dead when the man shoots himself mumbling something about love. This tragic scene as witnessed by an unnamed source, indicates that this crime was a homicide/suicide of lovers scorned and the case is closed.

However, the witness is Senator Edward Baynes, and the so-called killer is Julian Baynes his brother, his twin brother. The Miracle is a succeful man, Edward is a Senator after all, and Julian a drug addict and a gambler, is the sleeper. What is more, the woman was Edward Baynes lover. Victoria had a a short affair with him after she went crying to him about the relationship she just ended with Julian.

When Edward found out that Victoria was going to be with another, in his eyes ungrateful man, even though he was his brother, he knew he had to do something. Finding the door locked at the house where Victoria and Julian have a secret, he breaks a window to open the door >from the inside. (Edward knows that there is a meeting because of the psychic twin connection). Once inside Edward walks towards Julian and pulls a gun.

Julian screams. Edward fires two gun shots at Julian. Victoria screams in terror. Edward says, “Open your eyes Victoria,” and fires two more shots at Victoria. After he planted a suicide note in Julian’s pocket Edward runs towards the door and lets himself out of the house. He knew for sure that he was in the clear and that this would look like a murder suicide. To make his story even more believable, he becomes the witness to the crime, leaving his statement for the paper to print..

Nicholas, re-living the horrible night as Victoria, goes home after therapy, “Finally Free” blasting out of his car stereo. In Nicholas’ house however we hear the foot steps of Edward Baynes. He turns the tv off, pours himself a drink and turns on an old record player as we hear Nicholas’ car drive up the driveway- the echo of “Finally Free” coming from the car. Edward hides away as Nicholas comes in. Wondering why the record player and the tv is turned on Nicholas shuts off the tv and walks over to the player. Lifting the needle, when Edward, aka The Hypnotherapist walks up to him and speaks to Nicholas an all to familiar line with an all too familiar voice. The needle scratches the record as Nicholas is startled, the record player is stuck on the inner edge of the record…

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It was originally recorded by a Swede named Calle Rydberg and posted to the various DT message boards (to pretty harsh reviews!) in 2004.

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The creator was Dave McKean, a well known artist most known for his work on The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. It was based off of an earlier work he’d made for a collection of Sandman stories called “Brief Lives”.

Here’s what Mike Portnoy said: MP: What happened was, we had another artist do the album cover and I just did not like what was delivered - the guy just did not take any of the ideas or the concepts that we had put forward. After being unhappy with the initial cover, we were given a portfolio of different artists that were available and we came across some of Dave’s stuff in there and there was this one image of this old man’s face made up of a million different old fashioned photos, which I thought was perfect. So I went back to the label and said “let’s see if we can commission this photo” and they went back to Dave, and it turns out that it had already been licensed for the Sandman comic book series, but Dave said he was more than willing to create a new piece of art based around the same idea and that’s what happened. Within a few days, he had come up with the new artwork which became the album cover. The funny thing is, I didn’t even know Dave did the Keep It To Yourself cover until afterwards. In fact, I showed the album cover to James after it was done and he didn’t know that Dave was doing it, and he said “wait a minute! This is the same guy that did the Mullmuzzler cover!” and I was like “you’re kidding me - I had no idea!”

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muBfZoIsQoA

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The children playing are Melody and Max Portnoy, and the goodnight kiss is Marlene and Melody Portnoy!

• Mike Portnoy

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While some of the lyrics do seem to apply to JP himself, he has said that he wrote it about a religious figurehead (possibly Jesus).

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If Six Degrees is one song, why is it split into tracks?

“I was a bit torn over whether or not we should give the song different ID’s on the CD, because I wanted it to be perceived as 1 song. Ultimately I decided to index it because after a few listens, the novelty of seeing the CD timer reach 42:00 would wear off and it would become very annoying to have to scroll through the whole song to find a particular section.”

• Mike Portnoy

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No it isn’t.

Some people argue that disc two qualifies as a concept album, but it’s only one half of the album.

The first five songs (that is, disc one) are not connected in any way to each other or to disc two. The sections of “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence” (the song) do have a connection to the other sections within that song, but it doesn’t qualify it as a concept album.

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It wasn’t written to project a particular point of view, but rather present both sides from which the listener can make their own decision.

One example is this set of lines:

“Ethic inquisitions breed/Antagonistic views/Right wing soundbyte premonitions/In a labyrinth of rules

Are you justified/Are you justified/Are you justified/Justified in taking/Life to save life/Life to save life/Taking life to save life

This embryonic clay/Wrapped in fierce debate/Would be thrown away/Or otherwise discarded/Some of us believe/It may hold the key/To treatment of disease/And secrets highly guarded

Are you justified/Are you justified/Are you justified/Justified in taking/Life to save life/Life to save life/Taking life to save life”

The first, second and fourth stanzas all sound at first listen like they’re taking the Pro Life side of the argument, because the standard Pro Life argument against stem cell research is that it makes use of aborted fetuses, which Pro Lifers consider to be tacitly supporting murder. However, if you put stanza four in the context of stanza three (which is clealy from the point of view of the scientists), it becomes a double entendre - the accusation of inventing justifications is held up against Pro Lifers, who are attempting to trade the death of a sick person who could be saved by stem cell research for the life of the aborted baby.

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The Glass Prison” was written about the first three steps in the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-Step Program, and after Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence came out Mike said he would like to write a song on each album that continued with that theme. “This Dying Soul” is about steps four and five (and “The Root of All Evil” from Octavarium is about steps six and seven, “Repentance” from Systematic Chaos being eight and nine, and “The Shattered Fortress” on Black Clouds & Silver Linings being ten, elevent and twelve.)

The two songs share some lyrics and a riff, and there is also some small references to “The Mirror”, which is written around the same themes.

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The title track from Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is the story of six people who have a mental problem of some kind. JP and MP split up the lyrics and wrote for three people each.

It is not known if any of the characters are based on real people.

From Wikipedia:

I. Overture This serves mainly as an introduction, encompassing the many musical themes which occur throughout the remaining movements. II. About to Crash The lyrics tell of a girl (Degree 1) who has one of the most well known of all mental illnesses: Bipolar disorder. With bipolarity, a patient suffers from manic episodes (e.g. “She can’t stop pacing, she never felt so alive”) alternating with depressive crashes (e.g. “Then one day, she woke up to find, the perfect girl, had lost her mind”). Bipolar mania often involves heightened energy, flight of ideas (“Her thoughts are racing, set on overdrive.”). Manics will often work for hours on end to the point of exhaustion and will often neglect their other duties to attend to whatever goal they have set their minds on at the time. (“They’re expecting her, but she’s got work to do.”)

Bipolar sufferers tend to get worse when the affliction is untreated, and her father/spouse, presumably, has seen this (“I’ve never seen her get this bad”).

The keyboard arrangement in the intro to this song can be related to the intro of the song “Biaxident” from the album Liquid Tension Experiment 2 released in 1999 by Liquid Tension Experiment, a Dream Theater side-project. III. War Inside My Head This movement tells the story of someone (Degree 2) who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, as some soldiers do after war. The lyrics show he served in Vietnam (“napalm showers”). The chorus reveals he has flashbacks (“Hearing voices from miles away… Waging a war inside my head”), experiencing instances where he believes that he is still in Vietnam. The second verse implies that he may believe he will have the condition indefinitely (“Trading innocence for permanent psychotic hell”). During the final chorus, it is revealed that his anxiety has become more pronounced (“Tasting danger with each word I say”). IV. The Test That Stumped Them All This patient (Degree 3) is suffering from schizophrenia (“He lives in a world of fiction”). Schizophrenics suffer from a variety of symptoms that are touched on in the lyrics here. Obvious ones include references to delusions and the fact that he “lives in a world of fiction”. “Intro tape begins to roll…igniting sonic rage” refers to the fact that schizophrenics are prone to auditory hallucinations… especially command hallucinations that tell the person what to do - even to the point of killing someone or themselves (“To save him from himself”). However, there are references to drug abuse in this song (Random urine testing,/counseling and therapy.“), so schizophrenia may only be part of the song.

Unfortunately, there is no “cure” for schizophrenia (“Counseling and therapy providing not a clue”) and very little information on its cause (hence the name, “The Test That Stumped Them All”). There is, however, treatment with a variety of anti-psychotic medications (“Pills, red, pink and blue”). Decades ago, there used to be a prevalent method of treating the disorder with shock treatments and this is referenced by the “doctors” suggesting it in the song. V. Goodnight Kiss This is a piece about a mother (Degree 4) who has lost her child, in one form or another, and is suffering from post-partum depression (“Are you lonely without Mommy’s love?” … “I’m so lonely without Baby’s love”). There is also evidence of the child having been hospitalized at some point, or perhaps died during child birth. The mother struggles between believing that the loss of her child is her fault ( … “my tainted blood’s still the same”) or the doctors fault (“Those bastard doctors are gonna pay”). A heart monitor, and a baby crying can be heard in the later part of the song, suggesting a medical problem with the baby; the manic laughter of a doctor also suggests a recurring nightmare that the sufferer has. The lyrics also suggest the death of more than one child on separate occasions (“It’s been five years to the day and my tainted blood’s still the same”) VI. Solitary Shell Referred to as Degree 5, this person most likely has Asperger syndrome. The lyric tells us that he started off quite social (“He seemed no different from the rest” “He learned to walk and talk on time, but never cared much to be held”), however, he did withdraw from social contact (the title, “Solitary Shell”, shows that he is quite reclusive). The lyrics end with a plea for social acceptance from a peer or relative (“When will he be let out of his solitary shell”). VII. About to Crash (Reprise) This section carries on from where About to Crash left off. This time the song is sung from the sufferer’s point of view and describes her going through another manic episode (“I’m invincible, despair will never find me”). She then makes the realization that she will come out soon only to have another depressive episode (“And when I fall out of the sky, who’ll be standing by”). The lyrics here possibly show the bipolarity is getting better as sufferers tend to become more conscious of the syndrome when they start to feel more like themselves. Pieces from several other movements are included in this and could further describe the character’s bipolar and confusion. VIII. Losing Time The last degree is a girl suffering from dissociative identity disorder, previously called Multiple Personality Disorder. The lyrics tell the listener that she does not have many friends (“She never wears makeup, But no-one would care if she did anyway”). This is probably caused by having her life split among multiple personalities. The results of which is her relative amnesia caused by her inability to keep track of her life among her multiple personalities (“She doesn’t recall yesterday, faces seem twisted and strange”). However, this may also be a reference to Alzheimer’s. This can be justified by the lines “She always wakes up, only to find she’d been miles away”, a possible reference to Alzheimer’s victims “wandering”, leaving their families to wonder where they went. The “Losing Time” title refers to the fact that she isn’t living parts of her life due to her dissociative identity disorder, which in turn implies that she is “losing time”. The lyrics also reveal the darker side of dissociative identity disorder, in that those who suffer from this disorder often create alternate personalities in order to cope with severe emotional or physical trauma (“She learned to detach from herself, a behavior that kept her alive”).

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What are the quotes on Honor Thy Father? Where are they from?

[- main sample -] “This is the regret that you make This is the… Regret that you make And the something you take

Mistakes like this… you don’t make You make some and ok Not ok, sometimes, you make other ones Know that you should do better

The goddamn regret The goddamn regret! And I’ll die Now I’ll die The biggest regret of my life… I let my love go What did I do? The fucking regret What did I do? What did I do?” [ Jason Robards, sample from the movie “Magnolia” ]

[-other samples-] “We just don’t connect” [Timothy Hutton, from Ordinary People. ]

“Well, I want my family back.” “Well, you can’t have it. I’m sorry for you, but it’s too late.” [Gene Hackman and Angelica Huston, samples from movie “The Royal Tenenbaums”]

“Can’t you see anything except in terms of how it affects you?!” [ Donald Sutherland, sample from the movie “Ordinary People” ]

“I can’t love anybody” [unknown sample]

“I gave you money, I gave you a car, I took you in Don’t that mean something?” [ Christopher Walken, sample from the movie “At Close Range” ]

“[something] …I’m disappointed in you” [unknown sample]

“You deserve to die alone for what you’ve done” [ Melinda Dillon, sample from the movie “Magnolia” ]

“You cocksucker, I hated you I want you to know that I hate your fucking guts Just fucking die, you fuck” [ Tom Cruise, sample from the movie “Magnolia” ]

“I’m your blood - I’m your family” “You’re not my family - not anymore” [ Christopher Walken and Sean Penn, sample from the movie “At Close Range” ]

“When your own flesh and blood renounces you… …you have no choice but to renounce them” [ J.K. Simmons, sample from the TV-series OZ, season3 espiode21 “US Male” ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QChKXcpRZ9c

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The following is from an online chat with Mike Portnoy: [AgentCooper] I was wondering whom the lyrics of Honor Thy Father were directed at? They seemed quite brutal, and personal. [Portnoy] Let me clear this up right now…. [Portnoy] It is NOT directed at my father, Howard Portnoy…we have a GREAT relationship and I love him dearly… [Portnoy] It is aimed directly at somebody else in my immediate family…. [Portnoy] If you take the key word from the title as well as the key word from the bridge (Crooked _____), you can figure out who it was written for… [Portnoy] I’ve never been ghood at writing love songs, so i decided to write a HATE song!!!! On Reddit, Mike said the following:

My step father and I reconciled many years ago…we now have a great relationship and do not look back at the negative years (including that song)… life is waaaay too short for bitterness and resentment

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Battle Hymn of the Republic is a song from the civil war, written by Howe to replace the profane and uninspiring songs the Union soldiers were singing. Many Christians, not just Mormons, enjoy the hymn.

