Images And Words: A Scene From A Memory

This June it was exactly 10 years ago that Dream Theater released their stunning album “Images And Words”. Although they had released “When Dream And Day Unite” some years before, it was with “Images And Words” that the road to victory started. Information nowadays is abundant with all the Dream Theater related internet sites and fan clubs around the world. During the early nineties however times were different, internet was still in its early stage. Actually my first experience on the internet was searching for Dream Theater related news back in 1993. I also remember that I anxiously awaited the arrival of the latest Ytsejam mail in my email box. Man, that seems so long ago! However, little is officially reported on the years between “When Dream And Day Unite” and “Images And Words.” with this article I try to shed some light on this period. I have to give a big thank you to Mike Portnoy, who gave a quick and thorough response to my email with (too) many questions. So here we go.

Before the actual recordings had started, Dream Theater had already written most of the songs all fans are so familiar with. Almost all of these songs had working titles when they were first in their instrumental form. Some of the titles for “Images And Words” songs were:

Oliver’s Twist (Pull Me Under)
Grab That Feel (Take The Time)
Crumbling Metropolis (Metropolis Part 1, The Miracle And The Sleeper)
The Battle of Jimmy Cocoa and Fishface (Under A Glass Moon)
Creep With Tonality (Under A Glass Moon)

The Oliver’s Twist version of Pull Me Under contained the classical middle section of Erotomania before the final chorus returns. The title was in reference to Derek Oliver, the A&R guy who had just signed Dream Theater for the deal with the Record company Atco Atlantic. Also, Surrounded used to have the subtitle The Longest Night, which can be read on the promotional advance cassette of “Images And Words”.

Throughout 1989 and 1990 Dream Theater made some early instrumental 4-track demos for A Change Of Seasons, Metropolis, Take The Time and Learning To Live. In fact all four songs had also been played live as well during that period. Metropolis and To Live Forever were already performed in 1989 when Charlie Dominici was still the vocalist.

After the departure of Charlie Dominici, Dream Theater had to find someone to replace him. After listening to numerous audition tapes, they invited some potential vocalists to do an auditioning session in New York. It was during these sessions in 1990 that Dream Theater recorded 16-track demos of Don’t Look Past Me with John Hendricks and of To Live Forever with John Hendricks and Steve Stone. They continued with Steve Stone, but he was fired after his first show in June 1990 due to his poor performance. A few months later Dream Theater performed in the same venue. Despite the fact that they rehearsed with Chris Cintron, they performed an all-instrumental set that night (funny to note: opening band was Meanstreak, the band of Marlene Portnoy, Lisa Myung and Rena Petrucci). Christ too turned out not to be the right person for the job and Dream Theater continued the search. Former Fates Warning singer John Arch auditioned but neither he nor the other guys fit the high standard of Dream Theater. In the biography that was released by Atco in April 1992 you can read the following about this period: “A period of intense frustration followed as the band even contemplated an all instrumental future, but recognized the limitations inherent in such an approach and continued their search. “We were very picky,” concedes Portnoy, “because the four of us set high standards for each other, we didn’t want to sell ourselves short on the fifth member. Since the inception of the band we’d been looking for a vocalist who was on our level both mentally and musically.” The band was already working With the man they thought was their new singer when LaBrie’s tape arrived”.

So Dream Theater invited James to fly over to New York for his auditioning session with the band and so he did on Saturday January the 19th of 1991. The other four made up their minds during the next few days and asked James to join the band on Tuesday January 22nd, 1991. Wow, what a first time impression James must have made! The first songs that Dream Theater recorded in this form were Metropolis, To Live Forever and Take The Time in March of that same year in the Bear Track Studios. It is this recording session that you hear on the special CD shipped with this fanzine!! A gift from the band to commemorate the tenth anniversary of “Images And Words”.

In the next few months they were negotiating their deal with Atco and preparing to start the new album. The first planning for songs that would make the album were:

1. Metropolis
2. To Live Forever
3. Don’t Look Past Me
4. Take The Time
5. Under A Glass Moon
6. Learning To Live
7. A Change Of Seasons

As they were waiting for the deal to be finished and studio time to be set, Derek Oliver encouraged them to keep writing songs to see what they would come up with. So, they ended up writing Another Day, Surrounded and Pull Me Under. Also Kevin Moore had written Wait For Sleep as a prelude to Learning To Live shortly before entering the studio.

