Yeah, due to the format, Six Degrees is the
first thing you hear when you put its disc in and press play. While Six Degrees is all one album, I think as it's split into two discs, it's sort of got two openers, two closers. Disappear is "end of part one," and Six Degrees, taken as a whole, feels more like a new beginning than the final stretch.
Hey, I've been part of this forum for almost a decade, defending SDOIT's honour. I think I count before you, buddy!
Yeah, I can note that.. But I just said that because you used the "will" in your sentence.. So you WILL defend it, while I AM defending it..
However.. I know for sure we're not the only ones... Actually it's a fact: it is a song.. That's how they think about it.. And no one can change that..
Oh, go on then, you poked the hive enough.
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a song, yes. Solitary Shell is also a song. They released it as a single, they gave it a classical "verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo" structure, it has its own lyrics, subject and distinct melodic identity, they even
indexed it separately for your pleasure! They play it on its own live, they even wrote a nifty extended jam for it on the BCSL tour. They also included it as one of the "21 Other Pretty Cool Songs" of Dream Theater's Greatest Hit and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs. Surely that's as definitive a statement as you get - way more conclusive than some interview from ages ago with a man who isn't even in the band any more!
Basically, the argument that because Mike Portnoy said it was a single song Six Degrees should only be referred to as one cogent piece isn't quite watertight. I'm not saying you're wrong, I agree, Six Degrees is one statement and was indexed as such on Score, but I think the fact they listed all the tracks separately on its home album is mixed signals, at best? Six Degrees is a song, and it's a suite, and it's an album, all at the same time, and The Test That Stumped Them All is also a song, and Solitary Shell is a song, and Goodnight Kiss is a song. Trying to define something as ambiguous and subjective as music in simple English can be a tricky sell, and Six Degrees more than any other DT song points and laughs at our petty human nomenclature. I will absolutely never correct someone if they tell me Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a single song, but I will be the first to defy them if they try to tell me Solitary Shell isn't one, too. It works on its own, and it works as part of a bigger whole. It's a song and a movement and a track and all the rest, too. Fans are way more precious about the definitions than the band ever were. What's in a name?