Scenes From My Memory v. Honor Thy Father

[Puppies_On_Acid]

I hope Indiscipline is OK and is just out on the road or something. I know he is usually pretty busy with work.

[Evermind]

Italy needs to go into complete lockdown again so this thread could continue.

[Puppies_On_Acid]

I feel the need to give this thread its yearly bump.

Hope all is well with you Indiscipline! 

[Podaar]

Alex, we love you and miss you. I assume you're better now, and just busy. 

[lucasembarbosa]

I hope we don't have to wait another decade for him to come back... 

[Indiscipline]

Holy bump me laddies!

It seems I've made it outta hell, so 2022 is gonna be kinda sorta comeback time.

Brace for new instalments, incoherent mumblings, and maaaaybe a tiny bizarre roulette thing.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and I wish you all spectacular new year.

[Dream Team]

An unexpected surprise! Welcome back, and get your typing skills warmed up!

[lucasembarbosa]

Yay! You're alive!!!

[Puppies_On_Acid]

Holy bump me laddies!

It seems I've made it outta hell, so 2022 is gonna be kinda sorta comeback time.

Brace for new instalments, incoherent mumblings, and maaaaybe a tiny bizarre roulette thing.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and I wish you all spectacular new year.

Ooh, I'm not sure what I'm looking forward to more now. More incoherent musings or Bizarro Hangmemes!

Glad to hear you are doing better. 

[Puppies_On_Acid]

I kind of feel obligated to bump this once in a while.....just in case.

[Dream Team]

Seems like a lost hope at this point . . . that first post of his on I&W is still the best.

[lucasembarbosa]

We'll definitely have to wait another 8 years or so to Indiscipline to raise back from wherever he's hiding xD

Hope he's fine tho

[Puppies_On_Acid]

Time to resurrect this thread.

Come on Indy, tell us a story!

[Podaar]

I'm semi-drunk, maudlin, and missing our ponce MC. I hope you're well, Alex. 

[Indiscipline]

Seeing you fine people again makes me gladder than seeing Victoria.

I think - and please take "think" with a grain of salt and some lemon juice when I'm concerned - I'm back for some online fun, but this thread can't go on.

I mean, it can't go on the way it was planned (again, salt!) - let me go check ... - an insane amount of years ago, for various reasons:

1. I got old, my memory gets rustier and rustier.

2. I'm sober, hence the lenses I'm looking through when I look back are waaay unfunnier and my ability to embellish and deceive took a seroius hit.

3. I write this in peace of mind and smile, but half the cast has made the grade, oh boy, and some chapters would smell of graveyard.   

BUT, what I can, will, and would like to do is keeping on with the delirious DT album dissections via timestamps, incoherent drivel, and general ban-defying piss-taking at The fanbase.


I love you fiercely.

[Stadler]

Seeing you fine people again makes me gladder than seeing Victoria.

I think - and please take "think" with a grain of salt and some lemon juice when I'm concerned - I'm back for some online fun, but this thread can't go on.

I mean, it can't go on the way it was planned (again, salt!) - let me go check ... - an insane amount of years ago, for various reasons:

1. I got old, my memory gets rustier and rustier.

2. I'm sober, hence the lenses I'm looking through when I look back are waaay unfunnier and my ability to embellish and deceive took a seroius hit.

3. I write this in peace of mind and smile, but half the cast has made the grade, oh boy, and some chapters would smell of graveyard.   

BUT, what I can, will, and would like to do is keeping on with the delirious DT album dissections via timestamps, incoherent drivel, and general ban-defying piss-taking at The fanbase.


I love you fiercely.

WOW, good to see you. 

[Podaar]

I love you fiercely.

I would have preferred indifferently, but I'll take fiercely.

[Indiscipline]

I'm gonna settle for "apologetically".

[Podaar]

I've done that before. Recently, in fact. 

[Puppies_On_Acid]

Seeing you fine people again makes me gladder than seeing Victoria.

I think - and please take "think" with a grain of salt and some lemon juice when I'm concerned - I'm back for some online fun, but this thread can't go on.

I mean, it can't go on the way it was planned (again, salt!) - let me go check ... - an insane amount of years ago, for various reasons:

1. I got old, my memory gets rustier and rustier.

2. I'm sober, hence the lenses I'm looking through when I look back are waaay unfunnier and my ability to embellish and deceive took a seroius hit.

