A Change of Seasons (23:09)
Ah, here it is! A Change Seasons is here and it easily tops as the best song in Dream Theater history by most people. Out of 10 boys at school, 8 prefer ACOS. They say that it contains every element to be the best Dream Theater songs and even beats Octavarium. I would have to kind of agree. The thing is that I wasn't introduced to ACOS since about a month ago. I had known every big albums, except ACOS and my friends told me to check out ACOS and when I heard it, I first didn't like it. Well, it's not that, but it didn't get to me. This is my fourth time listening to ACOS and it is slowly, but surely getting to me. It's about Mike Portnoy's moms death on a plane and I feel extreme sympathy for Portnoy and given time, I would break down. No one deserves to have their loved ones taken away like that. Remember when Portnoy wipes the tears after drumming The Best of Times? Gosh, poor man. Anyways, let's begin.
[I. The Crimson Sunrise]
[Instrumental]This marvelous piece begins with Petrucci on the acoustic guitar as he plays a simple, but a bit haunting tune. This mood draws me in as Sherinian enters also. The duet between Petrucci and Sherinian makes this part all the more haunting and I can feel my eyes closing as I sway with the beat. Then, we can hear a twinkle (if that's what you call it) and a synth. After a little more duet, everyone comes in as the song starts with a bang. Petrucci's electric guitar and Portnoy's drum is the most prominent as Petrucci plays a nice riff and Portnoy has some nice drum fills. After that, the song stops as Sherinian and Myung has two isolated parts all to themselves. Sherinian and Myung is heard more louder. Sherinian also has a solo with his grand piano then we can hear a familiar tune to Erotomania. Nostalgia, eh? The intro would be the only reason why I think ACOS is a tad better than Octavarium. I'm sure most of you agree with me. The song later briefly stops as the instruments play all in harmony, then we can hear a solo by Petrucci with Myung and Sherinian there to back him up.
[II. Innocence]I remember a time
My frail, virgin mind
Watched the crimson sunrise
Imagined what it might find
Life was filled with wonder
I felt the warm wind blow
I must explore the boundaries
Transcend the depth of winter's snowThis was set before the accident. We can see that Portnoy was staring at the sunrise. The sunrise is especially beautiful and it takes my breath away every time I see it. This was the time before his innocence was taken away. It is said that your innocence is the sharpest when you are young and as you grow older and see the outside world, that is when your innocence starts fading. For me, my parents, especially my dad, being overprotective of me is sometimes really annoying and gets in my nerves, but I can kind of understand why they would want to protect me from the outside world. Before we experience death and all of life's curses, we think the world as perfect and full of wonders. "I must explore the boundaries/Transcend the depth of winter's snow." Now I realize that I could relate to that. Hey, these write ups are helping me a lot! I remember from like a week ago, I wanted to know what life was all about. I wanted to know all about family and marriage and that I wanted to explore, to push past the boundaries. But, by doing that, I might see life's cruelness.
Innocence caressing me
I never felt so young before
There was so much life in me
Still I longed to search for morePortnoy was an eager child and he wanted to explore the whole world. He hadn't felt this young and so passionate before. He was bursting with life and his passion and his non exposure to the life's cruelness, benefited him. Labrie holds the word, "More," and we can see Sherinian play a little riff.
But those days are gone now
Changed like a leaf on a tree
Blown away forever
Into the cool autumn breeze
The snow has now fallen
And my sun's not so bright
I struggle to hold on
With the last of my mightWe can hear an ominious sound, like a breeze being played. We can see the season slowly changing to winter, the darkest of all the seasons. The days of summer, of joy, they are all gone. The leafs blow away in the winter as the harsh wind strips them out of their tree. They are blown away and lost forever. The snow now falls as the sun is blocked out. This is Pornoy's innocence being clouded by a barrier as he struggles to hold on to his innocence. Sadly, his innocence is slipping away from him, and it takes all his strength to not give it up, but........
In my den of inequity
Viciousness and subtlety
Struggle to ease the pain
Struggle to find the samePetrucci riffs around for a while, then Labrie comes in. Petrucci is in his own "den" of unfairness and justice. He becomes vicious and subtle, as he tries to make the pain go away and to find the same. The key word here is struggling. He is not overcoming or winning. He is struggling.
Ignorance surrounding me
I've never been so filled with fear
All my life's been drained from me
The end is drawing near...He begins to be filled with ignorance. He has never been filled with fear, this strongly. His life is being drained. HE is struggling, but not overcoming as he is losing the battle. He feels that the end is coming soon and it will not be pleasant. As the last sentence ends, everything turns ominous and silent as we can hear the acoustic guitar only as the next phase of the song beings.