Lyrics in the song ITNOG seem either 1) general or 2) about multiple cases of misled/misleading leaders and interpretting the entire song entirely about Mormons sounds pretty biased—there are plenty of suicidal cult leaders out there, Koresh at Waco for example. It could about the Crusades or about Fundamentalism Anybodies or about 9/11. Or different parts can refer to different leaders.

Anyway, the use of Battle Hymn of the Republic at the end is interesting because it feels like it is set in a minor key or at least set against minor accompaniment instead of major like the original hymn. Can someone with more musical knowledge verify this?

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There was a bonus video released after the album came out - this video is no longer available from the original site. Where can i see it?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6tz94_dream-theater-bonus-material-record_music

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“We didn’t do this album at Beartracks, simply because we wanted to be fair to John and John. We have done the last 2 or 3 albums at Beartracks, which is up where Jordan and I live and both Johns had to commute while making those rcords. So therefore they asked if we could make an album nearer to them this time.”

“We did the drum tracks and most of the guitar tracks at a studio called Cove City Studios. Then we moved into another studio on Long Island called Pie Studios and that’s where we did all the overdubs…”

• Mike Portnoy, Summer 2003 issue of Theater of Dreams

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In a recent IRC chat, Mike said the following:

[Portnoy] starting with SFAM, we kinda layed down a new lyric rule….if you are going to present lyrics, they must be properly formed, phrased, constructed, etc. to go with the melodies [Portnoy] JM’s lyrics were always kind of presented in a more free form poetic manner and it was up to us (Kev, JP or myself) to kind of shape them to the song [Portnoy] to be blatently honest, we wanted everybody to kind of “carry their own weight” when writing lyrics, and since then John has kind of backed off [Portnoy] the door is always open to him to contribute again if he’d like… When Portnoy left, there was a hole to fill in the Lyrics contribution department, so we finally got a John Myung penned track in Breaking All Illusions.

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What’s the story behind the nugget in In The Name of God? I’ve heard there is an easter egg in the song, with morse code?

In the commentary for MP’s Drums of Thought DVD, he mentioned a special “hidden nugget” that could be found somewhere in the studio version of “In the Name of God”.

Over many weeks, many people on MP’s forum were searching all through ITNOG to find out what the nugget was. Mike kept an eye on the discussions and let people know when they were wrong, and dozens of theories were proven false by MP.

One thing that he did say was that somebody had touched on what the nugget was in one of the various threads, but no one had expanded on it.

Eventually, Nick Bogovich (Bogie on the forum) discovered what the nugget actually was: the words “eat my ass and balls” spelled out in morse code from 5:51 to 6:07 of the song. Here’s a copy of the post in which he announced his discovery: This is the nugget.

EAT MY ASS AND BALLS EAT MY ASS AND BALLS

in Morse code from 5:51-6:07.

The pattern breaks down like this:

..—–.–.-…….–.-..-….-.-…-….. (from 5:51 - 5:59) ..—–.–.-…….–.-..-….-.-…-….. (from 5:59 - 6:07)

. = E .- = A

• = T – = M -.– = Y … = S -. = N -.. = D -… = B .-.. = L

EATMYASSANDBALLS written in Morse code [without] any spaces is:

..—–.–.-…….–.-..-….-.-…-….. The person who originally brought up morse code was DarrylRevok, who had mentioned that the clicking at 5:51 sounds like morse code but he didn’t try to translate it into English.

Following Bogie’s discovery, Mike replied not long after with this post: CONGRATS!!! It only took a year and half for somebody to find it! (I wonder if anybody would have eventually found it if I never mentioned it in the commentary?)

DarrylRevok gets the distinction of being the first person to actually notice the morse code… And Bogie gets the distinction of being the first fan ON EARTH to uncover this wonderful nugget!!

If either of them are interested, I can offer:

1. my hair from when I cut it off a few months ago
2. my underwear from the famous “Breakdown in Berlin” clinic in 2000

Otherwise, they simply get the distinction of being the first people to discover this wonderful piece of DT absurdity that Jordan and I planted oh so long ago!

OK - back to work I go….

(I am currently in the control room while Jordan lays down the opening synth line to what will be track #3 on the album….)

MP The quote “eat my ass and balls” was made famous on the Metropolis 2000 tour, where it was often used to great effect in Fatal Tragedy: “without faith without hope you can eat my ass and balls”

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“Forsaken” seems to be based on “Phantoms” by Ivan Turgenev, which can be read here: https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/turgenev/ivan/dream/chapter2.html

In addition to sharing a plot about a man being visited in the night by a vampiress, there are several references to the story within Petrucci’s lyrics. Again, here’s what I found…

• Forsaken:

For a while I thought I fell asleep Lying motionless inside a dream

• Turgenev:

“After a little while I fell asleep—or I thought I fell asleep. I had an extraordinary dream.”

• Forsaken:

Then rising suddenly I felt a chilling breath upon me She softly whispered in my ear (Forsaken)

• Turgenev:

“…suddenly I gave an involuntary shudder: there was a chilly breath upon me. And then I was not lying down, but sitting up in my bed…”

“All at once I felt that some one had tight hold of me from behind, and was whispering in my very ear…”

• Forsaken:

Forsaken I have come for you tonight Awaken Look in my eyes and take my hand Give yourself up to me

• Turgenev:

“ ‘Give yourself up to me, ‘was whispered me again in reply.

‘Give myself up to you! But you are a phantom; you have no body even.’ A strange animation came upon me. ‘What are you—smoke, air, vapour? Give myself up to you! Answer me first, Who are you? Have you lived upon the earth? Whence have you come?’

‘Give yourself up to me. I will do you no harm. Only say two words: “Take me.”’

• Forsaken:

I waited faithfully For night to fall again Trying to silence the fear within me

• Turgenev:

“The day passed somehow. I tried, I remember, to read, to work … everything was a failure. The night came. My heart was throbbing within me, as though it expected something. I lay down, and turned with my face to the wall.”

• Forsaken:

Out of the night and mist I felt a stinging kiss And saw a crimson stain on her lips

• Turgenev:

“Her face turned and moved towards my face…. I felt on my lips a strange sensation, like the faintest prick of a soft and delicate sting…”

“Her eyes were closed, and on her tightly shut lips stood a fleck of crimson stain.”

• Forsaken:

I have to know your name Where have I seen your face before My dear one don’t you be afraid

• Turgenev:

“What is your name, or, at least, what was it?”

“‘Don’t be afraid,’ said Alice, ‘don’t be afraid, my dear one!’”

• Forsaken:

Take me far away Close your eyes And hold your breath ’Til the ends of the earth

• Turgenev:

“‘I am to blame, I take back my word. Take me away, Alice, I beseech you.”

“‘Very well; only shut your eyes and hold your breath.’”

“Let us fly till dawn, that is all. I can bear you away wherever you fancy—to the ends of the earth. Give yourself up to me! Say only: “Take me!”’”

‘Well … take me!’”

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“The Dark Eternal Night” is adapted from “Nyarlathotep” by H.P. Lovecraft.

There are several near and direct quotes/references from this story in the song. Here’s what I found:

– TDEN:

No one dared to Speak of the terrible danger The hideous ancient warnings Forged in the void of night

– Lovecraft:

“I do not recall distinctly when it began, but it was months ago. The general tension was horrible. To a season of political and social upheaval was added a strange and brooding apprehension of hideous physical danger; a danger widespread and all-embracing, such a danger as may be imagined only in the most terrible phantasms of the night. I recall that the people went about with pale and worried faces, and whispered warnings and prophecies which no one dared consciously repeat or acknowledge to himself that he had heard.”

– TDEN:

He is risen up Out of the blackness Chaos The last of the prophets Sinister A sickening monstrous sight

– Lovecraft:

“He said he had risen up out of the blackness of twenty-seven centuries, and that he had heard messages from places not on this planet. Into the lands of civilisation came Nyarlathotep, swarthy, slender, and sinister…”

“…the crawling chaos…”

– TDEN:

Through the stifling heat Underneath the pale green moon I burned with a thirst To seek things not yet seen Climbing endless stairs Leading to the choking room Eager to explore His most shocking mysteries

– Lovecraft:

“…through the stifling night and up the endless stairs into the choking room”

“I believe we felt something coming down from the greenish moon…”

“…I burned with eagerness to explore his uttermost mysteries. My friend said they were horrible and impressive beyond my most fevered imaginings; and what was thrown on a screen in the darkened room prophesied things none but Nyarlathotep dared prophesy, and in the sputter of his sparks there was taken from men that which had never been taken before yet which shewed only in the eyes. And I heard it hinted abroad that those who knew Nyarlathotep looked on sights which others saw not.”

– TDEN:

Drifting beyond all time Out of a churning sky Drawn to the beckoning light Of the dark eternal night

– Lovecraft:

“…unlighted chambers beyond Time…”

– TDEN:

Black forces Rage in the vortex Fighting Waves of destruction Swallowing The echo of the universe

– Lovecraft:

“And I saw the world battling against blackness; against the waves of destruction from ultimate space; whirling, churning, struggling around the dimming, cooling sun.”

– TDEN:

I am the last Born of the blood of the pharaohs The ultimate god of a rotting creation Sent to unleash this curse

– Lovecraft:

“I am the last…”

“A sickened, sensitive shadow writhing in hands that are not hands, and whirled blindly past ghastly midnights of rotting creation…”

“And it was then that Nyarlathotep came out of Egypt. Who he was, none could tell, but he was of the old native blood and looked like a Pharaoh.”

– TDEN:

Restless crowds draw near Nameless hooded forms appear Amidst falling ruins Grotesque creatures battle Shadowed on a screen Yellow evil faces leer Vacant monuments Corpses of dead worlds left behind

– Lovecraft:

“It was in the hot autumn that I went through the night with the restless crowds to see Nyarlathotep…And shadowed on a screen, I saw hooded forms amidst ruins, and yellow evil faces peering from behind fallen monuments.”

“…corpses of dead worlds…”

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpMn6gP69eM

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The Best of Times is about Mike Portnoy and the relationship with his father, Howard Portnoy. The song, along with Mike Portnoy’s vocals, was demoed during his father’s last days. The song was played before Howard Portnoy passed and was later played at his funeral.

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Wither is a song about writer’s block. It’s the first piece of music to be solely composed by a single band member (John Petrucci) since Scenes from a Memory, and the first piece of music not to be written by the whole band since Vacant, on Train of Thought.

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Is there any particular reason behind the way the lyrics Mike Portnoy are singing are in that form?

From Mike Portnoy himself:

I knew my vocals in A Nighmare To Remember would surely spark some controversy…looks like I was right!

As The Count Of Tuscany once said:
“wait a minute man….that’s not how it is…let me please explain!”

1. The original melody that JP had to this section I felt did not work with the music. This section of the song has a really heavy, driving Judas Priest/King Diamond vibe musically…and JP had a melody that was more melodic and James’ high voice I felt REALLY softened up the music to this very important dramatic section of the song.

(mp3 not available for this example)

2. I really kept hearing a Mikael Akerfeldt type Opeth death growl (yes, cookie monster vocals - sorry Setlist Scotty!) Like em or hate em, the section was really calling for it to my ears (listen to the instrumental version and you’ll hear what I mean…) The thought crossed my mind to ask Mikael himself to do it, but then I figured I’d end up having to do it live every night on tour, so it might as well be me on the CD….

So I gave it my best shot and here’s what it was:

http://www.mikeportnoy.com/mp/ANTR%20MP%20Cookie.mp3

In the end, JP and I discussed it and he just couldn’t hang with the cookie…he thought it was just TOO radical for DT fans to swallow…

3. So I agreed to try adding James doing a bit of a “counterpoint” to my cookie monster version to possible help soften the blow and add a little melody to the part….so here’s what it sounded like:

http://www.mikeportnoy.com/mp/ANTR MP & JLB.mp3

I did not dig this approach as
a) James’ clean vocals were still softening up the music to me b) the counterpoint approach made it all too confusing and distracted from the drive of the music

4. So John and I went back to the idea of keeping my vocals for the section to keep it heavy and driving, but getting rid of the Opeth cookie monster approach and going for a more Robb Flynn/Machine Head approach instead (kind of like my “Constant Motion” voice)

In the end, that is what we went with:

http://www.mikeportnoy.com/mp/ANTR%20Final.mp3

I did indeed know that no matter what, we wouldn’t please everybody with the idea, but I really felt a “heavy” approach was needed to keep the heaviness of the section (and hey…look at Roger Waters, Wayne Coyne, Neil Young, Dave Mustaine, Jeff Tweety, James Hetfield, etc etc. the truth is anybody can sing…it’s all about having personailty and emotion in the expression… )

I know my voice my not be everybody’s cup of tea (especially the heavy side), but sometimes a contrast to James’ cleaner vocals are needed with some of the heavy riffs and I believe “character” or “personality” in a voice is just as important in music and the expression of your art, it’s not always about virtuoso, operatic range…

Ultimately, if you really are bothered by em then I suppose you can at least thank me for making the instrumental mixes and isolated stems available!

MP

PS - On a side note as this thread is really aimed to clear up my side of the street amongst the bashers: I must say the amount of hatred and negativity towards me on other DT “fan” sites is truly incredible (you know who you are)…my skin is not as thick as you may think!

