Dream Theater Chorus Survivor v. teh list

[Ħ]

Time for something new to DT survivors - a chorus survivor! Basically, what is the best chorus that DT has written? I got the OK from splent to do this along with the regular DT survivor, but please note that this is a completely separate thing from what splent is doing.
 
 
Here's the list I came up with, by studio album:
 
WDADU
A Fortune In Lies
Status Seeker
Light Fuse And Get Away
Afterlife
The Ones Who Help To Set The Sun
 
I&W
Pull Me Under
Another Day
Take The Time
Under A Glass Moon
Learning To Live
 
Awake
6:00
Caught In A Web
Innocence Faded
Voices
The Silent Man
Lie
Lifting Shadows Off A Dream
Scarred
 
FII
New Millennium
You Not Me
Peruvian Skies
Hollow Years
Burning My Soul
Lines In The Sand
Take Away My Pain
Just Let Me Breathe
Anna Lee
Trial Of Tears
 
SFAM
Strange Deja Vu
Fatal Tragedy
Beyond This Life
Home
The Spirit Carries On
Finally Free
 
SDOIT
Blind Faith
Misunderstood
The Great Debate
War Inside My Head
The Test That Stumped Them All
Solitary Shell
 
TOT
As I Am
This Dying Soul
Endless Sacrifice
Honor Thy Father
In The Name Of God
 
Octavarium
The Root Of All Evil
The Answer Lies Within
These Walls
I Walk Beside You
Panic Attack
Never Enough
Sacrificed Sons
 
SC
Forsaken
Constant Motion
The Dark Eternal Night
Repentance
Prophets of War
The Ministry Of Lost Souls
In The Presence Of Enemies Pt 2
 
BC&SL
A Nightmare To Remember
A Rite Of Passage
Wither
The Shattered Fortress
The Best Of Times
The Count Of Tuscany
 
ADTOE
On The Backs Of Angels
Build Me Up, Break Me Down
Lost Not Forgotten
This Is The Life
Bridges In The Sky
Outcry
Breaking All Illusions
Beneath The Surface


B-Sides

Cover My Eyes
Don't Look Past Me
Raise The Knife
Speak To Me
The Way It Used To Be
Where Are You Now


 
 
I think I got all of 'em, but maybe I didn't. There's many songs that are kind of tricky to tell if they strictly have a 'chorus' or not (e.g. Home) but I did my best. If there's any song you want to have included, state your case for it and I'll add it.
 
Also, if someone wants to let me know the chorus-possessing songs that aren't on the list, then go right ahead. 

[SomeoneLikeHim]

Dude, Home has the best chorus ever. 4:05 to 4:47 is totally a chorus.

[Mladen]

I'd say that thing in Home is definitely a chorus.

Other songs that have a chorus that you didn't include are, off the top of my head, The Test that stumped them all, The Root of all evil and Strange deja vu. Now, I don't think The Shattered fortress really has a chorus, but that's up for a debate, I guess.

[Ħ]

All right, I'll add Home (even though the lyrics aren't the same in the three separate verses).

What's the chorus for TROAE?

With SDV, it's like...two separate verses with different lyrics. Same with TTTSTA.

TSF's chorus - "fatal descent, spinning around..."    Is that a chorus?

[Scorpion]

For TROAE, it would be the "I am ready" part.

I'd say that TSF doesn't have one, but if you include Home, then you have to include SDV and TTTSTA.

[robwebster]

DT songs don't need a chorus you fascist!

The Root of All Evil chorus begins "Take all of me."  God, I love that chorus.

Good idea! Were you planning to do polls or posty-votes?

[Crow]

TROAE is the best chorus and also not on here so this survivor is biased

Therefore 

[MoraWintersoul]

The Root of All Evil chorus begins "Take all of me."  God, I love that chorus.

I'm thinking three different replies right now and they're all quite scandalous. What has this forum made of me?

[RuRoRul]

Not sure if I'd count the chrous of Heretic as being the chorus of ITPOE Pt. 2 (if you're going to include it may as well just be the chorus of ITPOE since it's one song). You may as well include all the multi-part choruses if you're going to do that (e.g. Medicate, Full Circle etc.).

Seems like you missed basically all of SFAM as well. Strange Dejavu (Tonight I've Been Searching...), Fatal Tragedy (Without Love, Without Truth...), Home (as mentioned), Finally Free (This feeling, inside me...? (maybe this one wouldn't count)). Plus some others as mentioned (particularly TROAE). Perhaps it'd be easier to list all DT songs without a chorus first then for people to rule them back in if most consider them to have one.

Also, I think you should make sure to make clear (perhaps with timestamps) what is the chorus being voted on. Since there's some disagreement over which songs have choruses, and what they are (Panic Attack has two parts that could be called the chorus, some people consider the "crossing bridges in the sky" to be part of the chorus of that song while others don't, I'm not sure what part you're considering to be the chorus of The Shattered Fortress, etc.).