[III. Carpe Diem]"Carpe diem
Seize the day"An ominous voice starts off Carpe Diem and the first time I heard it, it brought chills to me and it still sometimes does. Labrie starts only a little after.
I'll always remember
The chill of November
The news of the fall
The sounds in the hall
The clock on the wall
Ticking away
"Seize the Day"
I heard him say
Life will not always be this way
Look around
Hear the sounds
Cherish your life
While you're still aroundThe mood is still dark. It's winter and it's November. The clock ticks away. Possibly, the clocks ticks away as Portnoy's mom's time is ticking away too. Portnoy feels really uneasy. Remember that this is before his mother died on a plane crash. The person who says seize the day could either be his father (though I highly doubt it), or his alter ego...? Seize the day can mean very strongly to a person. Live life. It also means YOLO. Live life to the fullest and do not let a single year go by wasted. I feel like the only time someone cherishes their life so much is when they are close to death. After that, sampling comes in.
("Gather ye rosebuds while ye may)
(Old Time is still a-flying;)
(And this same flower that smiles today)
(Tomorrow will be dying")This sampling is from a poem. The poem's name is "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time," by Robert Herrick.
We can learn
From the past
But those days
Are gone
We can hope
For the future
But there might not be oneThis brings out the con's of life. We might want to learn our mistakes from the past and do something to fix it! Great, right? Nope! What if those days all are gone? All erased from memory forever? We can also hope. We can hope that our future will work out fine. After all, hope can be the thing that keeps us going and to not give up? What if there is no future? What if our life is cut short? I can see how Portnoy's mom's future was cut short after that horrifying accident. I never liked planes......
The words stuck in my mind
Alive from what I've learned
I have to seize the day
To home I returnedCarpe Diem. Mike Portnoy realizes that he as to seize the day, to live life to the fullest as he returns home. But, tragedy strikes really soon like a bullet.
Preparing for her flight
I held with all my might
Fearing my deepest fright
She walked into the night
She turned for one last look
She looked me in the eye
I said, "I Love You...
Good-bye"We can see the chain of events leading up the climax. His mother prepares for her fateful flight. Portnoy holds on to his mother with all his might, refusing to let her go. He fears his deepest fright as she walks away into darkness as she turns back. She looks Portnoy in the eye as Portnoy replies, "I love you....Goodbye." Each sentence gets more intense as it is spoken. This here is the climax as you are anticipating what will happen next. This part kinda scared me when I first listened to it. I get scared easily and....Dream Theater's songs, kinda scared me. Well, some songs. The thing I got scared the first time was Bridges in the Sky, Portnoy's vocals, and yeah...there's more, but I'd rather not get into it, yet.
("It's the most awful thing you'll ever hear")
("If you're lying to me...")
("Oh, you dearly love her")
("...just have to leave...)
(All our lives")
("Seize the day!")
("Something happened")
("Gather ye rosebuds while ye may")
("She was killed")More sampling as we realize what happen.
"She was killed."
[IV. The Darkest Of Winters]
[Instrumental]This is the darkest part of the song. The title also supports that fact, though the part before could also easily be the darkest part. Petrucci plays a sick riff, then just riffs for a while. Around 25 seconds into The Darkest of Winters, Sherinian has a solo which I find really catchy, but brings out the dark mood. Petrucci's riffing is no slouch either as the riffing brings out the dark mood. Petrucci riffs, Sherinian plays, Petrucci riffs, Sherinian plays and it is like that for a while. Sick riff Mr. Petrucci.
After a bit more riff, we can hear the band all on fire. Myung and Portnoy then play a piece together, then there is a Sherinian/Portnoy duet also, then it leads up to.....Ytse Jam? Nope! A solo by Petrucci. The thing was that I had first listened to the Instrumedley and I find it really cool that they included pieces of A Change of Season. Also, in live versions, Myung plays the Major League Baseball Theme, Petrucci the Simpsons theme, and Rudess the Entertainer theme. Another reason why I
Dream Theater very much. Loved the Beyond the Life extension!