It baffles me that as the member of DT (or any band for that matter) that must be one of the most fan-driven musicians in the industry, I am so slammed by our “fans”…while other artists (who will go unnamed) that could care less our fans are put on a pedestal….sorry, I am still human and can read these forums and it indeed hurts sometimes…

Please feel free to post this on those sites as well…

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It is based on the story of a telepathically-linked Romulus and Remus from Virgil’s Aeneid. It has no relation to the 1927 movie Metropolis.

Petrucci wrote it as a sort of fantasy epic, inspired by the likes of Yes and Rush. The story itself is original (the twins are named Miracle and Sleeper and do not appear in literature) but the story type was Homeric.

It is linked to part 2 (Scenes From a Memory) in that Edward and Julian Baynes are metaphors for Romulus and Remus, and Victoria is a metaphor Rome (or the ‘Metropolis’). This is supported by several lyrical lines in Scenes From a Memory.

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After writing/demoing material in 1987 and 1988, the band started to play more shows in the New York City area. This eventually attracted the attention of Mechanic Records, which signed the band to a multi-album deal on June 23, 1988. The album titled ‘When Dream and Day Unite’ was released in 1989.

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‘Majesty’ was the original name of Dream Theater. The band found out they had to change the band name just prior to the release of ‘When Dream and Day Unite’ when a Las Vegas-based group, also named ‘Majesty,’ threatened legal action for intellectual property infringement related to the use of the name.

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What is the 'symbol' DT use? It's often referred to as the "Majesty symbol". Where did it come from?

The “Majesty Symbol” (as it is commonly known) is the letter “M” of “MAJESTY” in a stylized lettering, and is based on the symbol used by Mary Queen of Scots.

It can be seen on all the album covers, as well as most of the discs themselves.

Charlie Dominici claims to have been the one creating the symbol, by using each letter of his last name to create the stylized version – but as can be shown by the actual stitchings by Mary Queen of Scots, the differences between the old original symbol and the current Dream Theater symbol is minuscule. While the symbol may have been chosen for the fact that it does enable one to spell out Dominici fully, it certainly was not created by Dominici as claimed.

Below is some embroidery created by Mary Queen of Scots, as well as the official seal. You can see the resemblance. The symbol is M for Mary, and Phi for Francis, Mary Queen of Scots first husband. It was used on her signet ring, and she embroidered it on several of her embroideries, which can be seen in person at the Edinburgh castle.

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John Petrucci, John Myung, Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian all went to the Berklee school of music in Boston, MA. Berklee is a music-dedicated school that has produced the likes of Steve Vai, Al Di Meola and Chris DeGarmo.

When at Berklee, JM, JP and MP all left school to concentrate on the band after the first year, so none of them graduated (Although a common rumor states that Dream Theater holds doctorates in music, which isn’t true).

Jordan Rudess attended Julliard in New York from the age of 9, and Kevin Moore went to SUNY Fredonia, in New York.

Mike Mangini went to Bentley University to pursue a major in Computer Science. He later changed his mind and focused on a career of music. At the time of being hired by Dream Theater he was working as a faculty member of Berklee.

The two Johns and Kevin also went to high school together; King’s Park High School in King’s Park, (Suffolk County) on Long Island.

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Who came up with the name Dream Theater?

In the early stages of their career, Dream Theater were known as Majesty (named after Mike’s description of the song “Bastille Day” by Rush). However, before the recording of When Dream and Day Unite another band named Majesty got in contact with DT ordering them to change their name.

Various names were considered (“Glasser” was the band’s official name for about a week), but the honour of being the person that suggested “Dream Theater” goes to Mike Portnoy’s father, Howard Portnoy. He suggested the name based on the (now-demolished) theater in Monterrey, California. The name stuck. Mike got a message on his answering machine from his father telling him about a movie theater in California called the Dream theater, and the band liked it so much they used it for their band name.

In 2002 the theater was demolished, much to the dismay of local DT fans.

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DT have been influenced by dozens of bands at one time or another, so it’s impossible to list which bands did and didn’t influence DT. However, in a recent interview, Mike summed up the band as follows:

It’s kind of like taking Metallica, Rush and Pink Floyd and putting them into a microware and waiting ’til the thing exploded and what comes out is Dream Theater. Queensryche, Yes and Genesis are also among the band’s biggest influences over the years.

For individual influences, see the “Members” section.

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John Petrucci did write and records two tracks for an old Sega Saturn game called Digital Pinball: Necronomicon, only released in Japan. He wrote two pieces; “ Necronomicon Prologue” and “Necronomicon Epilogue”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDZk2b3IZYw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUVxfOEoWUg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhkGzrS1x_g

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John Myung has been the subject of many Dream Theater memes. There’s the “Cardboard cutout Myung” meme, which came from the notion that Myung appears to be identical on all photos taken with fans so DT may actually just be using a cardboard cutout in place of the real person. Another one is the famous “Myung Tackle”, where he tackled James LaBrie on stage during a show due to a bet. But the most persistant meme is the one about Myung never speaking.

His personality is a but introverted and silent, which means he prefers the one-on-one contact over the large crowd contact. Whenever there’s a camera around, he’s shy and soft-spoken. In fact, for years the only thing people knew John Myung to have said was “Actually, I’m feeling kinda spooky” on the “Images & Words – Live in Japan” concert video.

Of course, since then he has appeared on several videos (behind the scenes, tour and instructional videos), where he’s spoken at length.

But people who have met him know him to be a kind and generous person. If you meet him at a meet & greet, you’ll find that he’s very friendly and genuinely happy to meet the fans.

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James LaBrie - Spiritual Deist

From http://www.dprp.net/specials/labrie0405/ He may be talking from the other side of the Atlantic, but from the conviction and confidence in his voice, I get the sense that this last idea is one he has spent a lot of time thinking through. Indeed I’ve long had the impression from his lyrics – tracks like ‘Blind Faith’ - that James LaBrie was a practising Christian. He again has no hesitation when I ask him to clarify his beliefs.

‘I was brought up in Catholicism. My parents still go to church every weekend. When I grew up, I went to church every Saturday evening. But basically as you get older, you start to read things, observe, you become your own thinker – or at least I hope you do. I would say that today I’m a more spiritual-directed person.’

Like politicians, in an industry dominated by the culture of sound bites, it is unusual to find a prominent musician willing to unveil more than he or she has to. But warming to the topic, James LaBrie is happy to oblige, when I invite him to go a little deeper.

‘My whole concept on it is that we are in a dimension that is what it is. We are put here for a purpose, but I think it’s beyond human comprehension. I don’t think it’s something that we really need to know. At this point of spiritual evolution, I think we are dealing with this stage that we are in right now. As an existence. We have to go through it. We have to live with it and we grow, so that when we go on into another dimension, it is completely beyond what we could ever conceive.’

‘I really do think that there’s an entity or a creator that has brought the cosmos and has rationale. It’s not necessarily random. I think there is a purpose. There is a place that all of this is going to. I definitely feel that the consciousness that we have, there’s a reason for it. It’s not something that we completely have to understand – for every question and every answer there’s so many yet to come. Anyway without getting into it in great detail – we’d need six hours and more for that – that’s my take on it.’ John Myung - Christian

John Myung identifies as christian. He has stated that Jesus is his biggest influence in life. On the Budokan DVD you can see hos flight case, which has a sticker that says “I love Jesus”.

John Petrucci - Catholic

John Petrucci is a catholic and actively practices the religion. This is also evident in some of his songs, particularly Scarred and Voices. His wife confirmed this on a post on dreamtheaterforums.org: I won’t normally speak for John or anyone, but he is a practicing Catholic and is very spiritually driven in the way he lives his life. He was brought up with very loving parents who were clearly devoted to the church, eucharist ministers in fact. His first gig was in church and all 3 of our children all attended catholic elementary schools. We try to go to church on Sunday even while on tour. (The service at the Vatican in July was awesome and in Italian) I do know that he is truly inspired by Jesus and strives to be a good person. Many of his songs are inspired by his views and his love of the story telling aspect of historical events and politics, as well as his own beliefs and experiences, and if they happen to include religious undertones then yes, some will reference his Christian beliefs because that is who he is. I don’t believe that it is his intention to preach to anyone and they don’t consider themselves a religiously affiliated band of any kind. Jordan Rudess - Jewish

Jordan as stated that he is Jewish. He is very interested in Israeli history and culture because of his jewish heritage.

Mike Mangini - Christian

Mike Mangini identifies as a christian. In an interview with Drum Magazine, when asked which historical dramatic event he would’ve liked to have witnessed, he said: One dramatic historical event that I would have liked to witness was Jesus walking on water to the boat full of apostles. That ranks high on my list of “jaw dropping” events. Mike Portnoy - Jewish

In a Ytsejam.com “10 Quick Ones” interview, Mike said that he is Jewish, but doesn’t practice the religion. Portnoy is also a follower of the Alcoholics Anonymous program, which is a spiritual program requiring that one acknowledges a higher power than oneselves.

Charlie Dominici - Spiritual

Charlie does not identify as a religious person (in fact, he’s been very vocal against organized religion), but does self-identify as a very spiritual person. He’s an active information seeker, and has been known to dabble in some new age ideas. His O3 trilogy was based on the 2012 phenomenon, something Charlie himself found very interesting. He believed that there was something to the 2012 idea, but not that it necessarily would be an “end of the world”; but rather an awakening of sorts. He’s also been known to spread information about conspiracy theories like chemtrails or 9/11 “false flag”.

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What gear do Dream Theater use in studio and on stage?

A complete list of gear is almost impossible to create because it changes all the time.

John Petrucci currently uses Music Man guitars – and several different types. He has two distinct models: The JP model and the Majesty model.

In addition to this, Petrucci primarily uses the Mesa Boogie Mark V amplifier.

You can find a list (albeit a bit outdated) on http://www.johnpetrucci.com/gear.htm

Mike Mangini largely uses Pearl drums and Remo heads. The complete setup changes from album to album and tour to tour, but you can find a list of his gear here: http://www.mikemangini.com/gear/

Jordan Rudess is perhaps the most experimental in the band. He’s used so many different instruments in creating the sounds for the albums that it’s impossible to keep up. Examples include the Haken Continuum, the Roli Seaboard, several different iPad apps (many of which are co-created by Jordan in his company Wizdom music).

The current main synth Jordan uses is the Korg Kronos. He uses a Steinway Piano for piano recordings. You can find a list of gear he’s been using (albeit a bit out of date) here: http://www.jordanrudess.com/gear/

John Myung currently uses a Music-man Bongo bass: http://www.music-man.com/instruments/basses/bongo-6.html

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For the recording of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and Train of Thought, Mike used a kit called the “Siamese Monster”. For Octavarium he used a white kit called the “Albino Monster”.

Mike uses TAMA Starclassic drums, Sabian cymbals, TAMA Iron Cobra pedals and hi-hats, Latin percussion, Remo heads and Pro-Mark 420 custom sticks.

He has a signature snare drum series from Tama called “Melody Master”; named after his daughter. There’s also a Sabian “Max Stax” symbals, which are named after his son.

You can find documentation of his drumkits while in Dream Theater here:

http://www.mikeportnoy.com/drums/mirage/ - The Mirage Monster, used for Systematic Chaos and Black Clouds & Silver Linings

http://www.mikeportnoy.com/drums/albino/ - The Albino Monster, used for Octavarium

http://www.mikeportnoy.com/drums/siamese/ - The Siamese Monster, used for Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and Train of Thought

http://www.mikeportnoy.com/drums/purple/ - The Purple Monster, used for Falling Into Infinity and Scenes from a Memory

http://www.mikeportnoy.com/drums/mapex/ - Used for Awake and A Change of Seasons

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The Chapman Stick is a unique electric string instrument. Instead of being plucked like a guitar, the act of fretting a note causes it to play. This means that you can play notes with both hands allowing you to play a much fuller arrangement. Emmett Chapman created this technique on a self-built guitar in the late 1960s. In subsequent years he created The Stick as the ultimate instrument for tapping technique. John Myung plays the Stick on the songs “New Millennium” and “Take Away My Pain”, and in various sections of “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence”.

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Before being picked up by DT for Images and Words, James sang in a Canadian glam band called Winter Rose. They released a self-titled album in 1987, which was re-released in 1997.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OobUs2zvN7o

James beat more than 200 competitors to take the vocal position in DT.

Sebastian Bach revealed this fun tidbit a couple of years ago:

“I make a very short but very cool appearance on the brand new RUSH DVD: ‘R30’! What an honor it is to be included on a retrospective of the career of one of my favorite bands of all time.

“Trivia note: the DVD was produced by my old friend Rich Chycki, who was my guitar player in the mid 1980s in Toronto. We recorded many songs together, including ‘Saved By Love Again’, which is the song I sent to SKID ROW which made them hire me. After I left the band (which was first called ‘HOPE’ then it was called ‘SEBASTIAN’), Rich hired a cool singer from Northern Ontario named Kevin. I remember Rich introducing me to Kevin at one of my soundchecks at Rock’N’Roll Heaven in Toronto circa mid-’80s. Kevin joined the band with Rich and they changed the name from ‘SEBASTIAN’ to ‘WINTER ROSE’. They re-recorded ‘Saved By Love Again’ and the other songs I did with Rich and eventually released the material in Japan. Kevin changed his name to James LaBrie and joined DREAM THEATER! The rest is prog-rock history!

“Congrats, Rich, on producing ‘R30’. Great job!”

