Dream Theater's Sequels

[Another_Won]

DT has done a number of sequels to previous songs.  Most of the time it results in the sequels being a longer and more expanded version of the original.  Here are a few examples:

The Mirror -> 12 Step Suite
Metropolis -> Scenes Album
A Mind Beside Itself -> Six Degrees Song

Some might say UaGM -> LNF

Maybe you agree with these, maybe not.  Are there others?  What song would you like them to do a sequel?  What about the whole concept?  I like it, makes for some good playlists.

After thinking about it, there are definitely songs that shouldn't have a sequel and others that might not be very well suited for it.  I was thinking maybe ITNOG or Sacrificed Sons because they're pretty good songs but i dunno . . .

[JayOctavarium]

I&W -> ADTOE

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

I'm pretty sure Scenes is the only one that's actually a sequel. The Mirror just happens to be about the same topic as the 12SS, and I don't even know what the connection between AMBI and SDOIT is.

Maybe I just don't understand what you mean by sequel?

[BlobVanDam]

I'm pretty sure Scenes is the only one that's actually a sequel. The Mirror just happens to be about the same topic as the 12SS, and I don't even know what the connection between AMBI and SDOIT is.

Maybe I just don't understand what you mean by sequel?

This.

[Setlist Scotty]

I'm pretty sure Scenes is the only one that's actually a sequel. The Mirror just happens to be about the same topic as the 12SS, and I don't even know what the connection between AMBI and SDOIT is.

Agreed, aside from the fact that MP did in a way tie in the 12SS to The Mirror using the subtitle Reflections of Reality Revisited for TDS, and the opening line in Repentance ("hello mirror, so glad to see you my friend"). But MP himself has also stated specifically that The Mirror is not a prequel to the 12SS despite the lyrical connection.

And yeah, I'm not following the connection between AMBI and SDoIT.

As for the connections between UaGM and LNF or any of the IaW tracks and their ADToE counterparts, I wouldn't call any of them sequels either - just that they use the same templates/structures in writing multiple songs on ADToE as were used on IaW. In terms of actual musical ideas or lyrically, there is no connection.

[Outcrier]

A Mind Beside Itself -> Six Degrees Song

?

[Grizz]

Many people think A Mind Beside Itself is about mental struggles, like erotomania and schizophrenia. It's actually about sex vs. religion.

Another Day -> Take Away My Pain
A Change of Seasons -> The Best of Times
Raw Dog -> The Enemy Inside -> War Inside My Head

[Another_Won]

Many people think A Mind Beside Itself is about mental struggles, like erotomania and schizophrenia. It's actually about sex vs. religion.

Another Day -> Take Away My Pain
A Change of Seasons -> The Best of Times
Raw Dog -> The Enemy Inside -> War Inside My Head

Yeah ok, AMBI to Six degrees is a bit of a stretch. But as was pointed out, there probably are only two that really could be considered official.  I was just curious about other possible ones. 

Thanks Grizz, those are good ones.  How does Raw Dog relate to TEI?  I think I get the first one but could someone explain?

[Zyzzyva17]

Lines in the Sand --> Stream of Consciousness

But seriously, if they were to do the Metropolis treatment to another song, I would choose Breaking All Illusions. There's enough to expand on musically, and the lyrics are ambiguous enough to make a story out of them.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

The only one I would call a legitimate sequel in a series is SFAM. The Mirror and the 12SS share tons of lyrical themes, sure, but it reminds me of how say for instance, The Parallax I and II by Between the Buried and Me are obviously tied together, yet find similar lyrical themes and inspiration in Swim to the Moon from The Great Misdirect, and by extension, Sun of Nothing from Colors. They don't really qualify as sequels, but more like spiritual successors.

I honestly wouldn't know what DT song I would like to have a sequel in the future. I'm all for it if they pull it off well, but I'm not keen on the idea of it being a full length album as opposed to just a single song or maybe a series of songs. I can't help but feel that a full length album sequel to another song would restrict them in a multitude of ways. Then again, if they did do it, there's always a possibility of them proving me wrong (they've done it before after all).

[TheGreatPretender]

Let's not forget In The Presence of Enemies Pt. 1 and its sequel, In The Presence of Enemies Pt. 2. 

[MirzekDT]

Many people think A Mind Beside Itself is about mental struggles, like erotomania and schizophrenia. It's actually about sex vs. religion.

Well JP himself said directly it is about schizophrenia in Lifting Shadows book.

[TheGreatPretender]

Many people think A Mind Beside Itself is about mental struggles, like erotomania and schizophrenia. It's actually about sex vs. religion.

Well JP himself said directly it is about schizophrenia in Lifting Shadows book.

He said that about Voices, specifically. I don't think the lyrical subject matter of Voices has anything to do with The Silent Man.

