Anna Lee

[Bill Carson]

My least favorite Dream theater song ever although I had to seriously reconsider that when Systematic Chaos came out.

[wolven74]

It's really a great song. I don't listen to it often, but when I do I really like it.

[CrimsonSunrise]

My least favorite Dream theater song ever.

I don't "Hate" any DT song, but I do dislike this one and haven't listened to it in years, it's on auto-skip....  It's just a very bland, no emotion evoking song to me.

[snapple]

Fun fact: I bought FII from iTunes like 6 years ago. Anna Lee was erroneously titled "Falling Into Infinity". Man, was I confused as fuck.

[Samsara]

I LOVE the song Anna Lee. So underrated. Very emotional tune and it absolutely needs to be a part of Dream Theater's live rotation going forward.

[Lowdz]

I'm a big fan of the song. It's one of the highlights of FII to me.

[RoeDent]

Glad to see there are some fans of this beautiful song here! If there's one thing DT are masters of, even with their virtuoso musicianship and all, it's creating chord progressions and melodies that hit you with their sheer power. 

[?]

Bump.

I recently watched 5YIALT again and I realized that Anna Lee is actually a pretty good song

[BanksD]

Anna Lee is probably a top 20 DT song to me, and is extremely underrated.

[adamack]

I always thought that most people disliked this song too!

I love it...it was one of my first favorite DT songs. I know people think it is generic pop ballad, but there is certainly something to be said about writing an effective ballad. It is an art in itself.

And the song may come off as simple, but the chorus alone has, count 'em, around TWENTY FIVE chord changes!

[tjanuranus]

LOVE it 

[BlobVanDam]

I just listened through FII last night, which of course included Anna Lee. Still a beautiful little song.

[Tis BOOLsheet]

It's absolutely dreadful-- one of the worst and most boring DT songs ever. It's such a lame soft rock song it makes me want to hurl. It's a mind-boggler in DT's impressive catalogue that spans 20+ years. Once in a while I'll look through all of DT's songs on my iTunes, see Anna Lee sitting there, and laugh at how it even came out of the same band that came out with songs like Metropolis, Lines in the Sand, Glass Prison, Bridges in the Sky, Take the Time etc. Maybe it'd be an appropriate song on a 16 year old girl's iPod. But it finds no comfortable place to exist in the song collection of the progressive metal kings. It's the pits for me.

[BlobVanDam]

The reason they're "progressive metal kings" to me is because they have the ability to write such a straight-forward, beautiful song like Anna Lee, instead of being too pretentious and pompous to see the value in the simplicity of a beautiful melody and a shorter song.

[hefdaddy42]

Let's hear it for JP playing slide on the Talman! 

[Tis BOOLsheet]

The reason they're "progressive metal kings" to me is because they have the ability to write such a straight-forward, beautiful song like Anna Lee, instead of being too pretentious and pompous to see the value in the simplicity of a beautiful melody and a shorter song.

One does not attain a lofty status in a particular style of music because of songs that exist in a different genre and/or style altogether. It's like saying Metallica are the kings of thrash metal because they have the ability to write songs like "I Disappear." It logically has absolutely zero connection. And if they only put out songs like that, it would be the reason why they would NOT have that status.

To be sure, DT has many straight-forward, beautiful songs and melodies; and the band has shown they don't have to compromise their sound and top-notch musicianship in order to write shorter songs. DT12 (and previous work too) has made that unequivocally clear. Unfortunately, Anna Lee is a compromise of both their sound, and a great melody and song in general. The melody is flat, corny, and forgettable, the lyrics are lame and there is nothing above average about any of the instrumental parts or performances. Part of the reason why the instruments are sleep inducing is because the songwriting is so deficient; it has nothing to differentiate it from a generic, bland soft rock song on the radio I could have accidentally turned on-- and then quickly off. I would honestly rather listen to Shania Twain's greatest hits (no offense to Shania Twain) than Anna Lee. The songs would be far better and not disappointing. There is no reason why a band should have an all-star team of musicians and put out a song that could have been conceived at by amateur musicians at open-mic night. I do not listen to a band with John Petrucci, John Myung, etc just to have their names in a booklet and admire how they look. I want to hear them. Again, that does not mean they have to play fifty instrumental solos, with twenty different sections. TSCO-- while not my favorite song in their collection-- is a great example of a simple tune and melody with noticeably great musicianship. Simplicity does not mean cutting out the things that makes these musicians great.