Richard Chycki has later become very involved with Dream Theater, engineering and mixing their self-titled album “Dream Theater”, the following concert video (“Breaking The Fourth Wall”) and “The Astonishing”.

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Mike Mangini started playing the drums at an early age, and by high school he was performing in bands and participating in prestigious All-State and All-Eastern United States ensembles.

After graduating from high school, he put aside his music studies to pursue a computer science major at Bentley University.

In 1991 he joined the band Annihilator, playing drums on several tracks on the album “Set the World on Fire”, and going on tour to support the album until 1994. Then he joined the band Extreme, replacing original drummer Paul Geary. He played on several songs on their 1995 album Waiting for the Punchline.

After Extreme disbanded, Mangini auditioned (successfully) for Steve Vai’s band, and played with Vai from 1996 to 2000. He appeared on the studio albums Fire Garden, The Ultra Zone and the live albm Alive in an Ultra World.

Returning to Boston in 2000, he served as an associate professor at Berklee College of Music. During this period i formed a short-lived band called Tribe of Judah with Gary Cherone and Pat Badger, releasing the album Exit Elvis in 2002. In 2005 Mangini accepted a full time position at Berklee.

He had also started a relationship with James LaBrie, appearing on his two Mullmuzzler albums in 1999 and 2001, as well as the solo album Elements of Persuasion.

He also appeared on two further Annihilator albums: All for you in 2004 and Metal in 2007.

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?Dead Poets Society (1989) ?Table For Five (1983)

“It’s the most awful thing you’ll ever hear. Your mom…who you dearly love.. …has had to leave all our lives now.”

“Seize the day!”

“Something happened.”

“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.”

“She was killed.”

Most of the samples were taken from the movie Dead Poets Society. The “Gather ye rosebuds…” part is a reading of the poem “To The Virgins, To Make Much of Time”, and it was read by the actor James Waterston, playing the character Mr. Pitts.

The part of the song after “Goodbye” and before the section where James occasionally sings “Please Don’t Go!” live is a collection of lines taken from the movie “Table For Five”. The voice is John Voight’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRegdeSiTMY

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Where did the quotes in Don’t Look Past Me come from?

Don’t Look Past Me

? The Deer Hunter (1978)

“I don’t know, I feel a lot of distance and I feel far away… I’ll see you later…”

? Ordinary People (1980)

“ - I feel bad about this ! I feel really bad about this ! Just, just let me feel bad about this.”

• Listen I feel bad about it too.”

The song, released on the Cleaning Out The Closet fan club cd, contains samples from two movies. The sample at the beginning of the song is Robert DeNiro from The Deer Hunter. The “Let me feel bad about this” lines, spoken by Timothy Hutton, are from the movie Ordinary People.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZaVL9Lwn0Y

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What are John Petrucci's influences?

Petrucci has two groups of primary influences, “…the Steve’s and the Al’s”. The Steve’s are Steve Morse, Steve Howe, Steve Vai, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The Al’s are Alex Lifeson, Al Di Meola, and Allan Holdsworth.

Some of his early influences include Steve Morse, Al DiMeola, Steve Howe, Allan Holdsworth, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Randy Rhoads, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Alex Lifeson, Yngwie Malmsteen, Rush, Yes, Iron Maiden, The Dregs and Metallica.

In Ultimate Classic Rock, JP said: It started with liking classic rock. Where I lived, on Long Island, you had the radio stations that always played Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and AC/DC and all that. I grew up on all that stuff. I got turned onto bands — you know, the first time I heard Rush, the first time I heard Yes. Then, my mind started to want to connect and reach out to some other things. Then, Iron Maiden came along, and Metallica, and all this other stuff. When asked which guitarist stands the most out: For me it was Steve Morse,” Petrucci explained. “It was funny. I started playing guitar and getting into [Led] Zeppelin, Rush, ACDC, Sabbath and stuff like that, and one of my friend’s friends was like ‘Dude you got to check this out,’ and it was the [Dixie] Dregs. When asked about more modern progressive metal acts: I think that without naming a specific band, there is a whole wave of younger bands that are in the prog vein. There is Periphery, Between the Buried and Me, Animals As Leaders — bands like that are doing stuff where you hear it and you are like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing! That was intense!’

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Mike Portnoy gives his influences in this excerpt from a Daily Vault interview:

I used to like Neal Peart but I don’t really listen to him that much anymore. He was a big influence for me when I was younger. I really listen to so many different drummers I mean, Terry Bozzio, Simon Phillips, but when I listen to music I don’t really listen to the drummers… I listen to the ways the songs are produced, I listen to the ways the songs are written. When I listen to music there are lots of aspects I listen to, not just the drummers. In a more recent Sabian Q/A session, he answered the following:

Sabian: Your favourite drummer in today’s music scene? Mike: Mike Mangini, Vigil Donati, Marco Minnemann, Danny Carey, Carter Beauford

Sabian: Who, in your opinion is the Drummer of all drummers? Mike: Vinnie Colauita

Sabian: The Pioneer? Mike: Terry Bozzio

Sabian: The Legend? Mike: Ringo Starr or Neil Peart On his website the following is written: Mike says his biggest influences are Rush drummer Neil Peart and the late Frank Zappa. Other favorites include drummers Terry Bozzio, Vinnie Colaiuta, Simon Philips, John Bonham and Keith Moon and bands such as The Beatles, Queen, Yes, Metallica, Jellyfish, Iron Maiden, U2 and Jane’s Addiction. He is also a fan of rap music.

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On a TAMA instructional video he says that he can achieve a much fuller snare sound with the butt end of the stick as opposed to the tip. So for this reason, his left-hand stick is always upside down. This technique is not too unusual. Nicko McBrain also holds his stick in this fashion.

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On his website the following can be read: Who are your greatest influences?

In terms of Rock keyboardists: Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, and Patrick Moraz. As for bands: Gentle Giant, YES, Genesis, Pink Floyd, ELP, King Crimson, Jimi Hendrix, Autechre, and Aphex Twin. My background is in classical piano and composition so really everything I do stems from this foundation.

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Derek Sherinian has been very active. When he was still in Dream Theater, he was working on a solo project called Planet X. This solo project gave life to his new band, also called Planet X.

Planet X released four albums from 2000 til 2007: Unverse, Live from Oz, MoonBabies and Quantom.

Derek also has released 7 solo albums: Planet X, Inertia, Black Utopia, Mythology, Blood of the Snake, Molecular Heinosity and Oceana.

There was also a period where Derek was playing with Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham and Joe Bonamassa in a band called Black Country Communion, which released three albums (Self-titled 1, self-titled 2 and Afterglow).

Derek has also guested on many many albums over the years. He’s a session musician for hire, and many bands use him for a solo and whatnot. He’s also supported many artists on the road, such as Billy Idol, Yngwie Malmsteen and more.

Derek Sherinian (along with Charlie Dominic) reunited with Dream Theater in 2004 for the “When Dream And Day Reunite” show. Derek played keyboards on “Metropolis”

A selected portion of his discography can be found here:

http://www.dereksherinian.com/discography.htm

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In August 1994, after parting ways with DT, Kevin moved to Santa Fe, NM and lived there for about a year while writing and recording new solo material with the help of Rich Kern, who also did the drum programming for “Space-Dye Vest”. Some of the demos he recorded during this period of time were made available through a demo called “Music Meant To Be Heard, Etc.” that was originally set up on Ytsejam in early 1995.

In the summer of 1995, Kevin decided to shave his head and move to Los Angeles, CA to record some new material with Fates Warning drummer, Mark Zonder. These songs eventually turned into the “Chroma Key” demos and featured Kevin on keyboards/bass/vocals and Mark Zonder on drums. Kevin describes his new music as “keyboard-oriented semi-progressive rock.”

Kevin recorded more “Chroma Key” songs during the last half of 1996 (with Jason Anderson on guitar, Joey Vera on bass, and Mark Zonder on drums), and mixed those songs with Steve Tushar. Kevin’s website, chromakey.com, has information on acquiring Chroma Key’s debut CD Dead Air For Radios which was released in 1998 by Massacre Records in Europe and Fight Evil Records in the States.

Kevin also played with Fates Warning on a number of occasions including the albums A Pleasant Shade Of Gray and Disconnected.

Kevin went back to work in early 1999, offering a new 6-song Chroma Key single of demos and remixes, as well as a limited edition Chroma Key screen print. He also put out a collection of demos on CD, titled This is a Recording. He also played keyboards on tour for a new band called On.

In 2003 Kevin teamed up with Mike Portnoy for the first time since 1994 for Jim Mattheos’ “OSI” project, released through InsideOut Music.

Also in 2003 he wrote the soundtrack for a Turkish horror movie, and when answering questions at the premiere he said that he planned to stay in the country for at least a year afterwards.

In 2004 Kevin released the third Chroma Key album, Graveyard Mountain Home, and in 2006 was involved in OSI’s sophomore release, Free.

OSI has since also released Blood in 2009, and Fire Make Thunder in 2012 - both without Portnoy, but with Gavin Harrison instead.

While living in Costa Rica, he produced a bi-weekly radio program for Radio for Peace International; a compilation of this work was released as Memory Hole 1. While living in Turkey, Moore produced the debut album of Turkish band Makine and wrote soundtracks for two Turkish films. The soundtrack for the first film, Okul, was released in 2004 as Ghost Book. The soundtrack for the second film, Küçük Kiyamet, entitled Shine, was released in 2010.

Kevin Moore is currently living in New York, and is working on new tracks. You can support his work by going to https://www.patreon.com/chromakey?ty=h and subscribe.

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Which songs have only ever been played live, but never recorded in a studio setting?

The following have only ever been played live (and not recorded in a studio setting):

“Bombay Vindaloo” (improvised jam, available on LATM)

“Moon Bubbles” (available on Taste the Memories FCCD)

“Barfbag”

“Showdown” (evolved into “Raise the Knife”)

“Slow Motion” (played during the first half of Jan ’93)

untitled funk jam (no real name – played on select shows during the middle of Apr ’93)

“Innocence Faded” jam (early version of the current IF, played in Apr ’93)

Awake jam (instrumental following LSOAD during Awake shows from Nov ’94 thru early ’95)

“Lost Without You” (formerly Rena’s Song) (played during early ’95 thru the rest of the year – has since been played at John’s G3 appearances). Released on Ytsejam Records “Tokyo, Japan 10-28-95”.

“Caught in Alice’s Nine Inch Tool Garden” – a reworking of Caught in a Web that later evolved into New Millennium. On the Metropolis 2000 tour, Dream Theater played a fusion version of this track and New Millennium called “Caught in a New Millenium”.

“A Crack In the Mirror” – a reworking of the Mirror intro leading into Puppies On Acid, played extensively on the FII tour and released on Ytsejam Records “Los Angeles, California 5-18-98”. There is likely also many other jam sessions played live that never has seen a further release. Bootleg producers often give these names.

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Jordan entered the Juilliard School of Music Pre-College division for classical piano training, but had by his late teens grown increasingly interested in synthesizers and progressive rock music.

After performing in several different projects in the 80’s, it was after the release of his solo album Listen that made people notice him. In particular, both Dream Theater and Dixie Dregs approached Jordan almost at the same time inviting him to join their respective bands. Rudess chose to join with the Dregs, partially because being a full time member of a band was too much of a commitment to a father of young children.

As a matter of fun facts; here’s a facsimile of an old news article regarding Jordan’s wedding: Nancy Danielle Kornfeld, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leo L. Kornfeld of Rye, N.Y., and Wilmington, Vt., was married yesterday to Jordan Charles Rudes, a son of Rita Rudes of Great Neck, L.I. and the late Sidney Rudes. Rabbi Charles Davidson performed the ceremony at Temple Sholom in Greenwich, Conn.

Mrs. Rudes is the director of Dream On Arts, a music management company in Sea Cliff, L.I. Her father, a deputy/commissioner of education and student financial assistance in the Carter Administration, is the president of the True Basic educational software company in Rye and Hanover, N.H.

The bridegroom is a pianist and a product specialist for Korg USA, a synthesizer manufacturer in Westbury, L.I. His father was an owner of St. Germain, a clothing manufacturer in New York. Rudess and the drummer of the Dregs, Rod Morgenstein, then created a project called “Rudess/Morgenstein Project”, the story of which is as follows: it started back when Jordan toured with The Dregs. At one particular show a power failure caused every instrument apart from Jordan’s keyboard to become unplayable, and of course drums don’t need amplifiers, so the two jammed until the power came back on. Both were suitably impressed at how well they jammed together, and RMP was born.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpEx7pDIq8A

Rudess then joined Petrucci and Portnoy with Tony Levin for the Liquid Tension Experiment albums, which gave leeway for both parties to test out the waters of how they worked in the studio. They enjoyed it so much that the decision was quickly made to extend an offer to Jordan to replace Derek Sherinian.

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Dream Theater stated the following:

To all of our loyal fans and friends: It is with profound sadness – regret – we announce that Mike Portnoy, our lifelong drummer and friend, has decided to leave Dream Theater. Mike’s stature in the band has meant the world to all of us professionally, musically, and personally over the years. There is no dispute: Mike has been a major force within this band.

While it is true that Mike is choosing to pursue other ventures and challenges, we can assure you that Dream Theater will continue to move forward with the same intensity – and in the same musical tradition – that you have all helped make so successful, and which is truly gratifying to us.

Fans and friends: File this episode under “Black Clouds and Silver Linings.” As planned, we begin recording our newest album in January 2011, and we’ll follow that with a full-on world tour. “The Spirit Carries On.”