3. I write this in peace of mind and smile, but half the cast has made the grade, oh boy, and some chapters would smell of graveyard.   

BUT, what I can, will, and would like to do is keeping on with the delirious DT album dissections via timestamps, incoherent drivel, and general ban-defying piss-taking at The fanbase.


I love you fiercely.

Glad to see you around these parts again! And I'll take whatever I can get. Perhaps another wrestling themed roulette? 

[Indiscipline]

I still need to get back into the forum groove, but Iet's say I have a sort of Summer Games thingy brewing in the shop ...

[Indiscipline]

Is he for real or is he ghosting away again?

Is this thread worth committing or fock it and the digital horse it rode on?


Well, to those who understand I extend my hand, to those who don't give a fock I extend my ...


Anyways, it's still a Great Debate and let's pray Rory I still got it:


[0:00 – 2:02:] Really clever bit of songwriting here as the tribal drums symbolise news and opinions bouncing left and right in the public arena. Said that, when thinking about something worth deeming The Great Debate, the matter treated here jumps to mind after 846 other topics. Sarcasm aside, let's stumble into a long time coming sidenote: so far DT songs have always touched rather uppity ethereal philosophical or deep personal themes (I'm not even considering the couple of clumsy attempts at angsty current commentary). Never a song about simple desire or even lust, something everybody could connect with. Not a critique, just pointing out something peculiar suddenly popping into the noggin.

[2:02 – 2:42:] And it gets cleverer as the drum solo symbolises propaganda smothering communication and the message itself. It seems the boys have really reached songwriting maturity, which is often something coming way later than musical maturity. Also, Mighty Mike is a cymbals master and finally worthy to join the Copeland-Peart lineage in such discipline.

[2:42 – 3:32:] This focking beggars belief. This album keeps misusing James to the point of resorting to Robot LaBrie and thinking it's an acceptable idea. I don't know what the fock is going on behind the scenes, but either someone is actively mobbing the vocalist while a new one is waiting by the phone or James just can't stand up for himself in the studio. Either way I am pissed. (Time Warp: two decades have past and I still couldn't help typing that last full stop way harder than needed. I care, sue me.)

[3:32 – 3:55:] Thank God he's back to normal functioning. Really, aside from trying to look cool and musically up to date, what's the focking point of deliberately uglying up something beautiful you've got?

[3:55 – 4:18:] And for the first time in ten years of fandom (we are in fact in 2002) the sentence "awfully simplistic chorus" comes to mind. But let's be more specific: just "simplistic" could work for the musical side, for the lyrical one I am forced to use "children book simplistic", and I mean on a Paladine vs Thakisis level. Sic Transeat Gloria Gaynor.

[4:18 -4:28:] I really don't like where we're going here. Why are you trying to heavy things up with keyboards? I mean, get heavier to your flaming heart's content, by all means, but keyboards are made for other purposes, even at low registers. Methinks that's a waste of a perfectly good key patch.

[4:28 – 5:10:] And why the fock do you need to sound like FOCKING TOOL OF ALL SHITTY BANDS NOW? Ok, please let me collect composure ... Right, why? It's like going to the plastic surgeon asking for a Dudley Moore visage when you look like Sean Focking Connery. Plus, further grave misuse of James, and I've never wished a vocalists syndacate existed more than this moment. And keep in mind I work as singer in a mafia polluted state with medieval work policy and contracts.

[5:10 – 5:56:] And now, because we haven't humiliated you enough, we make you sing like you're stoned! What the fock is happening here? Has James boned somebody's wife here? This is infuriating. I am (still) fuming.

[5:56 – 6:20:] Fine, that was gorgeous riffage. That's the path to buy me back. This album has a ridicolous peaks and valleys ratio. Falling into Infinity II: There Was No Bottom Apparently.

[6:20 – 6:42:] Nothing to see here, really. It's very sad when a song begins to copy and paste before its pompous forum commentator needs to.

[6:42 – 6:55:] Beautiful chord progression, one DT has done at least once on every album: Metropolis Pt1, Voices, Anna Lee, Home ... and let's stop here for plot's sake. Now, although between Bach and Coltrane we have explored every progression, the lineage of bands with almost patented chord changes is pretty interesting: Beatles – Pink Floyd – Iron Maiden – Dream Theater ...

