Best DT Song Under 4 Minutes

[Theme Dreater]

Considering how many polls have been around lately, I thought I'd add another one! DT is well-known for having longer songs, so I thought it'd be fun to see what DTF thinks of the shorter songs in the DT arsenal. I went ahead and added Cover My Eyes even though it isn't on a studio album, and I considered the individual parts of SDOIT seperate songs for the purposes of this poll.

[Tom Bombadil]

Lots of good ones here. I went with The Silent Man, but One Last Time, Overture 1928, and Cover My Eyes were all close.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Went with Overture 1928, with Wait For Sleep as a close personal second.

[Laughingplace56]

Vacant. I seem to be the only person who loves this song as much as I do and I don't mind. It's a simply gorgeous, emotional song and is in my top 10. Not a bad song in the bunch though. 1928 is VERY close to Vacant, and WFS, TSM, and Regression all close behind.

[Daso]

Wait for Sleep is such a beautiful song. It's just magical, blissful. I like it more as Moore's magnum opus in DT than SDV.

[TheGreatPretender]

Definitely Overture 1928, followed by One Last Time.

[Infinite Cactus]

The Silent Man, followed closely by Overture 1928

[425]

It's actually a scandal that I'm the first one to vote for Far From Heaven. Dream Theater's best ballad and one of their very best songs period.

[Theme Dreater]

Huh, I figured that Overture 1928 would be in the lead,  it never occured to me how popular Silent Man is, though. I voted for Wait for Sleep myself.

[GasparXR]

I went with Far From Heaven. It was really hard to choose over False Awakening Suite, Cover My Eyes, and Overture 1928 though.

[JayOctavarium]

Vacant followed closely by Overture 1928

[ReaPsTA]

I voted one last time.  Everything about it is great.

[BlobVanDam]

I went with Vacant, although Overture 1928 and The Silent Man are both close contenders too. Most of the rest are also great little tracks, although I don't consider WIMH as a "song".

[54_diplomats]

Overture 1928. Wait for Sleep and One Last time are other good ones.

[?]

Wait for Sleep

[aprilethereal]

Huh, I somehow thought Overture 1928 was over four minutes long. If that were the case, I would have voted for Wait For Sleep, but the way it is, Overture 1928.

[erwinrafael]

A bit offtopic. Why did they track Through My Words separately from Fatal Tragedy?

[TheGreatPretender]

A bit offtopic. Why did they track Through My Words separately from Fatal Tragedy?

Seems to me like it was because of who wrote the different lyrics. Which does kind of suck, since they'd fit so much better together. Personally, I would've made it one track, and simply labeled it as different movements, with different lyricists.

[wasteland]

FAS

[robwebster]

Christ, that's a good poll! It's beween War Inside My Head, Wait for Sleep, False Awakening Suite, Cover My Eyes, Overture 1928 and The Silent Man. All spectacular. I think I'll eliminate War for not being self-standing. Wait for Sleep and Overture 1928 feel like my next boots - that leaves False Awakening Suite, Cover My Eyes, and The Silent Man.

You know? I like them about the same on the album, but I think the acoustic version of Cover My Eyes is more entertaining than the electric version of The Silent Man, so I'll give CME the edge, today. False Awakening Suite is third.

A bit offtopic. Why did they track Through My Words separately from Fatal Tragedy?

Different lyricist, different part of the story. It is a bridge, musically, has more to do with the last melody of Strange Deja-Vu than with the first of Fatal Tragedy.

[Laughingplace56]

I went with Vacant, although Overture 1928 and The Silent Man are both close contenders too. Most of the rest are also great little tracks, although I don't consider WIMH as a "song".

I consider it more of a prelude to TTTSTA like how TMW is a prelude to Fatal Tragedy. I rarely listen to it on its own and it doesn't stand on its own very well.

[BlobVanDam]

I went with Vacant, although Overture 1928 and The Silent Man are both close contenders too. Most of the rest are also great little tracks, although I don't consider WIMH as a "song".

I consider it more of a prelude to TTTSTA like how TMW is a prelude to Fatal Tragedy. I rarely listen to it on its own and it doesn't stand on its own very well.

There is a strong pairing there, which is why they're always together live (as I believe TMW always precedes FT?). WIMH wouldn't really work standalone, because it has no ending, and it's a very short piece to just throw in a set without context.
I never listen to any section of SDOIT or SFAM on its own, only ever in their entirety, so it's hard for me to think of a lot of those tracks as being individual songs, because they weren't written as such, and thus don't all work as such.

[Rodni Demental]

It was hard not to pick False Awakening because of epicness. And The Silent Man because it's a favorite. Or even Cover My Eyes to give it some love. But now I'm glad I picked War Inside My Head because it's also a favorite (in general and as a part of SDOIT) and hadn't been voted for yet. 

[hefdaddy42]

Gut instinct pick was Vacant, but there's lots of great picks here.

[Another_Won]

FAS

I went with this too.  Every time I listen to this song now, has to be with the video - just awesome!

[robwebster]

I went with Vacant, although Overture 1928 and The Silent Man are both close contenders too. Most of the rest are also great little tracks, although I don't consider WIMH as a "song".