All of us in Dream Theater wholeheartedly wish Mike the best on his musical journey. We have had a long and meaningful career together. It is our true hope that he finds all he is looking for, and that he achieves the happiness he deserves. He will be missed. Mike Portnoy stated the following:

Wednesday September 8th 2010

I am about to write something I never imagined I’d ever write:

After 25 years, I have decided to leave Dream Theater….the band I founded, led and truly loved for a quarter of a century.

To many people this will come as a complete shock, and will also likely be misunderstood by some, but please believe me that it is not a hasty decision…it is something I have struggled with for the last year or so….

After having had such amazing experiences playing with Hail, Transatlantic and Avenged Sevenfold this past year, I have sadly come to the conclusion that I have recently had more fun and better personal relations with these other projects than I have for a while now in Dream Theater…

Please don’t misinterpret me, I love the DT guys dearly and have a long history, friendship and bond that runs incredibly deep with them…it’s just that I think we are in serious need of a little break…

Dream Theater was always my baby…and I nurtured that baby every single day and waking moment of my life since 1985…24/7, 365…never taking time off from DT’s never-ending responsibilites (even when the band was “off” between cycles)…working overtime and way beyond the call of duty that most sane people ever would do for a band…

But I’ve come to the conclusion that the DT machine was starting to burn me out…and I really needed a break from the band in order to save my relationship with the other members and keep my DT spirit hungry and inspired.

We have been on an endless write/record/tour cycle for almost 20 years now (of which I have overseen EVERY aspect without a break) and while a few months apart from each other here & there over the years has been much needed and helpful, I honestly hoped the band could simply agree with me to taking a bit of a “hiatus” to recharge our batteries and “save me from ourselves”…

Sadly, in discussing this with the guys, they determined they do not share my feelings and have decided to continue without me rather than take a breather…I even offered to do some occasional work throughout 2011 against my initial wishes, but it was not to be…

While it truly hurts for me to even think of a Dream Theater without Mike Portnoy (hell, my father named the band!!), I do not want to stand in their way…so I have decided to sacrifice myself and simply leave the band so as to not hold them back against their wishes….

Strangely enough, I just read an interview that I recently did that asked me about the future of DT and I talked about “always following your heart and being true to yourself”…sadly I must say that at this particular moment, my heart is not with Dream Theater…and I would simply be “going through the motions”, and would honestly NOT be true to myself if I stayed for the sake of obligation without taking the break I felt I needed.

I wish the guys the best and hope the music and legacy we created together is enjoyed by fans for decades to come…I am proud of every album we made, every song we wrote and every show we played….

I’m sorry to all the disappointed DT fans around the world…I really tried to salvage the situation and make it work…I honestly just wanted a break (not a split)…but happiness cannot be forced, it needs to come from within….

You DT fans are the greatest fans in the world and as you all know, I have always busted my ass for you guys and I hope that you will stay with me on my future musical journey, wherever it may lead me….(and as you all know my work ethic, there will surely be no shortage of future MP projects!)

Sadly… Your fearless ex-leader and drummer, MP

“Move on be brave, don’t weep at my grave, because I am no longer here… But please never let your memory of me disappear….” — The Spirit Carries On Later on, MP said the following in reponse to rumors of wanting to rejoin Dream Theater: Just for the record, this is indeed true..

Fairly recently, I reached out to the guys to try and make amends and offered to reconcile for the sake of having peace back in our lives…(plus I know how much it meant to alot of the fans…)

I figured it was still possible to try and save us because they hadn’t made any announcements yet or begun any public activity with another drummer…but sadly, they declined my offer (well, actually their lawyer did…they didn’t even tell me themselves….)

Sorry gang, I honestly gave it my all… So now the fans on my twitter and facebook can please stop asking me to go back to DT…I tried, and the door is now shut…the ball is now in their court, not mine…

PS - I’m not crying or looking for mercy by posting this…I am merely trying to set the record straight as that is always the most important thing about my relationship with you guys…no BS, no spins, nothing to hide…and for better or for worse, I tell it like it is…

I’ve also recently seen some people accuse my online activity of “looking for attention or media coverage” or “looking for sympathy”, but it’s honestly none of the above…I merely value having an open and active communication with my fans…always have, always will…it is the cornerstone of everything I’ve done since day #1 with DT….

This was posted here FOR YOU GUYS to know about…here on MY message board on MY website….if it ends up on Blabbermouth or some other website that chooses to sensationalize it, that is THEIR doing….I did not send it out or create a “press release”….I am merely responding on a thread on my own Forum….

Anyways, onward and upward…

MP Both Dream Theater and Mike Portnoy have stated that the current situation is probably the best for all parts. Portnoy has kept tremendously busy during the years after he left. Every year has seen at least 3-4 new releases bearing his name in some capacity.

Dream Theater continues to release albums and tour the world with the same enthusiasm as they’ve always had.

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A common joke on the internet is "When is Dream Theater coming to Chile?". It stems from the thousands of fans from Chile (and other countries) on social networks always asking when DT will come to them. "Why haven't DT been to my country yet?"

The short explanation is:

The band doesn’t have any control over which countries they play on tour. It all comes down to the promoter of the tour to decide which shows are played, and the decision is usually purely financial. I’m sure DT would love to play in every country on Earth, but sometimes it’s just not possible. It has to make sense logistically (they have to be able to get their gear there). It has to make sense economically (they have to be able to get there without paying to play, without financial risk).

So the promoters and the management has to put together a tour itinerary that makes sense both financially and logistically, while at the same time respecting the bands wishes for required down days, for required length (the band does prefer not to stay away from home for more than 5-6 weeks at a time) and it has to be secure (the band can’t travel to high risk countries).

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Which Dream Theater songs have never been performed live? Surely, with such an expansive catalog that Dream Theater has, there must be tracks that have never been performed live? Which are they?

Up until recently, the only track of the 80s and 90s that had not been played live was “Don’t Look Past Me”, which was an unreleased track up until 1999 when it was released on Cleaning Out the Closet FCCD. It was played live for the first time october 25th, 2017.

For the longest time, “Space-Dye Vest” also shared the distinction of never having been performed live. Mike Portnoy asked Kevin Moore to join the band on stage at the Metropolis 2000 Roseland Ballroom show (recorded for Live Scenes From New York) to play SDV for the first and only time on stage, as well as play a two-keyboard version of LTL with Jordan, but he declined. But after Mike Portnoy left, and the 15th anniversary of Awake, the song has been performed regularly.

“The Best of Times”, a very personal song for Mike Portnoy, was never played live while Mike Portnoy was in the band because it was still too emotional for him to play it. It is unlikely Dream Theater will play it live without Portnoy.

“Raw Dog”, the last song Dream Theater recorded with Mike Portnoy, has never been played live.

“Surrender to Reason” from the self-titled album has yet to be performed live.

All tracks from “The Astonishing” are to be performed live due to the entire concept album being played from start to finish.

Some songs have rarely been played: “Innocence Faded” was played for some shows in 94/95 for the Awake tour, and some shows for the 2006 Octavarium tour.

“You Not Me” was only played for a handful of shows in 97/98 for the Falling Into Infinity tour.

“Anna Lee” has not been played since 1998 on the Falling Into Infnity tour.

“Disappear” was only played a couple of times on the 2004 tour.

“The Answer Lies Within” was only played for a couple of shows on the Octavarium tour in 2005/2006.

“Repentance” was only played once in 2008, with Mikeal Åkerfeldt from Opeth as the guest vocalist.

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Who are James LaBrie’s influences?

On his website, the following can be found: James’ musical tastes are quite varied as he names Metallica, Aerosmith, Van Halen, Journey and Judas Priest as well as classical composers Mozart, Vivaldi and Beethoven as favorites. Influential vocalists include Steve Perry (formerly of Journey), Freddie Mercury, Sting, Paul Rodgers and Nat King Cole. In discussion with Artisan News, James said the following: I would say Sleeping With Sirens, I See Stars, Bring Me the Horizon. Those guys off the top of my head. I’ve always liked Ryan Tedder from One Republic, I think he’s got a great voice. It’s got a lot of emotion.

Killswitch Engage … I’m saying the names of the bands cause I’m drawing a blank on these guys’ names right now … Tesseract … he’s got a great voice. My son turned me on to a lot of those bands. I’ll walk past his bedroom and be like ‘who’s that?’ Tesseract is a great band … really excited with those guys.

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I've heard some live recordings from the late 90s and early 2000s, and James really struggles at times. Why was that?

James had a really bad case of foot poisoning holiday in 1994:

He goes on to explain, how a meal of pork, beans and rice, while on holiday in Cuba in 1994 almost left him for dead and has made him very precious about his voice.

‘Within two hours of eating that meal, I was like deathly ill. It really hit me. I dunno if you’ve ever had food poisoning, but you literally feel like you’re gonna die. I was dizzy - almost incoherent - just a terrible experience.’

‘In layman’s terms, I ruptured my vocal chords. I went to see three specialists and they all said it would take a long time to recover - yet two weeks later I had to be in Japan singing again. I must say that up until the end of the ‘Six degrees..’ tour, it was only then that I felt my voice was coming back to full strength, That was when I went back to study with this girl Victoria and I think I’m singing better than ever now – both studio and live.’

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Kevin’s musical tastes have changed over the years, and he grew increasingly unhappy with the musical direction that the band had taken. He felt that the differences had become so great that he could not continue in the band. “…in some ways it’s a shock to us and in some ways, it isn’t, you know. I mean, the way that they [the fans] consider us a ‘family unit,’ in a lot of ways, it’s true because, I grew up with Kevin, like, since we were little kids and this has been our band since… whenever. We were 17, out of high school, you know, the first year in college, so it is kind of weird, not having him in the band, it’s definitely strange. The only thing I can say to the fans is, you know, so far as worrying and whatnot, this is something that was going on with Kevin like, or, the way he explained it to us, for a couple of years, so he was slowly sort of stepping out of his position, and even with the writing on Awake, it’s not as much of his trademark and his sound and his writing. So if they’re into this album, maybe that’s a good sign because it was something that was written a lot without his enthusiasm or without his input for the most part, so, it’s sort of a… step to the new whatever’s going to happen next. So if they like it, that’s a good sign…”

“…he didn’t tell us slowly, it was unexpected for us too. But it’s just that he was thinking about it for awhile, we didn’t even know that, you know? We sensed that he was a little bit distant, that maybe he was unhappy, but we never thought he would leave the band, ’cause like I said, this has been something we’ve been into since we were little kids or whatever. He told us right towards the end of the recording session for Awake, which was about mid-July, and that was really strange because, you know, we weren’t finished recording and he told us this, so… I mean, obviously we finished up the recording of the record, but it was… I guess no time is a good time, but it seemed like a strange sort of time and we were all really shocked, you know, we were like, ‘I don’t understand,’ you know? It’s hard for me to understand because we’ve been pretty successful and we think this record is going to do really well for us, we hope it is, and there’s a lot of things on the horizon and we’ve worked our entire lives to get to this point, so it’s hard for me to relate to leaving that…”

“…I don’t think you can pinpoint to one specific reason why he left the band, but I think basically it comes down to this… over the last couple of years, he’s sort of changed the type of music that he’s into, that he likes to write and he’s demoing a lot of stuff where he’s playing everything himself and singing himself and it’s in a different style, like techno/industrial sort of style, nothing like our band… it just seems like playing with us, he wasn’t able to do the type of stuff that he wanted to do and he figured he never would if he stayed in the situation, so he wanted to be true to his musical vision. I guess that was kind of frustrating with him. Maybe when we started the band and for the first couple of albums, it was the kind of stuff he really liked doing and then for whatever reason, whatever happened in his life… whatever was happening, whether it was touring or whatever, he just changed the type of stuff he was into and he no longer felt passionate, or feels passionate, about the style of music that Dream Theater plays… you know, the heavy, progressive sort of music…”

– John Petrucci

“He played an important part on this album. He’s an incredibily talented person. We saw it coming for a while. We didn’t really want to admit it. In retrospect we look back and when we talk now we knew there was something there that wasn’t right. For maybe six months Kevin was going in a different direction. His musical direction was very much different from ours. We were more and more separated in our ideas to the point that it was obvious that he had to move on with his stuff. We needed to find someone who was more understanding and in synch with where we’re going musically. We’re all still great friends and we wish him the best. I talked to him recently and he’s doing great. He’s in Santa Fe writing music. It’s all for the best when you have any negativity within a band sooner or later if it’s around long enough it starts to pull everyone else down. “

• James LaBrie

“Musically, I think my approach to writing has changed a lot in the past sevaral years. It came to a point where my views were so different from the rest of the band that they were having trouble relating to each other’s ideas. At the same time , I was finding a great deal of fulfillment writing and recording my own material. Eventually, this became more important to me than anything else. I came to the decision that I needed to concentrate on my own musical identity and that a split with the band would be the best thing for both the band and myself.

I truly believe that Dream Theater have a lot more to offer the music world and I have a deep respect for each of them as musicians and as people. I wish them all the best.” -Kevin Moore

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According to Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci, he was released because of several reasons, but most importantly because he didn’t fit in with the band in a few important ways. He was far older than the rest of them, had a different idea of what DT should be, and lacked ability as a frontman when performing live. There were also apparently a few personality conflicts at work.

Dream Theater is still in contact with Charlie, he sang at Mike Portnoy’s wedding in 1994 and appeared at the 15th anniversary celebrations of When Dream and Day Unite (available as When Dream And Day Re-Unite through Ytsejam Records).

