Length - 5:15
Tempo - swift
Intro - "thump, thump, thump" sound the drums, and away we go
Texture - dual melody feel in non-vocal instruments, keyboard ambiance on verses, vocals declamatory
Features - soaring vocals, groovy guitar
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Dream Theater formed at Berklee in 1985. The original three members were John Petrucci (guitar) and John Myung (bass), friends from Long Island, and Mike Portnoy (percussion) whom the Johns heard in a practice room and said, "we gotta get that guy". (Something along those lines).
"When Dream and Day Unite" lineup:
The Johns
Portnoy
Kevin Moore - keyboard
Charlie Dominici - Vocals
Lyrics to "A Fortune in Lies":
I can remember when,
In the unity of our five-day sessions
Not even once did we hear the siren song
What kind of imagination
Asleep in some lyrical coma
Who's vain futile memory
Could have been so wrong?
You can make a fortune in lies
You can keep a giant alive
You can ride the red
Until everybody smiles
A trifling euphoria
Was such an untimely religion
Maybe your life can explain
The reason for my indecision
Here is a poor man
The heart of this monster creation
He said we both will be heroes
And I was led into temptation
You can make a fortune in lies
You can keep a giant alive
You can ride the red
Until everybody smiles
Can you show me your gold and your silver?
A hero in frozen water
"For the first time in a long time
Everything was right in my world
And then I woke up"
Now you've made a fortune in lies
And you kept a giant alive
You rode the red
You rode the red
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SPOILERS AND SUBJECTIVITY BELOW: YOU MIGHT WANT TO READ THIS AFTER LISTENING
Words to describe this song: York Peppermint Patty with a glass of very cold milk
How to enjoy this song: Go somewhere where you can move like a dork without anyone judging you (I'm currently at the gym, so I'm kinda-sorta following my advice), and tap your feet along and move your torso around. You get more out of this one if you move with it. They hadn't quite found their sound yet, though it does sound good. Their biggest strength with this song is the songwriting. So, pay close attention to that and groove with it.
Stream-of-consciousness thoughts as I listen to "A Fortune in Lies": The main guitar uses an effect (for the uninitiated, this is a technical, non-metaphorical term) that sounds to me like the openness and clarity that you get when you blow air across the top of a bottle, that sorta hooty sound. I love it. It's evident to me that John Petrucci is something special. Just the cleanliness with which he played right from the get-go on this album, their first LP. (We will get to the early-days demos later. ;) ) Charlie Dominici is very professional and hits everything that he is supposed to hit. There are some times later in the album where he doesn't nail what he's supposed to do, but he does hit it. He sounds, more or less, like an excellent regular at Friday night karaoke. He's pretty good, but you wouldn't necessarily write home about him. I enjoy him, and for me, with 16 years of practice using my falsetto (shout-out to my high school choir director for prompting us boys to use it), it's easy to sing along. Let me be clear, I'm not claiming that I'm better; I just feel confident in singing all of the notes. Charlie was a serviceable vocalist for DT to record their first LP with.
Thank you for reading, and enjoy!
Michael
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What is the "Dream Theater Share-a-thon"?
I will be posting a link to a song/piece by my favorite band, Dream Theater, hopefully every day until we have successfully enjoyed every original song that they have recorded in-studio. There are many good reasons to do this, but you can probably guess most of the ones that I'm thinking.
No adieu.
We're just gonna do it.
I'm going to try to help you know what to expect a little bit without influencing the way that you experience the song. I want you to have the chance to enjoy the music on your own without any spoilers, just as I did.
I will also tell you that some of the things that Dream Theater does may be quite different than much of the music that you have listened to before. Sometimes it may be so new that it makes you a bit uneasy or just doesn't connect to you at all. If that happens, I encourage you to listen to it a few times, perhaps in different ways... once in the background while you do dishes, once with your eyes closed and your full attention, once hanging upside down like a bat. You get the idea.
You may even want to come back to it later for another listen.
I believe that, if you go on this journey with me, you will find more than a few songs that you enjoy. My mom saw Dream Theater live in K.C. and really enjoyed them, and she usually listens to NPR which I don't think gets to rock and roll that much. Dream Theater truly has something for everyone. Not everything they do may be your thing, but some of it may change your life for the better the way that it did mine.
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~In loving memory of Tim~
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