I consider it more of a prelude to TTTSTA like how TMW is a prelude to Fatal Tragedy. I rarely listen to it on its own and it doesn't stand on its own very well.

There is a strong pairing there, which is why they're always together live (as I believe TMW always precedes FT?). WIMH wouldn't really work standalone, because it has no ending, and it's a very short piece to just throw in a set without context.

They could add one, mind, like they added an intro for Lie and an outro for The Root of All Evil. Wouldn't have to be much, just a long chord and the word "Head," but whatever's fun. Think it's great paired, though. They'd need to have a good idea to play it without The Test - although, they could totally double-head it with The Enemy Inside.

[krands85]

Very hard to decide actually - I guess I find it easier to separate and rank longer songs

It's between:
Wait For Sleep
False Awakening Suite
Vacant
Overture 1928
One Last Time

Just listened to them all and I really can't decide 

[BlobVanDam]

I went with Vacant, although Overture 1928 and The Silent Man are both close contenders too. Most of the rest are also great little tracks, although I don't consider WIMH as a "song".

I consider it more of a prelude to TTTSTA like how TMW is a prelude to Fatal Tragedy. I rarely listen to it on its own and it doesn't stand on its own very well.

There is a strong pairing there, which is why they're always together live (as I believe TMW always precedes FT?). WIMH wouldn't really work standalone, because it has no ending, and it's a very short piece to just throw in a set without context.

They could add one, mind, like they added an intro for Lie and an outro for The Root of All Evil. Wouldn't have to be much, just a long chord and the word "Head," but whatever's fun. Think it's great paired, though. They'd need to have a good idea to play it without The Test - although, they could totally double-head it with The Enemy Inside.

They could, but it was never designed to be a standalone song, so adding an ending still doesn't give it that context. Does it really make sense to stick a two minute song of just two verses and two choruses into the set? It would be very odd!
Lie is already a standalone song despite leeching off the end of The Mirror, with a clear beginning and end (and still works much better back to back with The Mirror), and TROAE is already completely standalone (and the changed ending last tour was pointless and a downgrade from the original).

They could do it, but I still wouldn't think of WIMH as its own separate entity.

[mikeyd23]

I voted for Overture 1928, but that really is a great grouping of songs, that was a tough call.

[RoeDent]

Overture 1928. Really transports you to the world of the opera, and highlights the many great musical themes that will recur through the rest of SFAM.

[robwebster]

They could add one, mind, like they added an intro for Lie and an outro for The Root of All Evil. Wouldn't have to be much, just a long chord and the word "Head," but whatever's fun. Think it's great paired, though. They'd need to have a good idea to play it without The Test - although, they could totally double-head it with The Enemy Inside.

They could, but it was never designed to be a standalone song, so adding an ending still doesn't give it that context. Does it really make sense to stick a two minute song of just two verses and two choruses into the set? It would be very odd!
Lie is already a standalone song despite leeching off the end of The Mirror, with a clear beginning and end (and still works much better back to back with The Mirror), and TROAE is already completely standalone (and the changed ending last tour was pointless and a downgrade from the original).

They could do it, but I still wouldn't think of WIMH as its own separate entity.

Oh, yeah, I'm not saying that'd necessarily make it any more or less distinct, just that they could totally have fun mucking about with it. A final chord would be a bare minimum - Solitary Shell received a huge jam on the BCSL tour, WIMH with its strong themes and brief runtime could be great good springboard for a similar thing.

Likewise, with Enemy Inside, if they used Puppies on Acid as an intro for Take the Time and Just Let Me Breathe, they can do similar things with War Inside My Head. The lyrical themes match neatly, and The Enemy Inside's intro is really close to The Test's in terms of tempo, pace and speed - WIMH could crash into either track in a similar way. I mostly just like the idea of making a PTSD medley.

[BlobVanDam]

I think it would work nicely too, and they both use a 7 string in standard tuning, so it's doable. But it doesn't really solve the issue of it not working standalone, it just gives it a different dependency.

[robwebster]

Oh, yeah, totally! Not working standalone's barely an issue, though. I do like WIMH for what it is - "Waging a war inside my...!" feels like the best way that track could possibly end.

[GasparXR]

I think it would work nicely too, and they both use a 7 string in standard tuning, so it's doable. But it doesn't really solve the issue of it not working standalone, it just gives it a different dependency.

Do you mean WIMH? Because as far as I know, it doesn't but it could still be played on one if it were to be paired with TEI.

[BlobVanDam]

I think it would work nicely too, and they both use a 7 string in standard tuning, so it's doable. But it doesn't really solve the issue of it not working standalone, it just gives it a different dependency.

Do you mean WIMH? Because as far as I know, it doesn't but it could still be played on one if it were to be paired with TEI.

Now that you point it out, you're right! I don't know why I thought it was.
The song is in Eb, played on a 6 string standard (at least on Score). So as you say, it could be played on the 7 string, and work back to back. Because of the chromatic chord progression behind the final chorus, the difference in key wouldn't clash either.