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When Kevin left, Jordan was the band’s first choice for a replacement. However, the Dregs also approached him at the same time, and Jordan felt that he would rather be in the Dregs at the time. Derek was originally a fill-in for the Awake tour, but after realising how well he fit with the band, DT decided to recruit him as a full-time member.

But, after working with Jordan Rudess during recording for Liquid Tension Experiment I and II, the band felt that Jordan’s playing and writing style was more in tune to where they wanted to take Dream Theater as the new millennium approached. Unfortunately, this left Derek out of a job. “With the recent release of our live CD and video, it seemed the right time to close this chapter and begin a new one. Derek’s contributions to the band both musically and personally over the last four years is something that we will always treasure, and we will all miss.” – Mike Portnoy

“I am very proud of my musical growth and contributions to the band in the last four years. I have nothing but positive thoughts and feelings towards John, Mike, James, and John. Jordan Rudess is a friend of mine and a great talent. I wish all of them the very best!” – Derek Sherinian

The full press release follows: January 18th, 1999

For immediate release:

Dream Theater changes keyboard player

It is with much personal sadness that Dream Theater announce their decision to part ways with keyboardist Derek Sherinian.

Drummer Mike Portnoy: “Derek’s contributions to the band both musically and personally over the last 4 years is something that we will always treasure and we will all miss.

He will always be a part of the Dream Theater family.”

“With the recent release of our live CD & video, it seemed the right time to close this chapter and begin a new one…”

His replacement will be Jordan Rudess, who was once a touring member of the Dregs and has recently collaborated with Mike Portnoy & John Petrucci in their Liquid Tension Experiment project.

“After our experiences of working with Jordan in LTE, we came to the decision that his playing, writing and personality was more representative of where we would like to take Dream Theater into the 21st century.”

“We wish for nothing but the best in the world for Derek as we hope to always remain friends with him. We’re sure that he will continue to succeed in the music business as he always has, and wish him luck with whomever he decides to play with next

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Aside from the obvious (Charlie Dominici and James LaBrie):

Steve Stone sang after almost having been given the job as the new singer of Dream Theater, a show where Dream Theater opened for Marillion. The show has infamously been dubbed “screaming for me long beach” due to Steve Stone constantly yelling that famous Bruce Dickinson line – except they weren’t at Long Beach.

Mike Portnoy had the dubious privilege of singing the end of “Surrounded” after James walked off the stage at one of their 1993 England shows. He also sang the beginning of “The Killing Hand” at Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT in December of 1996, when James “…got caught up backstage”. Mike has also done the first few lines of “Take the Time” at nearly every show on the FII tour.

Other instances of singers other than James singing with the band:

– Mike Portnoy picked up lead vocal duties during the first verse of “Anna Lee” at the February 26th, 1998 show in Brussels Belgium. The verse was followed by “Where the f— is James!?”

– In February 2000, when James left the stage under threat of arrest from the fire marshall, Mike sang most of “The Spirit Carries On” with the entire crowd singing along.

– On the 2000 Christmas CD, there is a version of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” with Greg Chick (who was pulled up from the crowd) on vocals (see attached photo).

– Chris Jericho (a.k.a. Fozzy’s Mongoose McQueen) sang with the band on stage for one song in Canada in early 2002.

– Bruce Dickinson has sang with the band on a number of occasions, including a BBC Sessions-style cover of Deep Purple’s “Perfect Strangers”, and in Los Angeles on 5/18/98 when he sang “The Trooper”, “Where Eagle’s Dare” and “Killers” (all Iron Maiden) with DT. That show is available through Ytsejam Records as an official bootleg.

– Also at that show, Ray Alder sang “Pull Me Under”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o8SM-JQkL0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTm9QoJNvUk

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I've heard the band Nicky Lemons and the Migraines played at a Dream Theater show? Who are they?

Nicky Lemons is Derek Sherinian’s alter ego. Supported by the Migraine Bros (Petrucci and Portnoy), his hit song “I Don’t Like You” was played as an encore to many shows during the Touring Into Infinity world tour. The ficticious album entitled Ugly American was planned for release, but unfortunately due to lack of support the project was scrapped.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrSqZiB0uQw

Nicky Lemons and the Migraines only made 4 appearances (not many): 1997/12/07 Hamburg, Germany 1997/12/14 Philadelphia, PA 1998/01/10 Kanagawa, Japan 1998/05/12 Detroit, MI

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Nightmare Cinema is a warped version of Dream Theater. It features John Petrucci on drums, John Myung on keyboards, Mike Portnoy on bass, Derek Sherinian on guitar, and James LaBrie on vocals.

They made several appearances during encores in Europe, the US and Japan, starting with the April 19, 1997 show. Nightmare Cinema’s setlists consisted almost entirely of Deep Purple’s “Perfect Strangers”, but Ozzy’s “Suicide Solution” was played on one occasion in Japan.

Once Derek left DT, Nightmare Cinema also ceased to exist, with Mike saying it was a special thing between that line-up of the band and it won’t be repeated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxtwyYuPK_4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApL1mCdOpxQ

Nightmare Cinema Lineup: Nicky Lemons- guitar (Derek Sherinian) Juice Malouse- keyboards (John Myung) Johnny James- drums (John Petucci) Abdul Matahari- vocals (James LaBrie) Max Del Fuvio- bass (Mike Portnoy)

In total, they made 10 appearances: 1997/04/19 Bonn, Germany 1997/11/01 Chicago, IL 1997/11/11 Los Angeles, CA 1997/11/22 New York City, NY 1997/12/09 London, England 1998/01/16 Tokyo, Japan (includes the only time they did another song other than Perfect Strangers - part of Suicide Solution with MP on vocals) 1998/02/24 Paris, France 1998/05/24 San Antonio, TX 1998/12/27 Philadelphia, PA 1998/12/30 Poughkeepsie, NY

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I have often seen references to the “legendary ronnie scott’s gig”, what was it?

The “Ronnie Scott’s Uncovered Gig” was a show in which Dream Theater played a full show of cover tunes. Several special guests appeared as DT played the music that has influenced their own writings and styles. The complete set list (and guest list) was as follows:

Songs marked with (*) are available on the A Change of Seasons release. Songs marked with (+) are available on the DTIFC’s Christmas FCCD 1996. Songs marked with (-) are availble on the 5 Years in a Livetime DVD.

Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club - 1/31/95

Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding (Elton John)() Perfect Strangers (Deep Purple)() Red Hill Mining Town (U2)(+) Medley: The Rover, Achilles Last Stand, The Song Remains The Same() Tears (Rush)(+) Damage Inc. (Metallica) with Barney Greenway (Napalm Death)(+)(-) Happiness is a Warm Gun (Beatles) with Steve Hogarth (Marillion) Easter (Marillion) with Steve Hogarth and Steve Rothery (Marillion)(-) Winter (Tori Amos) In The Dead of Night (UK) Medley: Machine Messiah, Heart of the Sunrise, Close To The Edge, Siberian Khatru, Starship Trooper with Steve Howe (Yes)(- (partial)) The Big Medley: In The Flesh? (Pink Floyd), Carry On Wayward Son (Kansas), Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen), Lovin, Touchin, Squeezin (Journey), Cruise Control (Dixie Dregs), Turn It On Again (Genesis)()

Top Left to right: John Petrucci, Steve Hogarth (Marillion), Derek Sherinian, Steve Howe (Yes), John Myung.

Bottom Left to right: Steve Rothery (Marillion), James LaBrie, Barney Greenway (Napalm Death), Mike Portnoy

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The band had talks with another label called Atco Records (now EastWest), a division of Elektra Records, before being able to get out of the Mechanic Records deal. There was an understanding that if the band was able to get out of their prior record deal, that Acto would sign them if they could record a professional demo. This was called ‘The Acto Demos’ and included songs ‘Metropolis,’ ‘To Live Forever,’ and ‘Take The Time.’

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The band originally offered Jordan Rudess the keyboardist position in the band, which he politely declined. The band then hired Derek Sherinian, who later became a full band member after a few months of touring with the band.

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Dream Theater first approached John Arch (of Fates Warning fame - a band he’d recently quit). In fact, Arch himself thinks he might have influenced Dream Theater into firing Dominici by making remarks backstage about Dominici’s somewhat lacking live performances. He worked with DT for a couple of weekends, and made a couple of demo recordings. Ultimately, he found the prospect of long tours and extended leaves from home (a home with a baby on the no less) too daunting, and decided against joining DT.

Dream Theater received several hundred audition tapes from people all around. Out of these, the closest to get the gig were in particular three people: John Hendricks, Steve Stone and Chris Cintron. In all cases they were presented to management and label as “the next vocalist”. But the label decided against John Hendricks, and Steve Stone ultimately was let go because of a horrendous live experience. Chris Cintron almost were chosen, but there were some doubts regarding his looks and persona as a front man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cW0TYJN7tc

In 1991, right before the band was about to commit to Chris to be their new vocalist, they received an audition tape from Canada. The band was excited to see the audition had the voice they were looking for and flew Kevin James LaBrie down to New York to jam with the band. It also helped that he had “the pretty boy” look - long hair and charm. He was offered the vocalist position and started going by James LaBrie to avoid confusion with then keyboardist Kevin Moore.

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According to the band, the correct pronunciation is ‘yit-say-jam’.

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What are some of the funniest misheard lyrics from Dream Theater?

Here are some of my favorite ones: “Watching mortality, I mow the lawn” (Wanting mortality, i’m all alone) - The Killing Hand

“Death is the first dancing turtle” (Death is the first dance eternal) - Metropolis part 1

“Breaking delicate winds” (Breaking delicate wings) - Lifting Shadows off a Dream

“I was blinded by a pair of dice” (i was blinded by a paradise) - A Change of Seasons

“And my son’s not so bright” (and my sun’s not so bright) - A Change of Seasons

What are yours?

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No, not technically… since this doesn’t include JR’s or JLB’s wives. But the Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci and John Myung are all married to women who used to be in the same band together.

Meanstreak were an all-girl thrash metal band in the 80s and early 90s that included Rena Sands (later Petrucci), Marlene Apuzzo (Portnoy), and Lisa Martens Pace (Myung). The band broke up in 1993 (?) but are obviously still friends and remain in contact since their husbands are all in DT.

MP funded and produced a demo tape for the band in the early 90s and funded one of their tours. They also opened for DT at a number of shows in the US. A Meanstreak tour with Dream Theater in support is a running joke with MP on the MP.com forum, but in reality is extremely unlikely. Of course, especially now that Mike Portnoy no longer is in the band.

From http://www.metaladies.com/bands/meanstreak/ Although they only released one album, the career of this metal band from Westchester, New York, lasted nearly ten years.

The guitarists Rena Sands and Marlene Apuzzo met in 1985 to form the nucleus of Meanstreak, which would be complemented by Bettina France at the micro, Lisa Diane Pace on bass and Keyser on drums, replacing a drummer that was just passing through.

They Initially started in a Vixen-style, but changed to a more thrasher actitude, both musically and in terms of aesthetics.

After performing in several gigs, they were called to participate in the compilation “L’Amour Rocks” with the song “Lost Stranger” along with bands that, as them, had begun their careers at the club “L ‘Amour” in Brooklyn.

Mercenary Records, responsible for this compilation, ended recruiting the band group to release its first album in 1988, “Roadkill”. It was recorded in nine days, with the production of ex-Raven Rob ‘Wack’ Hunter.

The thrashy paths that Meanstrek seemed to head (which had already shown off in the final cut “The Congregation”) were not liked by Diane, who preferred a more commercial music. So she left the formation to let Devon Yael to come in, who dominated the double bass drum.

The album received good reviews in the specialized press, and thanks to it Meanstreak shared the stage with Flotsam and Jetsam, Motörhead, Manowar, Nuclear Assault, MOD, Anthrax and Overkill.

The album did not receive sufficient promotion so Meanstreak decided to cut with Mercenary and his record label in Europe, Music For Nations.

When the tour of “Roadkill” finished, and still without a contract, they began recording new material. Songs such as “Giant Speaks” and “The Other Side,” more thrashers than his previous album, never saw the light. Neither the contact with Debbie Abono, Violence and Forbidden band manager, succeeded to revive a band that gradually disappeared from a saturated scene.

But when it seemed that everything was over, Meanstreak came again to the fore in 1993 with a four track demo produced by Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater, husband of Marlene Apuzzo, who changed from guitar to bass following Lisa’s departure.

The demo was called “The Dark Gift” , and was a big change in the sound of Meanstreak which disappointed the fans who expected something more furious, faster, thrashy. What they found was a compendium of rock and ballads, as Bettina was tired to screaming and wanted to “mature musically.” This shift towards almost the grunge sound can also be understood as an attempt to get a record deal.

Marlene is not only the only one married to a Dream Theater musician. Rena is married to John Petrucci and Lisa toJohn Myung. This relationship led Meanstreak to support Dream Theater three times in the early 90s.

His last performance was on TV, in a program called “Girl’s Night Out.” Yael continues playing in My Ruin.

