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

[Northern Lion]

SDoIT is in my top 3 albums so I just don't think I could arange it in such a way that it would fit on one disc.  There is not a single song or any part of any song on this album that I don't like.

[pg1067]

I may just be a heartless asshole but Disappear does absolutely nothing for me emotionally.

Word.  For me, it's musically uninteresting/sleep-inducing, so I don't really care about the lyrics.

[Dave_Manchester]

Not a fan of the title track whereas for me the first disc is flawless so I'd just go with:

The Glass Prison
Blind Faith
Misunderstood
The Great Debate
Disappear

(Stick Eve and Speak To Me on there in lieu of Six Degrees and it'd be my favourite DT album).

[Dave_Manchester]

On songmeanings.net there's a bit of trivia I was previously unaware of: apparently Disappear's working title was "Move On." Fitting. There's also a bunch of love for the song in the comments for it, so I'm glad to see it getting the respect it deserves.

It's not my favourite DT song (easily top 10 though) but I do think it's their most beautiful. It has an unsettling, eerie quality which I think no other song of theirs has.

[Volante99]

1. Glass Prison could be shortened by about 2 minutes and it would be a significant improvement. I love the song but it goes on and on...and on...towards the end.

2. Misunderstood could be trimmed down in half and would also be greatly improved.

3. Disappear could be dropped entirely.

4. I love the Six Degrees suite but it does NOT need a 7 minute “Overture”.

5. The fade out of the finale could be trimmed down by 1-2 minutes.

[Dave_Manchester]

By the way, is there a 'top ten DT songs' thread on here? My search hasn't produced anything (and I don't want to start one if one already exists) but this thread got me thinking about my own top ten. Post a link please if there is one.

[Ruba]

By the way, is there a 'top ten DT songs' thread on here? My search hasn't produced anything (and I don't want to start one if one already exists) but this thread got me thinking about my own top ten. Post a link please if there is one.

There used to be a top 50 thread at least. Not sure about top 10 though.

[Cruithne]

Drop The Great Debate and Disappear, put the second disk after Blind Faith, end with an edited version of Misunderstood with all traces of the chinese water torture "sheeump" noise removed and most of the last 2 minutes removed.

Lyrically The Great Debate was a mistake.

[bosk1]

Lyrically The Great Debate was a mistake.

If by "mistake," you mean "some of the best lyrics ever written by anyone," I could not agree more wholeheartedly.  Solid take. 

[pg1067]

Drop The Great Debate and Disappear, put the second disk after Blind Faith, end with an edited version of Misunderstood with all traces of the chinese water torture "sheeump" noise removed and most of the last 2 minutes removed.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

And no, this is not me posting under a different screen name!

[Ninjabait]

01. The Glass Prison 13:52
02. Misunderstood (Single Edit, without the arpeggio transition at the end) 5:14
03. Blind Faith 10:21
04. Disappear 6:46
05. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence I - Overture 6:50
06. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence II - About to Crash 5:50
07. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence III - War Inside My Head 2:22 (+ the Budokan build up intro)
08. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence IV - Test That Stumped Them All 5:03
09. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence V - Goodnight Kiss 6:17
10. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence VI - Solitary Shell 5:47
11. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence VII - About to Crash (Reprise) 4:04
12. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence VIII - Losing Time/Grand Finale 4:27 (minus most of the fade out)

Total: 76:19

Honestly I feel like it's a fairly balanced listening experience. Including The Great Debate imo would have it lean too much in the proggy direction on top of SDoIT and TGP, similar to how BC&SL is a little unbalanced with half the album being songs over 10min long. This version would have a potential single (Misunderstood), and strikes a balance between the 5 different sides of Dream Theater (metal, prog, melodic rock, symphonic, and pop). An "extended" version of Misunderstood (the version we currently have) could even be whipped out live, like the Budokan versions of certain songs.

[jammindude]

Interesting.   That's identical to mine except you've flipped Misunderstood and Blind Faith and I think I like your idea better.    It puts what would be the "single" of the album in the 2nd slot instead of the 3rd, and really improves the flow. 

[IDontNotDoThings]

Trivia: until later in the recording process, Blind Faith was originally planned to be the final track of disc 1 (with the other tracks moved back one), meaning that for a while, Misunderstood actually was the second track on the album.

(source)

[MirrorMask]

Interesting.   That's identical to mine except you've flipped Misunderstood and Blind Faith and I think I like your idea better.    It puts what would be the "single" of the album in the 2nd slot instead of the 3rd, and really improves the flow.

Indeed, just as I suggested; if you remove a heavy song, The Great Debate, you have to space out the mellow ones, so putting Misunderstood second and having Blind Faith before Disappear helps the flow.

[Setlist Scotty]

Trivia: until later in the recording process, Blind Faith was originally planned to be the final track of disc 1 (with the other tracks moved back one), meaning that for a while, Misunderstood actually was the second track on the album.