Dream Theater decided to add Pull Me Under to the final song list and swap out the two new “commercial” songs for the two older ones, with Another Day replacing To Live Forever and Surrounded replacing Don’t Look Past Me.

So when Dream Theater was preparing to start recording the album (they did some live rehearsal pre-production demos with David Prater), the final song listing for the album (in no particular order) had become:

1. Metropolis Part 1 (The Miracle And The Sleeper)
2. Take The Time
3. Learning To Live
4. Under A Glass Moon
5. A Change Of Seasons
6. Pull Me Under
7. Another Day
8. Surrounded
9. Wait For Sleep

However the very first day Dream Theater entered Bear Tracks to finally begin recording the album (Monday October 14th, 1991), they received a call from Derek Oliver begging them to keep A Change Of Seasons off the album. He was worried it would take the album “too far” and wanted to keep it at the 50-minute mark with the other 8 songs. After hours of arguing back and forth, they finally agreed along with the stipulation that they would be able to record A Change Of Seasons sometime in the future as an EP.

Derek Oliver was also pushing them to simply name the album “Dream Theater”, but as much as everybody tried to, Dream Theater did not want to disregard the fact that they already had one album out.

Derek also battled to have Pull Me Under as the first track on side 1, but Dream Theater desperately wanted to have Metropolis open the album and have Pull Me Under as the first track on side 2. Eventually they compromised by switching the sequence of Pull Me Under and Metropolis to Derek’s way, but he had to let them name the album “Images And Words” in return.

The recording sessions at Bear Tracks lasted two months ‘till December 11th of 1991 and the album was officially released on July 7th 1992 in the United States. Asking Mike what his expectations for the album were at that time, he answered: “After the whole When Dream And Day Unite/Mechanic disappointment, we would’ve been overjoyed selling 50,000. The thoughts of doing a video and getting to tour were only dreams for us at that point...”.

Most of you probably know that all of their dreams came true. They shot three videos for the album, Pull Me Under, Take The Time, and Another Day. The band’s hopes for commercial success were with Another Day, The most radio friendly of the three, but surprisingly it was Pull Me Under that became an MTV hit. In fact, Another Day still hasn’t been played once on the station. Radio had already picked up on Pull Me Under, and “Images And Words” began to gather quite an amount of sales. In the following years they made their first world tour, released their first live album (“Live At The Marquee”) and released another studio album (“Awake”). The fanbase kept on growing and “Images and Words” reached the gold status in January of 1995. As for now, there have been sold approximately 1,325,000 copies of “Images And Words” worldwide.

Erik Hulsegge

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Mike’s Thoughts On Recording I & W

What did the album bring you musically and personally?

Personally, it was our real “big break” as we had Just had a very bad experience with our first album, previous label, previous singer and a long search for a new singer. Musically, I think we had written some great music between 1989 and 1991 which was patiently waiting to be recorded so we were excited to finally record it all...

Do you recall a funny moment?

I remember dressing up as Flavor Flav from Public Enemy on Halloween and really confusing everybody!

Do you recall a sad/bad moment?

The whole experience of working with David Prater was extremely frustrating and uncomfortable for me. He has trouble with “people skills” (for lack of a more honest term!) and his stubbornness and the way he expressed it made for some of the worst situations of my professional career. I have never been treated with such creative disrespect before or since. I also remember Freddie Mercury dying while we were in the studio which was a major bummer. (as well as Eric Carr dying the same day as Freddie and Magic Johnson’s revelation of contracting HIV)

Which song or section still sticks out for you in terms of ‘still being proud of’?

I still think Learning To Live is one of the greatest songs in our catalogue. Of course, Pull Me Under and Metropolis are classics but they are a little too “played out” for me to have any objectivity towards them any longer. I also remember Take The Time blowing me away when we recorded it for the initial Atco Demos....

What would you like to change listening to it now?

Well, my hatred for the drum triggers (especially the snare drum) has been well documented through the years... so that’s the obvious answer for me. To my ears, it really dates the recording and makes it hard for me to listen to the album…

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James’ Thoughts On Recording I & W

What did the album bring you musically and personally?

Images for me, brought a fresh new start and approach to music. It was completely satisfying to sing around such incredibly well balanced music.... meaning that it wasn’t all about the instruments. There was the music with each song paying close attention to the inclusion of voice and melody. This is what excited me from the very first time I heard the band. There was lots of room for me to shine as a vocalist as well as being a part of a bigger absolute beautiful picture musically. Personally it was just a feeling of arrival to a place where I could finally be heard and felt that if given its fair shake, to be heard could be something that could last indefinitely.

