Solve the Six Degrees dilemma (make the album a single disc)

[MirrorMask]

Well, there wasn't really one, but the topic about Misunderstood made me think back to this, taken from Mike Portnoy's FAQ:

What would the track listing have been if Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence would have had to have been a single disk release?

MP: That's a question I didn't want to have to come up with an answer for when we finished the record, and luckily we were able to sidestep having to come up with a solution. I did lay awake a few nights pondering that thought, and the problem was that we had 95 minutes of music. I think off the top of my head that Blind Faith or Disappear would have been the first to go. But either of them by themselves would still not be enough to bring the album down to 80 minutes, so we would have been stuck in the position of having to cut *two* songs if Six Degrees wasn't one of them. It would have been a horrible puzzle to try to figure out, and I'm glad that I didn't have to come up with a solution to that one.


So, just for fun, imagine that you're in charge back in 2002 and you have to deliver a single disc for the album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. So that means no more than 79 minutes of music (and 49 seconds which is the length of disc 1 of The Astonishing). How would you solve the issue? anything goes - removing songs, editing them, as long as you present, from what is the actual tracklist and actual music that makes up the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence album, a "cut" that does not go further than 79'49''.

[RoeDent]

First of all, you can cut at least 1:30 off the end of Six Degrees by removing that pointlessly long ending note. So 6DOIT would be somewhere around 40:30.

Then I'd certainly take out Blind Faith. And I have to remove one of the other songs to bring it under 80 minutes, so that'll have to be Disappear for me, as much as I enjoy it.

1. The Glass Prison - 13:52
2. Misunderstood - 9:32
3. The Great Debate - 13:46
4. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 40:30

TOTAL: 77:40

And yes, I'd make Six Degrees one track.

[KevShmev]

Of course the only two songs JLB wrote the lyrics for would have been the first ones Portnoy would have chucked.

I think I'd eliminate The Great Debate and find a way to dwindle down the titular suite into the individual tracks they really are.

1. The Glass Prison
2. Blind Faith
3. Misunderstood
4. Goodnight Kiss
5. Solitary Shell
6. War Inside My Head
7. The Test That Stumped Them All
8. Disappear
9. About to Crash (reprise) - renamed just About to Crash, since the original About to Crash is now gone
10. Losing Time (while eliminating Grand Finale from the title)

I like reversing the order of the War/Test and Goodnight/Solitary duos in the running order.

The way Misunderstood ends could easily be tweaked slightly now that it would cross fade into Goodnight Kiss instead of The Great Debate.

[MirrorMask]

I'm more or less with you Kev. As much as it's disruptive for the balance of the first disc since it's a heavy song and there are already two mellow ones, I'd cut The Great Debate and save it for Train of Thought, it would fit anyway.

That alone brings down the counting to 82 minutes and some more. The following necessary seconds I'd go chopping them from:
- Outro of Grand Finale
- Outro of Misunderstood
- Spacey intro of Blind Faith

And, for a better balance, put Misunderstood as track #2 and Blind Faith as track #3.

I should check the actual seconds but I believe that these three cuts, or maybe two, would be already enough to go down the 80 minutes mark (aside from sacking TGD of course).

[KevShmev]

I should have also mentioned that I too would have shortened that unnecessarily long note at the end of Losing Time (Grand Finale), which I actually have done already for my listening purposes.  I would leave both Blind Faith and Misunderstood as is, aside from the slight tweaking of the last few seconds of Misunderstood to make it cross fade more smoothly with the beginning of Goodnight Kiss.  I love the spacey intro of Blind Faith, so I wouldn't mess with that.  Losing The Great Debate would be a bummer, especially since I do think the first 3 minutes is one of the highlights of the record, but the rest of this song is merely good, and I couldn't have it taking up nearly 14 minutes of what would now be a single disc, considering how strong overall everything I kept is.

[Setlist Scotty]

I'd just stick with disc 1 and leave the title track off (which is probably my favorite of all of DT's catalog). Then the title track could've been released later.

[Lonk]

I just spent 1 hours trying to figure out how to cut it down to 80 minutes without changing the structure or taking out a song and the best i could do was reduce it by 11 minutes and 38 second. Some of the things I would do is:

1) Reduce SDOIT overture to 3:30, cut the long ending note by 1:20.
2) Reduce the intro to TGP
3) Cut the ending of misunderstood.
4) Reduce the intro and outro of TGD.
5) Cut the ending Disappear.

[RoeDent]

I'd just stick with disc 1 and leave the title track off (which is probably my favorite of all of DT's catalog). Then the title track could've been released later.

That begs the question: What would you title the album if it was just Disc 1?

[The Walrus]

I invent better CDs that can fit 2 discs into one. 

I'd just stick with disc 1 and leave the title track off (which is probably my favorite of all of DT's catalog). Then the title track could've been released later.

That begs the question: What would you title the album if it was just Disc 1?

Five Degrees of Inner Turbulence. 

[Ruba]

I'd just stick with disc 1 and leave the title track off (which is probably my favorite of all of DT's catalog). Then the title track could've been released later.

That begs the question: What would you title the album if it was just Disc 1?

Five Degrees of Inner Turbulence. 

And the title track would be The Sixth Degree.

Almost sounds like video game DLC.

[Buddyhunter1]

Considering I don't like much of the second disc all that much...

1: The Glass Prison
2: Blind Faith
3: Misunderstood
4: The Great Debate
5: War Inside My Head (intro would have to be modified a bit)
6: The Test That Stumped Them All (crossfades into Disappear)
7: Disappear

About To Crash could maybe be thrown in there somewhere as well, but eh. Like I said, not really a fan of the second disc.

[bosk1]

I know I'm somewhat killing the game, but my honest answer is that I wouldn't change a thing. 