(source)

I think you misinterpreted the chart. BF was written after the other 4 songs, which is why it appears where it does on the chart. At that point, they had not figured out the exact order of the tracks.

http://www.mikeportnoy.com/aboutmike/faq/answers/13.aspx#317

[pg1067]

Trivia: until later in the recording process, Blind Faith was originally planned to be the final track of disc 1 (with the other tracks moved back one), meaning that for a while, Misunderstood actually was the second track on the album.

(source)

Huh?  That chart is nothing more than a list of songs, and nothing in that video supports the conclusion about any "planned" album order

[IDontNotDoThings]

I figured it'd be too much of a coincidence for the other songs to be in the exact same order as the album, but whatever

[GasparXR]

I would only use the second disc, and call it a concept album instead of one long song. Then I'd release the first disc as another album with a new name.

[KevShmev]

That leads to a couple of interesting questions...

Had the band released Disc 2 of Six Degrees as its own CD in early 2002 and then Disc 1 as another studio album (under a different name) later in 2002, which one would be more popular with fans?  And how would these albums rank individually?

[gzarruk]

That leads to a couple of interesting questions...

Had the band released Disc 2 of Six Degrees as its own CD in early 2002 and then Disc 1 as another studio album (under a different name) later in 2002, which one would be more popular with fans?  And how would these albums rank individually?

They would've been considered two very short albums

[NoFred]

That’s interesting because each disc has slight drawbacks that are not on the other. Namely disc 1 is drawn out while 2 is not, and disc 2 has the only skippable track in the overture.

I’d go with disc 2 winning out, but they’re both so good in separate ways.

[Cool Chris]

Had the band released Disc 2 of Six Degrees as its own CD in early 2002 and then Disc 1 as another studio album (under a different name) later in 2002, which one would be more popular with fans?  And how would these albums rank individually?

I bought Scenes and 6DoiT at the same time which revitalized my love of DT - though I didn't care for the SDoiT track/suite/whatever much (and still don't). If they never released Disc 2 it wouldn't have diminished my feelings for them one iota. Disc 2 as a standalone would have been a let down, especially when measured up against Scenes and the subsequent release of Disc 1 as its own album.

So then they get tiered thus:

I&W
Awake
SDoiT Disc 1
ADToE

Scenes
ToT
TA

DoT (still not sure where this goes)

DT12
8VM

BC&SL
SDoiT Disc 2

WD&DU
FII

[IDontNotDoThings]

I think it would've been cool to have a sort of Deliverance/Damnation style duo between the two discs, but I think that people would inevitably still try to merge the two albums into one, especially if they had the same name.

That said, it'd be interesting to see how the future albums would've been written after they had broken the tradition of making 70+ minute albums (which they had done since Awake). Maybe the albums' positive reception would convince the band to write more concise albums after that point. That's pure speculation though.

[KISS 76]

I wouldn't change a thing. Love the album as is!

[pg1067]

That leads to a couple of interesting questions...

Had the band released Disc 2 of Six Degrees as its own CD in early 2002 and then Disc 1 as another studio album (under a different name) later in 2002, which one would be more popular with fans?  And how would these albums rank individually?

I basically disregarded disc 1 for 5-6 years and only listened to disc 2 and LOVED it (and still do).  Since I now only like the first 3 songs on disc 1, it would probably be a pretty low ranking album as a stand-alone effort.  Having grown up in an era where the average album length was 38-44 minutes, a 42 minute album (disc 2) wouldn't have been a problem.

[Ninjabait]

That leads to a couple of interesting questions...

Had the band released Disc 2 of Six Degrees as its own CD in early 2002 and then Disc 1 as another studio album (under a different name) later in 2002, which one would be more popular with fans?  And how would these albums rank individually?

I don't think it would have quite the amount of "unanimous praise" that the current version of SDoIT has. I think a lot of people will love both and rate them very highly, others will prefer the first album, and others the second. As for me personally, I'd rank them as:

01. The Astonishing
02. SfaM
03. Octavarium
04. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (Disc 2)
05. ADToE
06. SDoIT (Disc 1)
07. ToT
08. I&W
09. FII
10. DT12
10. BC&SL
12. Systematic Chaos
13. Awake
14. When Dream & Day Unite

Honestly, I'm in that first group that really loves both. Honestly, I prefer the epic to the 5 songs tho.

[Cool Chris]

I gave the title track a good listen this weekend and while I still find the first 6 sections are anywhere from dull to underwhelming (though I highly enjoy WIMH and TTTSTA on the Budokan DVD), I enjoyed the last two much more than I used to. With that in mind, how about: 

1: The Glass Prison
2: Blind Faith
3: Misunderstood
4: Disappear
5. About To Crash Reprise
6. Losing Time/Grand Finale