Your suggestion that disliking Anna Lee (because of the aforementioned) is somehow indicative of pomposity, pretentiousness, and a general failure to appreciate "the value in the simplicity of a beautiful melody and a shorter song" is asinine. 

[BlobVanDam]

I never said anything about disliking Anna Lee being linked to pretentious or pompous. I was talking about the band. I'm not even bothering further than that. If you don't like Anna Lee, it's not my loss.

[energythief]

Fucking love it. One of the best things DS did, and JLB's lyrics are beautiful. I wish they brought it back!

[sylvinception]

There should be plenty of fans of Anna Lee here! FII is my 3rd favourite DT album, and I think it's a great song. Not one of my very favourites, but still a very nice ballad.

Totally agree!!
It's one of the most beautiful ballads of DT.

Unfortunately I don't see this song coming back in their live repertory.

[hefdaddy42]

There is no reason why a band should have an all-star team of musicians and put out a song that could have been conceived at by amateur musicians at open-mic night.

This is why I don't like TALW at all.

But I don't think it applies as much to Anna Lee.

But hey, different strokes.

[Rhayader]

It is a terrible poppy balad, but I like it more than DT12.

[kirksnosehair]

Wow, I sense a lot of young angst in this thread 


Of the ballads on FII this is the one I skip the least frequently.

[Tick]

Always liked it a lot. Still do!

[Sketchy]

Anna Lee is incredibly beautiful. There may have been times when I have been listening to it, and one of my housemates has come into the room to have a sing-along session with me to it.

[Dtman2112]

It's a fucking awesome song! I love JLB's performance, especially.

[Onno]

I really love it, though I must say I didn't really 'notice' it when listening to FII and it had to grow on me.

It's a fucking awesome song! I love JLB's performance, especially.

HI ZILTOID

[Rodni Demental]

Honestly, the only tracks I sometimes skip on Falling into Infinity are You Not Me (sometimes listen to it but I'm one of those people that happens to prefer Your Or Me). And Hollow Years.. I don't have any particular problems with the song but I just think some of the extended live versions were superior and the Album version doesn't feel as complete. Same phenomena happens to me for The Spirit Carries On, the album version seems really incomplete without the intro solo and variations you find in the live versions.

Also as far as Ballads from FII go. Anna Lee >>> Hollow Years.

[RaiseTheKnife]

Its a highlight of an already amazing album.  DT should reconsider playing it live for the new generation of fans.  They might be pleasantly surprised by the enthusiastic reaction.

[hefdaddy42]

Anna Lee >>> Hollow Years.

I agree.

DT should reconsider playing it live for the new generation of fans.  They might be pleasantly surprised by the enthusiastic reaction.

JP didn't seem to think this was a good idea.

[Tis BOOLsheet]

Its a highlight of an already amazing album.  DT should reconsider playing it live for the new generation of fans.  They might be pleasantly surprised by the enthusiastic reaction.

For the most part no one is going to be unenthusiastic at a live show like this. Most are going to be very enthusiastic about anything the band does. John Petrucci could drop his pants and underwear in the middle of a song and make a dying giraffe sound into the mic and the crowd would probably go nuts and throw up the metal horns.

But the band is obviously well aware of how the larger fan base feels about the song and has not played it in over a decade.

[AngelBack]

It's really a great song. I don't listen to it often, but when I do I really like it.

This.  I don't often go "hey I gotta hear Anna Lee"  but when I do play the record I always remember how much I love this song.  JLB's occasional "different" enunciations seem to really add something to this song, if that makes sense.

[JiM-Xtreme]

I'm fairly indifferent to it. I mean, I can definitely appreciate that it's a good, well written piece of music with well written lyrics but unfortunately neither makes me smile nor tugs on my heart strings, and thus I find it difficult to relate to musically.