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It was a joke on the Metropolis 2000 DVD about Jordan’s playing poses. A DT fan and artist by the name of Andrew Saltmarsh created a fake image of the action figure packaging much to the amusement of DT forumers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpQ-RDiVPoY

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The following was posted in JR’s tour diary on October 31st 2002:

In this band you NEVER know what is gonna happen. It is a group made up of very unusual, unpredictable characters! Tonight we played in Fuerth Germany and the unexpected happened. In an award winning move at the end of our last song, John Myung Bass player extroadinaire, decided to go over to front man Labrie and TACKLE him football style, with his bass guitar on!!! THe two went down to the floor and rolled for a while while the other members of the group (me included) watched in complete amazement!!! It seems someone (who will go unmentioned) dared JM to do it with cash on the line! Lesson learned here. Don’t EVER dare John Myung to do anything because it could happen!!!! Ben the lighting man gave John the “Most Out of Character Award” for the tour!! Unbelievable… Write this day down. It was bizarre.

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Originally, Metropolis part 1 was named as a joke, but after being badgered by fans, DT decided to write a song to complete part 2. It was written during the Falling Into Infinity sessions in the summer of 1996, but wasn’t included in the album because it was over 20 minutes long and the record company were not interested in a double CD at that time (which was the only way it would fit in the album). There were some plans for an A Change of Seasons-style EP release, but that idea was shelved.

There exists a recording of a 20-minute instrumental live rehearsal version containing most of what would become Overture 1928, Strange Déjà Vu, One Last Time, and several riffs that ended up in The Dance of Eternity. There were some plans for an A Change of Seasons-style EP release, but that idea was shelved. It was later expanded on to become Metropolis, Pt.2: Scenes From A Memory.

The 20-minute recording was leaked onto the internet by fans, which angered Mike Portnoy to a great degree. Normally, Mike didn’t mind people sharing demos and studio outtakes, provided he was the one helping it spread in the first place (and thereby having a certain creative control over what was shared). But the 1996 recording was not intended to be shared, as it was a very rough live-in-studio recording. Mike said the following: MP: That is indeed IT!!! (well, only about half of it…as the first 10 minutes or so are missing….from the 0:30 second mark it cuts ahead about 10 minutes…skipping the entire section which became Overture 1928 as well as a few other bits…) As you can hear, there are still intact the parts that ended up becoming the end of Dance of Eternity as well as almost all of One Last Time… And I’m not mad….although, I didn’t want this to ever get released because it is live, under-rehearsed, loose as hell and incomplete (no vocals), if it’s out, it’s out…there’s really nothing I can do about it…so I’m not gonna cry over spilt milk… However, let it be known that I still will never release the complete version…as that will then be perceived as it being released with the band’s “seal of approval”…which it never will be as it is not good enough to meet our release’s standards for all of the above reasons…

Is Mike being a hypocrite if he condones bootleg collecting and trading, but doesn’t want the Metropolis pt. 2 “demo” being spread?

MP: Metropolis pt.2 is not from a concert or a demo or anything else that was ever played or presented to the public (and therefore in the understandable danger of being bootlegged). One of my biggest problems is the misconception of this recording - it is NOT a “demo” (in which case I probably wouldn’t care). This is an extremely rough, incomplete, unrehearsed, instrumental rehearsal tape, that was never intended to be heard outside of the band. This is something that was clearly leaked (or stolen as far as I’m concerned) from my personal and private archives by somebody whom I haven’t been able to put my finger on, but whom I clearly cannot trust. I was tolerant about Metropolis pt.2 appearing to begin with on the net at all (as it was too late to do anything about it), but I surely do NOT condone the further spread of it!

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Terry Brown produced Scenes From a Memory, and also provided the voice for the hypnotherapist. But he asked for royalties for live use of his voice, which was not something Dream Theater expected at all. As Mike Portnoy himself put it: MP: Well, a long story short - Terry has burned his bridges with us in the Dream Theater camp. Basically, half way through the M2000 tour, we received word from his lawyer that he expected __ amount of $ from us for using his voice when we perform Scenes From a Memory live. Now Terry knew DAMN well when he recorded his voice as the hypnotherapist during the Scenes From a Memory sessions, that it was a concept album that we would be performing every night on tour….OF COURSE we would be using a sample of his voice in the performance being HE OPENS THE FREAKING CD and SHOW!!!!!!!! Our speculation is that he may have been sore with us for not choosing him to mix Scenes From a Memory which he expressed wanting to do (it was never an option as far as me and John P were concerned). He also bitched about not being credited as the hypnotherapist on the CD sleeve (we purposely wanted it to be an unbilled cameo). Basically, he’s a big bad cry baby who was looking to cash in on his voice being used on the CD & tour anyway he could. (David Botrill’s voice was on the CD and tour as the voice of Edward in Finally Free and he never complained. Theresa Thomason’s voice was all over the CD and tour, never heard a peep from her…) We eventually had to pay to Terry off to avoid a lawsuit and were forced to have somebody else come in for the Roseland show to play the hypnotherapist. The guy is on the top of my s*** list and only succeeded to shoot himself in the foot because he now will never work with Dream Theater again, nor will we ever have anything nice to say about the guy who we thought was cool until this ridiculous incident!

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“On The Backs of Angels” was nominated for a Grammy Award on November 30, 2011 in the “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance” category.

Their second Grammy nomination, this time for “Best Metal Performance” was their single “The Enemy Inside” from their current self-titled worldwide smash album on Roadrunner Records.

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The band wrote the album without a drummer present. John Petrucci programmed basic drums using a drum machine while the band wrote the music that would later end up on the album ‘A Dramatic Turn of Events.’ Mike Mangini, the new drummer, took Petrucci’s basic drums and expanded on the parts adding his own style to the sound.

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In the Presence of Enemies is an adaptation of the first volume of the manhwa series “Priest”.

Priest (Hangul: ????) is a manhwa (Korean comic) series created by Hyung Min-woo. It fuses the Western genre with supernatural horror and dark fantasy themes and is notable for its unusual, angular art style.

About Priest: The comic book has 16 volumes and tells the story of humanity’s battle against 12 fallen angels, led by an archangel called Temozarela. Despite having fought by God’s side in the battle against Lucifer, Temozarela and his allies realize that God had lost interest in them, turning His attention to humanity. They then decide to rebel against God in light of God’s favoritism towards the human race, descending upon Earth to ‘play God’ among the humans who build a temple and statues for them. For their rebellion and acts against humanity, God destroyed their temple and their statues were cast underground, with their souls being trapped within the statues. The story begins when preacher Ivan Isaacs (the hero) make a terrible mistake: unleashes Temozarela from a prison of hundreds of years. Ivan is then cast onto a cross after witnessing his only love Gena die in his arms. To end this eternal suffering, Ivan denounces God and sells half of his soul to a demon called Belial. By doing this, he gains a second chance of life and reborn as an immortal in the service of Belial, devoting himself for vengeance against Temozarela and his followers.

The song starts similar to the comic book: a narrator telling his memories from the past… “I saw a white light shining there before me And walking to it, I waited for the end A final vision, promising salvation A resurrection for a fallen man” page 5

“Do you still wait for your God, and the symbol of your faith?” page 6

“I can free you from this Hell and misery You should never be ashamed, my son I can give you power beyond anything Trust me you will be the chosen one” page 7

page 7 is also related to the following lines:

“I can lead you down the path and back to life All I ask is that you worship me I can help you seek revenge and save yourself Give you life for all eternity”

let’s continue… “I was forgotten, a body scorned and broken My soul rejected tainted by his blood Beyond redemption, a sinner not worth saving Forever taken from the one I loved” page 8

“Servants of the fallen fight to pave the way For their savior’s calling, on this wicked day Through a veil of madness, with a vicious blade One man rises up standing in their way Redemption, redemption for humanity” This part I’d like to link with the events that happen on the next pages of the comic book. Ivan Isaacs is fighting an undead legion sent by Jarbilong, the eleventh fallen angel. Ivan, armed with a gun full of silver bullets, destroys the undead legion and has his first encounter with Jarbilong: page 10, 11

page 12

page 13

page 14

page 15

page 17

page 18

page 19

entering ITPOE pt. 2… “Welcome tired pilgrim, into the circle We have been waiting Everyone’s gathered for your arrival All the believers” page 20

“Angels fall all for you, heretic Demon heart, bleed for us” There are no direct references with this lines (they illustrate Ivan Isaacs’ burden told throughout the book).

“I’ve been waiting for you, weary preacher man You have been expected, now we can begin Let this hallowed day of judgment reign I have known you father, and your sacred quest Blessed soldier fighting, you shall never rest I have known you but do you know me?” page 21

“Angels fall all for you, heretic Demon heart, bleed for us (My soul is yours Dark Master, I will fight for you)” Again, no direct references with volume #1… This last line is interesting though, it’s a piece of Ivan Isaacs’ oath made when he sold half of his soul to Belial. The oath continues: “Dark Master within, I will fight for you Dark Master of sin, now my soul is yours Dark Master my guide, I will die for you Dark Master inside”

The lyrics seem to keep focus on Jarbilong, although the comic book will show him again only at page 113: “I cannot see his face But I could feel his spite A presence from the dead Abandoned by the light” page 113

“This shadow will consume him from within This power that I sense The rage behind those eyes Is just a shrouded ghost A spirit sealed inside The body and the soul both threats For they are one” page 148

page 149

Jarbilong is talking to Armandiel, one of the 12 fallen angels. Armandiel is probably the most powerful angel, he helped Temozarela in the battle against Belial centuries before Ivan Isaacs’ pilgrimage.

The hiatus between page 21 and page 113 shows a situation where undead servants of Jarbilong are awaken inside a train. This train carried some caskets, Ivan, and federal marshals that had the boss of a criminal group called Lizzie. She becomes important because of her resemblance with Gena, Ivan’s lost love. A series of happenings take place, but an important moment occurs when the demon Belial takes control of Ivan’s actions (who fights the undead). Links with ITPOE? Check this out: “Don’t bother trying to find them They will be coming to you Fight, fight and destroy Until you can’t take anymore” page 35

“Stay, spill the blood of the rebels They are the children of hell Flesh of the undead Stopping at nothing to kill Sin, caught in a moment of weakness Committed the greatest of all” I couldn’t find direct references in volume #1… =/

“Sold half of my soul And now it’s too late for you” page 65

“I judge as my eyes see I judge and I am just For I speak of the beast That lives in all of us Unwelcome once, your time has come” page 111

The following is a reference to Psalm 23: “Lord, You are my god and my shepherd Nothing more shall I want Walk through the abyss into the shadow of death Fear, there is no evil to fear now For I know you are with me My cup overflows with my enemies blood I decay in the house of the lord forever, amen Death will follow me all the days of my life” Ivan Isaacs reads psalm 23 when he is about to save Lizzie for the 1st time. page 100

page 101

page 102, 103

page 106

“Servants of the fallen fight to pave the way For their savior’s calling on this wicked day Through a veil of madness, with a vicious blade One man rises up standing in their way” Narrative of some happenings. No direct references…

“(It’s time for your reckoning)” page 86 (image missing)

“My soul grows weaker He knows and he waits He watches over me Standing at the infernal gates In the hour of darkness The moment I feared has passed The moment I lost my faith Promising salvation My soul is my own now I do not fight for you, Dark Master” Ivan Isaacs is again tormented by Belial. A moment of revolt fills up Ivan’s feelings because Belial have had tormented him with what happened to Gena. This happens before Ivan Isaacs save Lizzie for the 2nd time and blow up the train. page 128 page 129 page 130

The song ends, but the manhwa continues for 15 more volumes telling Ivan Isaacs story and his pilgrimage seeking revenge from Temozarela. On the back of the book, it says the following:

“In the frontier of the American West, a veil of evil threatens to engulf humanity. Servants of the fallen Archangel Temozarela are paving the way for their dark lord’s resurrection. One man stands in the way of the apocolypse, Ivan Issacs, a fallen priest who sold half his soul to the devil Belial for the power to fight evil. Armed with a wicked blade and silver bullets, Ivan will give the heretics a baptism of blood in his Pilgrimage for humanity’s redemption.

“As you see, you judge. And your judgment is just.” “This is the slaughter of the damned” “In the presence of my enemies” “My cup overflows…with their blood. AMEN!”

“Servants of the fallen fight to pave the way For their savior’s calling on this wicked day Through a veil of madness, with a vicious blade One man rises up standing in their way”

All of these sentences can be found on the back of the manhwa. Where they give a brief summary of Vol. 1

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Here are all the episodes of the drummer audition tapes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L609JsPFmmI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vaDfcKzLbY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QHMQjH17aw

Then when the Self-titled album came out, it had a memory stick with the following video on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tZ-go2CXqo

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXTp2pFj9dg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFw6INV6xmo

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc_1fwJmBk8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNVfsvUFg2w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yXhWdX2l9c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iSONcgqj24

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“Del Fuvio Monks was the background vocal section comprised of John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy, and Myself. Underneath the surface the Del Fuvios were a secret organization based on Mockery, Bitter Diatribe, and Sardonicism. We were so fucking brutal, it was unbelievable”

• Derek Sherinian

“Del Fuvio” was Portnoy’s last name when they did NC. A little known fact is that they all went by different names when they switched instruments

Nicky Lemons- guitar (Derek Sherinian) Juice Malouse- keyboards (John Myung) Johnny James- drums (John Petucci) Abdul Matahari- vocals (James LaBrie) Max Del Fuvio- bass (Mike Portnoy)

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Bill W. (“The Glass Prison” is dedicated to him in the liner notes) was one of the founding members of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Glass Prison is about steps 1-3 of the AA 12-step program. His ‘friends’ are the people who have beaten their addiction with the help of the program.

The rest of the 12 steps are continued in the songs This Dying Soul, Root of All Evil, Repentance and The Shattered Fortresss.