[6:55 – 8:58:] Finally a healthy dose of DT spirited space prog heavy rock soothing the soul, opposed to some plebean flavour of the month parody. Aaaaand, what do you know, James shines again! Coincidence?

[8:58 – 9:26:] Beautiful, Somewhere in Time sorta beautiful, and now I don't care a bit for 6th grade subtlety lyrics. You can sing the lyrics from the M.A.S.K. Theme on this musical bit and I will like it.

[9:26 – 10:00:] Scenes Jordan is back with a Beyond This Life outtake!

[10:00 – 10:44:] And Johnny P replies with some Home outtake!

[10:44 – 11:25:] Now let's everybody rejoice with some Learning to Live outtakes! Best bit of the song, by the way.

[11:25 – 13:45:] And the story ends as it began. Somebody has a boner for loops/circular songwriting on a Roger Waters level.

Like A Glass Prison, take out seven minutes of crap and you have a masterpiece.



Feeling stronger everyday, but BBCode is still a bitchy bitch.

[Podaar]

Less whimsy in this installment. Have you got a headache, Indi...because now I do.

I guess the "debate" wasn't as intense in Italy, but here in the states, circa 2002, it was pretty heated. Exhausting?

As for the effects on James vocals, I see your point, but at the time a lot of rock groups were experimenting with lo-fi vocals. In this instance, I was fine with it since it served the narrative purpose. When James comes in clean and full throated I think it makes a nice contrast/impact on the song.

Jordan's heavy keyboard bit (dirty pig?) never really set right with me either, but hey, he seems to like it.

[9:26 – 10:00:] Scenes Jordan is back with a Beyond This Life outtake!

[10:00 – 10:44:] And Johnny P replies with some Home outtake!

[10:44 – 11:25:] Now let's everybody rejoice with some Learning to Live outtakes! Best bit of the song, by the way.

I never noticed this, exactly. Good call!

2. I'm sober, 

Permanently? Congratulations(?).

[Indiscipline]

Less whimsy in this installment. Have you got a headache, Indi...because now I do.

Comeback stage fright

2. I'm sober, 

Permanently? Congratulations(?).

Thank you (!)

Permanently as "a glass of wine at dinner now and then rather than getting shitfaced whenever not on stage". 

[Lonk]

Seriously, this enhances the listening experience so much! thank you 

[Indiscipline]

Thanks! I live to serve, I really focking do.

And since (I'm an idiot, never ever forget that) I somehow managed to not see a post, so let me mend the rudeness:

WOW, good to see you. 

Thank you, the very same here.

[Indiscipline]

A little quiz game for the All-Saints festivities perhaps?

Why? Well, because I for one feel like it, my name's Alex so I can do some bootleg Jeopardy,  and because I need vagons of levity to go back in 2002, when the next song didn't resonate the same way it does today. So:

1) It put MetalliMascara in the movies
2) Could very well be my wrestling entrance music's title
3) An all time top 5 side A closer.

Yep, you got it, it's Disappear:


0:00 – 0:34: We may talk too much about DT, but we seriously don't talk enough about their uncanny ability to frame a mood with a handful of bars. Funny, because the very band's name is a pretty accurate description of what I've just described. Those notes longing to be together but deceptively suggesting dissonance, the Ill Honky Tonk Piano lifted from an hypothetical Scenes parallel narration ...

0:34 – 0:58: ... Right. Same Regression/Spirit 6/8 signature strumming. This is both musically promising and songwriting/storytelling wise intriguing. The piano changes are a little bit close to Karma Police for comfort, but since Karma Police is a shameless Sexy Sadie theft I'll let that slide. (If you think I would perform my italics "couldn't help it" schtick for focking Radiohead, you haven't been paying attention).

0:58 – 2:06: Let me put my LaBrie's Avenger cape on. I promise you it's waaay more difficult to be so expressive and soulful at the bottom of your range than it is near the ceiling. High notes are pole dancing, low and slow ones are ballet. On a sidenote, I don't see the need to drown the vocals in such reverb; it must be this album's "thou shan't leave thy voice unprocessed" mantra.

2:06 – 2:32: Lucy in the Sky mellotron, on the same time signature and tempo I might add! I was not mistaken, this is a Lennonesque piece of songwriting (although the mellotron was allegedly a Macca idea). Do what you please with this information, but for me it's huge. Whenever your music shines a light on your tether to Bach or the Beatles, you're doing it extremely right.