Do you recall a funny moment?

A funny moment for me was at this house the band was staying at while recording Images and Words. We were all eating I think Sloppy Joe’s. These can be quite messy and napkins are a must well consuming such foods. Well napkins were not available so Kevin took it upon himself to use slices of bread to clean up any spillage on himself or the table. It was quite hilarious to witness such a bazaar accomplishment of proper food etiquette.

Do you recall a sad/bad moment?

The saddest moment throughout the recording had nothing to do with DT. During the recording process we saw for the last time an interview with Freddie Mercury whom you all know was and still is my all-time favorite singer. Freddie died the following day.

Which song or section still sticks out for you in terms of ‘still being proud of?

The whole album sticks with me. It was an incredible experience throughout the entire recording. As well, I was getting to know the other guys and it was quite evident to me that my relationship with these people on a personal level was going to be real comfortable and strong.

What would you like to change listening to it now?

The only element I would like changed was the trigger on the drum sounds. Mike played amazing but I thought that the drums sounded too clinical and there wasn’t enough of the natural acoustics that Mike’s kit definitely had. I know for a fact that Mike wasn’t at all thrilled with this effect encompassing his entire drum sound.

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John P.’s Thoughts On Recording I & W

What did the album bring you musically and personally?

On that album I learned a lot of recording techniques that I still use today. Layering guitar parts with different sounds and orchestrating ideas. Combining power chords with acoustics or cleans to make a collective guitar part for example. Personally, it was the realization that perseverance pays off. It had been a long time since WDADU and there were moments when it felt like we would never be in the studio again.

Do you recall a funny moment?

I can remember sitting down to dinner in a house that we all stayed in together. We didn’t have any napkins so we used slices of bread. (You had to be there!)

Do you recall a sad/bad moment?

Well, when we finished the sessions, we were broke! Here we were, our first recording on a major label, we had finally made it, but in actuality we all had to go back to our day jobs! Good things were to come, however.

Which song or section still sticks out for you in terms of ‘still being proud of’?

I would have to say “Metropolis”. I still think it kicks ass!

What would you like to change listening to it now?

The drum triggers bother me a lot. Lots of subtleties and dynamics were sacrificed unfortunately.

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Who Wrote What And When

As it still generally is today, the, lyricist is primarily responsible for the vocal melodies (with embellishments of course by the vocalist).... Surrounded was mostly Kevin’s ideas and Another Day was mostly JP’s. As always, the heavier, longer and more progressive pieces came from a 4 way collaboration. So, in the case of the songs that were written for the “Images And Words” album, it went something like this:

1. To Live Forever (late 1988)
Music: KM, JM, JP, MP
Lyrics and general melodies: JP
First vocalist to sing it: Charlie Dominici

2. A Change Of Seasons (Spring 1989)
Music KM, JM, JP, MP
Lyric and general melodies: MP
First vocalist to sing it: Chris Cintron (not until late 1990)

3. Metropolis (Summer 1989)
Music KM, JM, JP, MP
Lyrics and general melodies: JP
First vocalist to sing it: Charlie Dominici

4. Don’t Look Past Me (early 1990)
Music: KM, JM, JP, MP
Lyrics and general melodies: KM
First vocalist to sing it: John Hendricks

5. Learning To Live (Spring 1990)
Music: KM, JM, JP, MP
Lyrics: John Myung
General melodies: KM
First vocalist to sing it: James LaBrie (not until Spring 1991)

6. Take The Time (Summer 1990)
Music: KM, JM, JP, MP
Lyrics: MP (verse 1 & chorus), JM (verse 2), JP (verse 3) and KM (bridge & chorus)
General melodies: KM, JP & MP
First vocalist to sing it: James LaBrie (not until Spring 1991)

>> James Joins The Band <<

7. Under A Glass Moon (early 1991)
Music: KM, JM, JP, MP
Lyrics and general melodies: JP

8. Surrounded (Spring 1991)
Music KM, JM, JP, MP
Lyrics and general melodies: KM

9. Another Day (Summer 1991)
Music KM, JM, JP, MP
Lyrics and general melodies: JP

10. Pull Me Under (Fall 1991)
Music KM, JM, JP, MP
Lyrics and general melodies: KM

11. Wait For Sleep (Fall 1991)
Music, lyrics and general melodies: KM