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John Petrucci stated the following in the official announcement of the album: I see every new album as an opportunity to start over. To either build or improve upon a direction that has been evolving over time or to completely break new ground. This is the first self-titled album of our career and there is nothing I can think of that makes a statement of musical and creative identity stronger than that. We’ve fully explored all of the elements that make us unique, from the epic and intense to the atmospheric and cinematic. We’re incredibly excited about Dream Theater and can’t wait for everyone to hear it.

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Yes, there have been a few fix-ups on DT’s live albums over the years, although MP has tried to stay away from the studio as much as possible since Live at the Marquee.

LATM: A significant chunk of the vocals were overdubbed, as well as some of the guitars.

OIALT: The sax for Take Away My Pain was added in the studio afterward - Jay Beckenstein was not at the show, and the song was played without any additional instruments/musicians

LSFNY: JP’s back-up vocals in “The Silent Man” were re-recorded because he sang the wrong lyrics on the night. There was also a screw-up in “Through Her Eyes” which was not fixed because Mike wasn’t available on the day the overdubs were recorded (both his and JP’s back-up vocals at the concert for that song were through the same mic, so it wasn’t possible to just re-record JP). Some guitar touchups because of errors in A Change Of Seasons solo was also done.

SCORE: The Score DVD is completely live apart from a small section in UAGM where JP’s guitar rig cut out

BUDOKAN: MP stated on his Budokan commentary that he did re sing one line in As I Am in the “truck” after the show. There is a section in As I Am where the keyboard rig went down and JR miked (for the cameras) until it was fixed.

LUNA PARK: An quite obvious “audience loop” can be heard throughout the song, which is played inbetween every song (lasting about 9 seconds and looping).

BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL: Vocal overdubs an/or auto-tuning touchups have probably been done.

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This was posted by James in 2010: Hey All,

Let’s get something straight. I do not use auto tune live. I have in the studio and post live recordings. This recording from Tokyo and any other live videos on youtube has not been auto tuned. So to those who don’t believe it, sorry to bust your bubble but you are absolutely wrong. This and all the others are exactly as they went down.

Rock on,

James.

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The piano/guitar intro sequence used live for both “Pull Me Under” and “Learning To Live” at different times, includes a lot of voice samples from James Joyce’s “A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man”. According to sources close to Moore, “although Eve is named after the christian concept of Eve, it was more inspired by James Joyce and their shared contempt of Christianity than anything else”.

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The ATCO Demos is an EP that DT recorded and sent to ATCO Atlantic, which eventually resulted in their 7-album record deal. It had three songs on it: “To Live Forever”, “Take the Time”, and “Metropolis Part 1”.

As a special Images and Words 10th Anniversery celebration, the DTIFC sent out copies of the ATCO Demos to subscribers of their magazine.

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The Majesty Demos are a collection of songs written and/or recorded in the periode 1985 to 1989. Some of these are cover songs.

The Majesty Demos also was the name of a demo tape that was released when Dream Theater was called Majesty, and was sent out/spread out to many people (other bands, record companies, fans, friends and family).

The content of the cassette was as follows:

Another Won Your Majesty A Vision Two Far Vital Star March Of The Tyrant

None of these saw the light of day on an official release (at least not in studio form) - excepting the Ytsejam Records release.

Other tracks recorded in this period were:

Particle E Motion The Saurus Cry for Freedom The School Song YYZ (Rush cover) The Farandole (Talas cover) Anti-Procrastination Song (SOD cover) Solar System Race Song I’m About To Faint Song Mosquitos In Harmony Song John Thinks He’s Randy Song Mike Thinks He’s Dee Dee Ramone Introducing A Song Song John Thinks He’s Yngwie Song Gnos Sdrawkcab Death Of Spock (Early version of The Ones Who Help To Set The Sun) Resurrection of Ernie

Also Demoed

Afterlife The Killing Hand Ytse Jam A Fortune In Lies Only A Matter Of Time The Ones Who Help To Set The Sun The Killing Hand Light Fuse and Get Away (instrumental version)

Charlie Demos (that got the band their first contract)

A Fortune in Lies Afterlife The Ones Who Help To Set The Sun

And the final demos before their first album was released

To Live Forever Mission Impossible Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Bealtes cover) O Holy Night (trad.) A Vision ’89

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According to Mike Portnoy, these are the official start times of each section:

I The Crimson Sunrise 0:00 II Innocence 3:50 III Carpe Diem 6:54 IV The Darkest of Winters 10:08 V Another World 13:01 VI The Inevitable Summer 16:59 VII The Crimson Sunset 20:12

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Since 1996 DT have released an annual CD (known as the Christmas CD until 2002 when it was no longer released at Christmas time) to the members of the international fan club as a ‘thank you’ for supporting the band. They were discontinued in 2004/05 because the International Fan Club ceased to exist. The CDs released are as follows (thanks to Nico for details of how many copies were pressed):

1996 (1,600 pressed)

The first ever Christmas CD had a collection of rare or previously unheard songs from DT shows in the early 90s, as well as greetings from the band. Today, this CD sells for incredible amounts on eBay, and is a very rare find.

1997 - The Making of Falling Into Infinity (3,400)

As the name suggests, the second Christmas CD contained studio tracks from the recording of FII, much like Ytsejam Records’ “Making of SFAM”.

1998 - Once in a LIVEtime Outtakes (4,000)

This CD contains some of the tracks left out of the OIALT live CD, recorded in Europe.

1999 - Cleaning Out the Closet (5,350 + 2,000)

This is one of the most popular annual CDs because it contains some previously unavailable material spanning DT’s entire history.

2000 - Scenes From a World Tour (7,800)

The bulk of this CD is made up of highlights (and some lowlights) of the Metropolis 2000 world tour.

2001 - Four Degrees of Radio Edits (7,619)

A collection of radio edits from SDOIT.

2002 - Taste the Memories (6,600)

As a celebration of IAW’s 10th anniversary, this CD of songs from IAW, WDADU and some rarities was compiled from the Images and Tour concerts from the early 90s.

2003 - Graspop Festival 2002 (7,330)

A recording of DT’s heaviest set to that point, performed at the Graspop Music Festival in Belgium, 2002.

2004 - A Sort of HomeComing (7,500)

Contains selected tracks from the concert at Madison Square Garden, April 3rd 2004 as well as other performances from the north-america tour of 2004.

2005 - A Walk Beside The Band (5,000)

Contains several live tracks from the european leg of the Octavarium tour with interviews and backstage tours.

2006 - Romavarium (5,000)

The second set of the last show of the european leg in Rome - the entire Octavarium record played in its entirity.

2007 - Images and Words 15th Anniversary (5,000)

The full Images and Words album played live during the 2007 tour.

2008 - Progressive Nation 2008 (5,000)

Selected tracks from the 2008 tour. Special recording: Repentance Live with Mikeal Akerfeldt.

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A Bombay vindaloo is a hot and spicy Indian-style chicken and potato dish invented in England.

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There are two different themes involved in “A Change of Seasons”. The first is the death of Mike’s mother, which is evident throughout the song. It is apparent that after her death, Mike felt that he needed to live his life to the full, and the ‘carpe diem’ idea that is seen throughout the song was a big part of that. The second theme is the life cycle of man, compared to different seasons.

This was posted by Mike Portnoy on Facebook june 30th 2015: PLEASE TAKE 2 MINUTES TO READ THIS POST….IT JUST MAY CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

The world lost a great man today…a man who was a teacher of mine in 11th Grade in High School: Mr. Pat Lynch

Mr. Lynch was my Robin Williams from Dead Poet Society (5 years before the film came out…) He gave a lesson in Health class that had a huge impact on my life.

The date was Friday November 16th 1984: He was telling the class to Seize The Day (“Carpe Diem”)…pointing out how life was so precious and that it could change any moment on the drop of a dime…and to appreciate everything you have NOW while you have it. He encouraged everybody in the class to go home that evening and give our parents a hug and a kiss and make sure to let them know how much we loved and appreciated them.

That evening my mom was preparing to leave on a private jet to Atlantic City with her boyfriend for the weekend…just before leaving the house to go out with my friends, I turned around and ran back in the house to give my mom a hug and a kiss and let her know how much I loved her. (I had NEVER done that before!)…she was taken aback and asked where that came from…?? I told her I just wanted her to know how much I love her…

That was the last time I ever saw my mom…she was killed that evening when the plane crashed off the Atlantic City shoreline…

I tell this story not for sympathy…but to encourage others to do the same. I wrote about this story in my lyrics to “A Change Of Seasons” by Dream Theater…hoping to pass on the lesson of Seizing The Day…I even have CARPE DIEM tattooed on my left forearm, so I always remember it…

And I share this story today to thank Pat Lynch for that incredible lesson that November afternoon…a lesson that gave me my final moment with my mom…one that I would NOT have ever had if it weren’t for his powerful lesson in class earlier that afternoon.

Thank you Pat Lynch for changing my life and countless others…

CARPE DIEM, Mike Portnoy

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It’s an early version of “The Mirror” which consisted only of the opening riff up to where the vocals come in. You can see it in action on the Live in Tokyo video, as an intro to “Take the Time”.

Interestingly, this is the first thing JP worked on when he got his 7-string guitar. But it was created and played with a 6-string guitar for a long time before JP got a 7-string, during the writing sessions for Awake.

The guitar melody during the intro (after the dun-dun-dun part) was a variation of a melody they made up (“Puppies on Acid, aren’t they a lovely sight, Puppies on Acid, I would eat them if I might.”

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Originally, the line “I don’t need your sympathy to get me through the day” was actually “I don’t need your mercy fuck to get me through the day”. At some early shows, James sang these original lyrics instead of the ‘official’ ones.

Also, during the latter stages of the Scenes From a Memory tour, James included this section. An example can be found on the 2000 Christmas CD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzBCsWv2jfQ

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John Petrucci originally recorded this cover of the Bon Jovi song as a practice tape for one of his guitar students before Images and Words was released. The demo tracks laid down by John were recorded with guitar and a drum machine only and no added vocals. Eventually Chris Collins, one of Dream Theater’s earliest vocalists, got hold of the tape and decided to add some vocals of his own to the background music. The final result is what you hear on the version available as an MP3 on various websites and P2P networks.

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There are many special things about Live Scenes From New York:

• It was the first recording of a Dream Theater album from beginning to end
• It marked Jordan’s first live album with the band
• It’s the first time the band has released “A Mind Beside Itself” in its entirity on a live album.
• It’s the first time a version of the complete “A Change of Seasons” has been available on a live release.
• The show itself lasted well over 3 hours, after which MP passed out and was almost taken to hospital

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These lines are part of a poem by Robert Herrick called “To The Virgins, To Make Much of Time”. The full text of the poem is as follows: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow will be dying. The glorious lamp of heaven, the Sun, The higher he’s a-getting The sooner will his race be run, And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer; But being spent, the worse, and worst Times, still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time; And while ye may, go marry: For having lost but once your prime, You may forever tarry. The sound samples in the song are from a scene in the movie Dead Poets Society, which shares the ‘carpe diem’ themes with ACOS.

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The fan club releases are some of the most precious jewels in every DT collection. Why are they not printed anymore?

Their licensing required the release to be of a limited, for promotion, release only. That’s why they’re not available. Each copy was only available to people who were signed up to the fan club the year of their release.

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Hello, please make sure this question makes it to the band's ears. I'd really appreciate that! I'm wondering why Salt Lake isn't on the tour dates list for 2019 either somewhere near the Denver Co date or the Texas dates later in the tour? I've seen DT just once back when they came to Kingsbury Hall in 2012 or 13 and have been patiently waiting for them to come back around again. I did get the chance to see John when he stopped by on the g3 tour with Satriani which was incredible! I'm feeling a bit left out here as these guys are one of my all time favorite bands! By the way, what's with all of the band's these days promoting freemasonry symbolism? I feel that that and other controlling organizations are the real big issue with our worlds societies. It's insane! Please, I ask that the band sees or hears my questions first hand. Thank you for your time in receiving my message. God bless and take care.. ?

With regards to band coming to Salt Lake - that’s 100% up to the promoters in the area. If there’s no promoters willing to bring the band, they won’t be able to go there. It’s actually not up to the band where they tour most of the time.

With regards to free mason symbolism - outside of Rite of Passage, what references are you talking about?

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Hello I've been a fan since 1997 and have an collection of much of the early material on CD, also Bootlegs, specials, CDs of band side projects., Picks, Drum Sticks, many items are signed by the band. Would like to give it to a low price to someone who apprechiates it more than i do nowadays. Where should I turn to? thanks for your help

There’s a buy/sell/trade forum over that the Dream Theater Forums. Try there.

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In the past at Dream Theater concerts there has been an opening instrumental. That's not on any album. It's kind of a heavy orchestra opening before they start there first song. SO as an example, you just walk into the venue and find your seat while just random music out of the overhead speakers play. Pandora or something. But then, the lights go out and then there's the Opening Instrumental you hear, before the first song from the set list. Does anyone have any idea what I am talking about?

DT has used many different entry music pieces - twin peaks, psycho, etc. But after their self title album, they made their own entry music; False Awakening Suite.

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Do DT allow taping of their shows for private purposes?

No, DT doesn’t inherently allow taping. However, they do not actively pursue shutting down bootleg trading either, so it’s a bit of a grey area.

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Good morning. Do u sell the Romavarium DVD? Do you deliver in Brazil?

The Romavarium DVD is long out of print and is therefore difficult to get. We do not sell it. Your best bet is to find a fan who is willing to get rid of his copy.

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