2:32 – 2:35: Four notes, four focking simple notes, yet impossibly important. Please, do me a favour and edit the whole song without this section, instantly forget you did it, listen again, and tell me whether it feels completely different. Such is the power of emotional transitions. I know, you won't do me this favour, so you'll have to trust me or wave this paragraph off as musical lunacy. No hard feelings.

2:35 – 2:48: Repetition, hence considerations: I've jus waxed poethical about transitions after celebrating this piece's Lennonesque qualities ...  and John Winston Lennon was notoriously one to eschew the very notion of transitioning. I know sweet fock all.

2:48 – 3:56: Is it possible to enormously contribute to the emotional mood (in a trasformative way I dare say) just by snare placement in the groove? It is if you are Michael Portnoy (big Lennon fan, I hear). Speaking about mood, I could do without the keyboard choir patch. Keeping with this installment theme, I'd like this section best "naked", a sort of Across the Universe without strings. Does the DT Custom Shop still exist?

3:56 – 4:26: And of course, the harp plus Money for Nothing wah coupling is so perfect it moves to tears, way greater than the sum of its parts. Plus, let me point out that Johnny P is showing a structural restrain on par with Bill Bruford's writing credit winning (lack of) performance in Trio.

4:26 – 5:20: Perfect orchestrational and vocal crescendo: this song is really the perfect companion piece to The Spirit Carries On. Same ts, tempo, almost parallel negative harmony, yet stripped down and on opposite mood and landscape. A very different but related way for a soul to change plane of of existance. Again, as far as I'm concerned, Toilet Wall is showing DT at their songwriting maturity peak. Before I forget while wallowing in my tangents, in this instance the vocal processing is focking brilliant: a way to hear and feel both narrator and subject. Also, the way "never forget" is sung is reason #649 I love Big James, who vindicates the whole side A with a bunch of measures.

5:20 – 5:40: And tis is the sad brother to the "familiar voices shining through" section just before the acoustic breakdown in Scenes' last song. Appropriate and brilliant. Someone here is Finally Free, just in a very different but related way.

5:40 – 6:45: Full circle (again) hence return of the son of considerations: with this song (and Misunderstood) we have DT at their most songwriting confident; not "we can go out of our ballpark" confident, but "we still need to find out where our ballpark's fences are because we can't see focking any" confident. Strangely enough, this confidence is articulated both via obnoxious experimental fat in desperate need to be trimmed (Glass Prison and Great Debate) both via elegant restrain* (Misunderstood and Disappear). Blind Faith is just what it is: a motherfocking great great DT banger.

*Devil in the details: listen to Jordan closing up Disappear. You'd expect his patented minMaj7 flourishing arpeggio. Not this time: this song needed just a gently tap on a simple minor triad. And it takes the strenght of a genius and some state of grace.


Coming Next: I haven't forgot about you, Black Bitch.

[Pebsie]

13 years late to the party, but I just followed along with the story and listened to Pull Me Under along with your comments. And like those who came before me, I have a newfound respect for not only this song but Dream Theater as a whole. Like my eyes have been opened to the context I could've have possibly had given that I was, uh, -5 years old. Sorry. And thank you!

[Indiscipline]

13 years late to the party, but I just followed along with the story and listened to Pull Me Under along with your comments. And like those who came before me, I have a newfound respect for not only this song but Dream Theater as a whole. Like my eyes have been opened to the context I could've have possibly had given that I was, uh, -5 years old. Sorry. And thank you!

That makes two of us. Welcome aboard Pebsie!

[TAC]

Alex, my roulette goes another 2-3 days. Then I'll get back in to start following. Hopefully you won't have disappeared by then.

Actually Disappear is one of my favorite DT songs, so I'm looking forward to running through it with your commentary.

[Indiscipline]

Alex, my roulette goes another 2-3 days. Then I'll get back in to start following. Hopefully you won't have disappeared by then.

Actually Disappear is one of my favorite DT songs, so I'm looking forward to running through it with your commentary.

Not going anywhere.

I'm back on the streets 'cause I still got the blues.

[TAC]

Alex, my roulette goes another 2-3 days. Then I'll get back in to start following. Hopefully you won't have disappeared by then.