[Grizz]

I'd just stick with disc 1 and leave the title track off (which is probably my favorite of all of DT's catalog). Then the title track could've been released later.

...but make it like King Crimson's Starless (and Bible Black) wherein the title track is cut from the album but the album title stays the same, a new, entirely different title track is put onto the album, then the original title track comes out on a later album with a slightly different title

[The Walrus]

I know I'm somewhat killing the game, but my honest answer is that I wouldn't change a thing.

Yeah I'm right here, too. Changing anything would kill the record for me. First disc has 5 songs that all hit on distinct themes and vibes and styles. Second disc is a conceptual epic that would suffer from removing any of the 8 parts. I've thought about this question before, and I simply cannot do it. 2 discs or no discs at all.

[Cool Chris]

Considering I don't like much of the second disc all that much...

1: The Glass Prison
2: Blind Faith
3: Misunderstood
4: The Great Debate
5: War Inside My Head (intro would have to be modified a bit)
6: The Test That Stumped Them All (crossfades into Disappear)
7: Disappear

About To Crash could maybe be thrown in there somewhere as well, but eh. Like I said, not really a fan of the second disc.

Dang that almost suits me to a T. Though I could in all honesty drop TGD. Never liked that song much. I might try and slip in Solitary Shell somewhere too.

[pg1067]

So, just for fun, imagine that you're in charge back in 2002 and you have to deliver a single disc for the album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. So that means no more than 79 minutes of music (and 49 seconds which is the length of disc 1 of The Astonishing). How would you solve the issue? anything goes - removing songs, editing them, as long as you present, from what is the actual tracklist and actual music that makes up the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence album, a "cut" that does not go further than 79'49''.

This is the easiest thing ever.

Ditch TGD and Disappear, and you're left with the perfect album.  Based on the times listed on Wikipedia, the result would be 54:18 + 42:02 - 13:46 - 6:46 = 75:48.  I'd also significantly shorten the end of Misunderstood even though I wouldn't need to for time reasons.

[Mladen]

Here's my tracklist:

1. The Glass prison
2. Six degrees of inner turbulence (as one song)
3. The Great debate
4. Disappear

Take THAT. 

[Grappler]

I can do one better:

1.  The Glass Prison


Or maybe:

1.  The Glass Prison
2.  Blind Faith

[JayOctavarium]

I know I'm somewhat killing the game, but my honest answer is that I wouldn't change a thing. 

Get Out

[Nekov]

Disappear goes out without even thinking of it. If I cut Misunderstood, does that do the trick? I don't want to meddle with the title song since it would ruin that beautiful flow.

[MirrorMask]

Disappear goes out without even thinking of it. If I cut Misunderstood, does that do the trick? I don't want to meddle with the title song since it would ruin that beautiful flow.

Barely, it's a matter of seconds here and there. Just shorten the outro to Grand Finale and you're in.

[TAC]

Of course the only two songs JLB wrote the lyrics for would have been the first ones Portnoy would have chucked.

That's no coincidence. IMO.

[Dublagent66]

I know I'm somewhat killing the game, but my honest answer is that I wouldn't change a thing.

I'm with you (for the most part) on this one Bosk.  However, there are a couple minor things I would change.  Take out the finger nails on the chalkboard at the end of Misunderstood and shorten the super long fade out at the end of disc 2.  That's it.  Wouldn't change anything else.

So glad they didn't reduce the album to 1 disc. 

[hefdaddy42]

I would just delete The Great Debate and Misunderstood.

[TAC]

I'd chop Disc 2.

[The Walrus]

I genuinely do not understand how some people don't like the title track. Absolute madness. It's the perfect prog rock-metal blend. TAC, you're on notice. 

[Buddyhunter1]

I genuinely do not understand why people would axe Blind Faith before literally anything on the album besides The Glass Prison

[MirrorMask]

I genuinely do not understand why people would axe Blind Faith before literally anything on the album besides The Glass Prison

Ask Portnoy, I guess 

Disappear is the most experimental one so obviously it's the first to go if needed.

Title track and Glass Prison were obviously a lock.

So if needed it had to come down between Blind Faith, Misunderstood and The Great Debate... don't know really why he / they didn't feel so strong about Blind Faith, maybe Disappear being let go would have made Misunderstood "needed" to have at least one slower piece, and so it was either one between TGD and BF.

[EPIC Outro]

I'd probably use some tracks from the 4 Degrees of Radio Edits disc.

One thing's for sure - I would never have a version of 6 Degrees that didn't include Disappear. One of the most hauntingly beautiful songs ever - for me at least.

[TAC]

1. The Glass Prison
2. Blind Faith
3. Misunderstood
4. Solitary Shell
5. The Great Debate
6. Disappear
7. About To Crash Reprise
8. Losing Time/Grand Finale

70 Minutes

[Dublagent66]

I genuinely do not understand how some people don't like the title track. Absolute madness. It's the perfect prog rock-metal blend. TAC, you're on notice. 

That makes two of us. 

1. The Glass Prison
2. Blind Faith
3. Misunderstood
4. Solitary Shell
5. The Great Debate
6. Disappear
7. About To Crash Reprise
8. Losing Time/Grand Finale

70 Minutes

Tim!!!  You have a reprise of a track that never existed? 

[TAC]

I figured we could have a treasure hunt to find the original.

[KevShmev]

I knew someone would be a wiseacre about that, which is why I worded it this way in my earliest post.

9. About to Crash (reprise) - renamed just About to Crash, since the original About to Crash is now gone

[TAC]

I think just calling it Losing Time would be cool too.

[KevShmev]

Ya don't say...

10. Losing Time (while eliminating Grand Finale from the title)