Great idea though 

[Scorpion]

The Root of All Evil chorus begins "Take all of me."  God, I love that chorus.

I'm thinking three different replies right now and they're all quite scandalous. What has this forum made of me?

It's only brought out what was always beneath the surface, baby.

[Elite]

Well, alright list, but Home and TROAE should be added.

[Ħ]

Allright I'll add all of your suggestions.

@ Rob - just going to stick to polls.

[Ħ]

The Shattered Fortress's chorus:

"Look in the mirror
What do you see?
The shattered fortress
That once bound me

Fateful ascent
Through darkest fires
I've found the path
To take me higher"


ITPOE's chorus:

"Dark master within, I will fight for you
Dark master of sin, now my soul is yours
Dark master, my guide, I will die for you
Dark master inside"

Also:

"I judge as my eyes see
I judge and I am just
For I speak of the beast
That lives in all of us
Unwelcome one, your time has come"

[splent]

Being a music teacher, this is what I clarify as a chorus.

Elements of Music 101:
Form is how a musical composition is organized.  For example, the token pop song goes verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus. 
If we were to put this into letters, it would be ABABCB. 
Another example.  The song "Abacab" by Genesis uses the form ABACAB.  Hence the name. 
The letters work for instrumental compositions as well. 

A dream theater example that I can think of:
The Spirit Carries On uses the form ABABC(D)AB
(The D is for the instrumental that follows the bridge, some may just say that's an extension of the bridge, some may say that is separate.

Anyways, if the melody is the the same, but the words are not exactly, and the feel of it is definitely a chorus, I say it's a chorus. 

[Ħ]

OK well this is the final list if no one wants to add anything.

[robwebster]

Allright I'll add all of your suggestions.

@ Rob - just going to stick to polls.

Good! Less likely to vote on the post-y ones, just cos I don't like to post in a thread unless I've got something at least a little bit substantial to say, but polls I'll join in each round.

Aaaaand I see we have begun! Eeeeeexcellent...

[Lucidity]

Where's Metropolis Part 1? That has some of the best DT choruses ever written.

[Elite]

Where's Metropolis Part 1? That has some of the best DT choruses ever written.

It doesn't have a chorus.

[Lucidity]

Where's Metropolis Part 1? That has some of the best DT choruses ever written.

It doesn't have a chorus.

"As a child, I thought I could live without pain, without sorrow" and "Before the leaves have fallen" follow the same general outline and chords and I think they count as a chorus.

[robwebster]

I see where you're coming from, but I'm... disinclined to agree with you. Structurally, they both occupy a space where a chorus might be, but the melodies don't even echo each other. Vocally and lyrically they've got nothing to do with each other, and there's not a huge echo musically, either. Plus there's that big break where they cut to the chuggy verse riff in the first section... I think a chorus requires some degree of distinct, striking commonality - I get that they can accommodate changes melodically, lyrically, musically, all of that, but they generally mirror each other a lot more than the Metropolis passages do.

They might be pseudo-choruses, they might be filling a similar function to a chorus, but I think that's stretching the definition of a chorus way past its natural limit.

Good thinking point, though! Music's so instinctive, so subjective and frankly formless that trying to slap words all over it does become a little meaningless after a while. It's like the track/song/suite argument for Six Degrees. People insist that it's wrong to evaluate Solitary Shell on its own because it's part of SDoiT - but does that mean it's wrong to listen to it on its own? What about when it's on a setlist, is it half of a song then? Because it works out of context. It's got an extended solo and everything! Even on disc, it's got a distinctive verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo structure. I say Six Degrees is a song - and while I say Solitary Shell is part of a song, I'd also insist that it's a song unto itself.  It's a track, and a song, and a movement, and an excerpt, and all of those things, and it's frankly a completely stupid thing to take either side over.

If someone insists that I am not allowed to refer to Solitary Shell as a song, I will insist they are wrong. If they insist that I have to refer to it as a song, they are equally wrong, because it's part of SDoiT. Music's more fluid than the way we talk about it, and trying to impose any one definition upon a grey area is always ridiculous! So I'm not saying you're wrong about Metropolis' chorus. You're just a different kind of right to me. q:

[RuRoRul]

As long as there isn't a rigid, technical definition for something then it's always going to be a bit subjective what people think should be called what. But those parts in Metropolis don't share the same lyrics, vocal melody, rhythm, the music behind the vocals isn't the same, and Metropolis is widely considered not to have a chorus so I doubt you'll find anyone that agrees those parts are a chorus.

[Ħ]

Yeah, this is going to have to be on hold for a little bit until I get internet again. Posting from a library comp now.