[V. Another World]So far or so it seems
All is lost
With nothing fulfilled
Off the pages and the
T.V. screen
Another world
Where nothing's true
Tripping through
The life fantastic
Lose a step
And never get up
Left alone
With a cold blank stare
I feel like giving upOnly Sherinian and Labrie is present. He feels like that life is lost and nothing can ease his pain and you can understand why he would feel like that. If I lost a parent, I wouldn't be able to take it and it'd probably lead me to suicide. That's how close I am to my parents and I've already lost too much people already. I don't think my heart would take it. I can feel how Portnoy feels because I had lost someone that I loved closely and her screams still haunt me to this very day. I felt like the world had been taken away from me. My best friend had been my anchor to live, but with her gone...... I felt like giving up until Dream Theater, my other friends, and my families stepped in and helped me through everything.
I was blinded by a paradise
Utopia high in the sky
A dream that only drowned me
Deep in sorrow, wondering why
Oh come let us adore him
Abuse and then ignore him
No matter what
Don't let him be
Let's feed upon his misery
Then string him up for all the world to see
I'm sick of all
Your hypocrites
Holding me at bay
And I don't need
Your sympathy
To get me through the dayLabrie sings really passionately here. He thought that life was all good and nothing could get in his way. He dreamt that he was in a perfect world, as innocence was caressing him. But, he realizes that it was all wrong. He realized that life wasn't perfect and that it had finally reared its ugly face. Labrie sings the next part with anguish as we can see people ridicule him for being so introverted. He is sick of people who treat him well when he is healthy and being his true, nice, funny self, but treats him like a virus when he loses someone so special and he withdraws from the world. Another climax is when Labrie yells, "I'm sick of all your hypocrites, holding me at bay." He is pissed right now. Sadness, loss of the will to live, and rage are really dangerous combinations as that person can be quite unpredictable.
Seasons change and so can I
Hold on Boy
No time to cry
Untie these strings
I'm climbing down
I won't let them push me awayThe highlight of this entire song. Seasons continuously change in a cycle and if seasons could easily change, why can't we? Mike knows that no one will stop him from climbing down the ladder. Portnoy is a strong man and he is fed up with the hypocrites. He will not let them control his life and he will change. He will not wallow in his self pity and he will rise up high. To add the exclamation point, Petrucci comes up with an awe inspiring solo, that fills me with hopefulness. This is Portnoy, climbing down the ladders and facing the hypocrites, overcoming them.
[VI. The Inevitable Summer]
[Instrumental]We can hear the beginning being played, but a bit different. This is the kind of transition that I really love. It also has a fitting title. Ever season is inevitable, and summer is the time for joy. Summer is here again! The winters are gone and now Summer will bring us joy! This part is really light headed and really fits. It doesn't make me want to headbang, but it makes me want to just go hug someone and tell them to cherish life forever. Hold on, I'm going to do that right now!
Alright, I'm back! So, what was I saying? Petrucci getse another solo here, then suddenly it changes as Petrucci riffs. What's going on? A Sherinian solo! You know, I feel like Sherinian is underrated. Sure, I think Rudess and Moore are a bit more.....errr, how can I say this correctly...talented? But that doesn't mean Sherinian should be underrated. Every perfect song needs a good transition from one part to another and this does it perfectly. Now, on to the beautiful sunset. [VII. The Crimson Sunset]I'm much wiser now
A lifetime of memories
Run through my head
They taught me how
For better or worse
Alive or dead
I realize
There's no turning back
Life goes on
The offbeaten trackThe summer is here and Portnoy comes out wiser than he was. He knows that life is not all sunshine and it can be storms, but he mustn't lose hope. Memories run through him and it taught him that no matter if you are for better or for worse, alive or dead, there is not turning life back. Life always goes on, no matter how much we try to stop it. Remember the part, back in Carpe Diem when the lyrics said: "We can learn from the past/But those days are gone?" We realize that, the past will always be there, engraved in our memories....unless we get concussion and amnesia and all those good stuff.
I sit down with my son
Set to see the Crimson Sunset
(Gather ye rosebuds while ye may)
Many years have come and gone
I've lived my life, but now must move on
(Gather ye rosebuds while ye may)
He's my only one
Now that my time has come
Now that my life is done
We look into the sun
"Seize the day
And don't you cry
Now it's time
To say good-bye
Even though
I'll be gone
I will live on
Live on"Wow, a beautiful finisher. This is the main character, way older, sitting down with his son, watching the sunset. Though, the ending isn't all happy. We can feel that the main character is going to die and he is saying goodbye, but he will live on. His memories will always live on. Just by writing about this song, my love for it grew. Yes, it is still not my favorite song, but I now put it on spot number five. Perhaps as I listen to it more, it will rise. This is a beautiful 23 minute song, way more emotional that 8vm, but 8vm also has its ups.
Next up, we have the underrated, possibly the most despised, FII.