[Grizz]

Hmm. Well I think that my interpretation makes more sense.
When you think about it as one story (instead of a large number of unrelated stories with religious text to make it sound cooler) it makes sense:

'Love, just don't stare'
He used to say to me
every Sunday morning

A religious figure looked up to by the narrator advising of love above lust

The spider in the window
The angel in the pool
The old man takes the poison
Now the widow makes the rules

Religious crap

'So speak, I'm right here'
She used to say to me
not a word, not a word

Bad communication between the abstinent narrator and his girlfriend? IDK

Judas on the ceiling
the Devil in my bed

Bad religious figures symbolizing the lust

I guess Easter's never coming
So I'll just wait inside my head

Difficulty resisting temptation until even the end of lent (and yes I know lent ends just before Easter)

Like a scream but sort of silent
living off my nightmares

Voices repeating me
'Feeling threatened?
We reflect your hopes and fears.'
Voices discussing me

Internal struggle

'Others steal your thoughts
they're not confined
within your mind.'

The fear that others know the perversions going through the narrator's head. (That happens to people besides me right?)

Thought disorder
Dream control

The feel where your perversions are running subconsciously rampant and you think that you're just not using enough will to suppress them

Now they read my mind on the radio

The fear that everyone knows the perversions

But where was the Garden of Eden?

The garden was the sanctuary before sins, such as lust

I feel elated
I feel depressed

Internal (hormonal) struggles

Sex is death, Death is sex
Says it right here on my Crucifix

Fornication is a sin (death), death of a puritan leads to the ultimate pleasure of heaven (sex)

Voices protecting me
'Good behavior
brings the Savior
to his knees.'
Voices rejecting me

Internal struggle, plus a phrase that can be interpreted as religious drivel or a sexual pun

"I don't wanna be here, 'cause of my
suffering, 'cause of my illness.
Only love is worth having, only
love is what matters, loving every
people on equal terms. "

Love  > Lust

"You've got to know who you're
dealin' with because, like a stranger,
a-heh, just might come in through
here with a gun... and then, what
would you do? (Heh.)"

Sin and you might die before repentance?

"Everything is immaterial..."
"'n' you know that reality is immaterial."
"This is not reality..."

There is more to the world than what we see, IE God

I'm kneeling on the floor
staring at the wall
like the spider in the window
I wish that I could speak

Internal struggle

Is there fantasy in refuge?
God in politicians?
Should I turn on my religion?
These demons in my head tell me to

Questioning about whether the religious abstinence is worth it. The demons are temptation, and since the people with all the power seem to be a bunch of amoral liars, is there any salvation in not living that life?

I'm lying here in bed
Swear my skin is inside out
Just another Sunday morning

Every day, especially the Sabbath dedicated to praise and worship, is the entailed internal struggle

Seen my diary on the newsstand

All can see the narrator's perversions (diary = internal thoughts)

Seems we've lost the truth to quicksand

Religious questioning, especially with the volume of sin in the world in the early nineties

'Cause these voices in my head
keep saying...

'Love, just don't stare.'
'Reveal the Word when you're
supposed to'

The voices are the internal struggle, telling the narrator to stay strong

Withdrawn and introverted
Infectiously perverted
'Being laughed at and confused
keeps us pleasantly amused
enough to stay.'

What others see of the struggling narrator

Maybe I'm just Cassandra fleeting
Twentieth century Icon bleeding
Willing to risk Salvation
to escape from isolation

I'm witness to redemption
heard you speak but never listened
Can you rid me of my secrets?
Deliver us from Darkness?

Questioning religion vs. lust

Don't expect your own Messiah
This netherworld which you desire
is only in your mind.

Don't give up faith, lustful pleasure is glittering fools' gold

[BlobVanDam]

Let's not forget In The Presence of Enemies Pt. 1 and its sequel, In The Presence of Enemies Pt. 2. 

Well now you're just getting silly.

[Crow]

LNF is not a sequel to UaGM
LNF is literally UaGM painted an uglier color
Under a Sandy Moon?

[JiM-Xtreme]

I Walk Beside You is Regression II.

[Grizz]

 

[PROGdrummer]

The Parallax I and II by Between the Buried and Me are obviously tied together, yet find similar lyrical themes and inspiration in Swim to the Moon from The Great Misdirect, and by extension, Sun of Nothing from Colors. They don't really qualify as sequels, but more like spiritual successors.

Swim To The Moon is actually an official part of the Parallax saga.
It's like a prologue before the first chapter (aka Hypersleep Dialogues). Sun of Nothing is unrelated.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Swim To The Moon is actually an official part of the Parallax saga.

Actually, that's correct, thanks for the correction.

Though the idea still stemmed from Sun of Nothing, they are otherwise unrelated (hence "spiritual successor" rather than "sequel"). Even Tommy calls it somewhat of a companion piece.

[The Letter M]

I agree with the others: Scenes From A Memory is the only explicit 'sequel' the band has ever done, and it originally was never meant to be! But because the band thought it'd be funny to tack on "Part 1" to the end of "Metropolis" as a gag, fans expected a "Part 2" to follow suit in the future, even if it took 7 years and 2 albums (and an EP) to do it.

Any other connections are purely conjecture. And I hope no one mentions that "meta-album" as a series of sequels just because SFAM connects to SDOIT (and SDOIT to TOT, TOT to 8VM) through the music at the end/start of each album.

-Marc.