Actually Disappear is one of my favorite DT songs, so I'm looking forward to running through it with your commentary.

Not going anywhere.

I'm back on the streets 'cause I still got the blues.

Stop messin' around.

[Indiscipline]

Alex, my roulette goes another 2-3 days. Then I'll get back in to start following. Hopefully you won't have disappeared by then.

Actually Disappear is one of my favorite DT songs, so I'm looking forward to running through it with your commentary.

Not going anywhere.

I'm back on the streets 'cause I still got the blues.

Stop messin' around.

I'm just a victim of the future, with dirty fingers

But the messiah will come again

[Puppies_On_Acid]

2:32 – 2:35: Four notes, four focking simple notes, yet impossibly important. Please, do me a favour and edit the whole song without this section, instantly forget you did it, listen again, and tell me whether it feels completely different. Such is the power of emotional transitions. I know, you won't do me this favour, so you'll have to trust me or wave this paragraph off as musical lunacy. No hard feelings.

2:35 – 2:48: Repetition, hence considerations: I've jus waxed poethical about transitions after celebrating this piece's Lennonesque qualities ...  and John Winston Lennon was notoriously one to eschew the very notion of transitioning. I know sweet fock all.

2:48 – 3:56: Is it possible to enormously contribute to the emotional mood (in a trasformative way I dare say) just by snare placement in the groove? It is if you are Michael Portnoy (big Lennon fan, I hear). Speaking about mood, I could do without the keyboard choir patch. Keeping with this installment theme, I'd like this section best "naked", a sort of Across the Universe without strings. Does the DT Custom Shop still exist?

3:56 – 4:26: And of course, the harp plus Money for Nothing wah coupling is so perfect it moves to tears, way greater than the sum of its parts. Plus, let me point out that Johnny P is showing a structural restrain on par with Bill Bruford's writing credit winning (lack of) performance in Trio.

4:26 – 5:20: Perfect orchestrational and vocal crescendo: this song is really the perfect companion piece to The Spirit Carries On. Same ts, tempo, almost parallel negative harmony, yet stripped down and on opposite mood and landscape. A very different but related way for a soul to change plane of of existance. Again, as far as I'm concerned, Toilet Wall is showing DT at their songwriting maturity peak. Before I forget while wallowing in my tangents, in this instance the vocal processing is focking brilliant: a way to hear and feel both narrator and subject. Also, the way "never forget" is sung is reason #649 I love Big James, who vindicates the whole side A with a bunch of measures.

5:20 – 5:40: And tis is the sad brother to the "familiar voices shining through" section just before the acoustic breakdown in Scenes' last song. Appropriate and brilliant. Someone here is Finally Free, just in a very different but related way.

5:40 – 6:45: Full circle (again) hence return of the son of considerations: with this song (and Misunderstood) we have DT at their most songwriting confident; not "we can go out of our ballpark" confident, but "we still need to find out where our ballpark's fences are because we can't see focking any" confident. Strangely enough, this confidence is articulated both via obnoxious experimental fat in desperate need to be trimmed (Glass Prison and Great Debate) both via elegant restrain* (Misunderstood and Disappear). Blind Faith is just what it is: a motherfocking great great DT banger.

*Devil in the details: listen to Jordan closing up Disappear. You'd expect his patented minMaj7 flourishing arpeggio. Not this time: this song needed just a gently tap on a simple minor triad. And it takes the strenght of a genius and some state of grace.

Bingo.

6DoIT is the first DT album I heard, since it was the newest DT album out at the time I was told about DT, so it's what I happened to buy at the record store. I just remember when I first put this album on, I was loving it up until The Great Debate and I almost gave up on the album just on the lack of strength of that one song... I still don't like that song to this day. However, Disappear was such an amazing turn around and so different from everything before it that it immediately made me stand up and listen. It also came at a perfect point in my life and got me through some hard times. The lyrics spoke to me and the music drove it home. To this day, this song is the one that anchors the entire album for me. Just like you can't do without those 4 notes from 2:32 – 2:35 in this song, you can't do without this song on this album.

[Indiscipline]

... Just like you can't do without those 4 notes from 2:32 – 2:35 in this song, you can't do without this song on this album.

I'll give you one more: what is Gamora?

Scratch that

I'll give you one more: while Disappear is a perfect way to ease into a disc 2 state of mind, The Great Debate would horribly suck at the task.