21. Dream Theater / A Change Of Seasons. 1995. 5/5

In a world where music on the heavier side of the equation was going through excruciating growing pains, from the onset of grunge and from that the various tentacles of genre change that grew from this, it was unusual to see a band – any band – able to stick to their core sound and continue to hammer away at it with the same enthusiasm as they always had. Even more unusual was being able to find a modicum of success as they did so! One of those bands that did find a path through the maze was American progressive metal alumni Dream Theater. Over the course of three albums and the odd change of band member, they had not only produced a hit single in the form of “Pull Me Under” but had cultivated a following that moved outside the other music influences that were going on in the world in the early 1990’s. Keyboardist Kevin Moore had left the group following the recording of the “Awake” album, which led to them hiring Derek Sherinian to fill in on the tour that followed, after which they took him on as Moore’s permanent replacement. The band did not rush in to start on working on new material however. For some time, the band’s fan base, who were all a part of the Ytse Jam mailing list that the band used as communication with their fan club, had been championing the cause to have a song that the band had written some years ago be recorded and released. That song was called “A Change of Seasons” and is said to have been written back in 1989 and had intended to be released on the band’s second album “Images and Words”. At almost 17 minutes in length, it was deeemd to be too long to be released on a studio album. It had been performed live by the band despite this, and was still in an evolution of improvement and revising over the years. And the idea of using it was still very much at the forefront of the decision making process.
On the back of this continued petitioning from fans, the band decided to go ahead and record it, and issue it as an EP rather than as a part of a brand new studio album. By the time it came to this process, the length of the song had increased from almost 17 minutes to just beyond 23 minutes, and it became the centrepiece of the 1995 EP which carried the sme name as the title track, that being “A Change of Seasons”.

The title track “A Change of Seasons” was eventually recorded at BearTracks Studios in New York in May of 1995. Here the song was re-written, improved and stretched to its final length of just over 23 minute. New keyboardist Derek Sherinian was significantly involved in contributing to the final mix of the track.
To suggest that this is an epic is an understatement, but does its epicness come simply from the song’s overblown length, or is there more to the whole concept than meets the eye and ear? It is true that the song includes audio samples from the 1989 film ‘Dead Poets Society’, as well as quotes from the 1648 Robert Herrick poem, ‘To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time’, and yet that is a misdirect as to what the lyrics convey. Mike Portnoy, who wrote the lyrics to the song, said in a Q&A session a couple of years after this release, when questioned about it said: “it's about the cycle of life. Basically, I took a lot of personal incidents, like losing my mother and a couple of things that happened in my life, and I wrote them into the lyrics”. Indeed, the back cover of the album shows a calendar with the date November 16 showing, the day that Portnoy’s mother died. But more than this, not for the first nor last time in the Dream Theater song collection, this track is also broken into seven suites, signifying the change in mood and direction of the track at that point. Three of these suites are classed as instrumentals, while the other four have James LaBrie’s amazing vocals inserted into them. The titles of the suites indicate the change of the track through the movement of the seasons, with the titles ‘The Crimson Sunrise’, ‘Innocence’, ‘Carpe Diem’, ‘The Darkest of Winters’, ‘Another World’, ‘The Inevitable Summer’ and ‘The Crimson Sunset’. What this also allowed the band to do on their tours was to be able play sections of this track when time constraints or the lack of desire did not allow for the full version of the song to be played. Indeed, it has only been on rare occasions that the band has played this in its entirety on stage and given the usually lengthy timeframes of Dream Theater songs that isn’t surprising.
“A Change of Seasons” is a tour de force. It may well be very long, but fans never grow tired of listening to it from start to conclusion. The rising and falling tides of the music, the emotive state of the song itself, holds you in awe all the way through. The musicianship and composition is remarkable, and the way the song is crafted brings it all together. The build and fall of Mike Portnoy’s drums and John Myung’s bass is amazing. It can fall to almost non-existent phases when necessary, and then builds in speed and complexity without even noticing what is going on. It is a part of what makes Dream Theater the amazing band they are. Derek Sherinian's keys are superb, and his experience is utilised to its utmost here. It goes without saying how truly remarkable John Petrucci’s guitaring is on this track. He is a genius, and that is plainly obvious throughout this entire journey of this song. And the voice of Dream Theater, James LaBrie once again crushes it, that emotive level he is able to reach is so much a part of the bedrock of this band.
Once the main event has concluded, there is so much more to come, so much wonderful and brilliant stuff. Some fans ignore what comes after the main track, but it would be a foolish individual who does so. Because what we have here Dream Theater doing what they do so well – covering songs and bands that they grew up with and whom they admire and look up to. And all of it is terrific, but some of it is particularly awesome.
We have two songs done in their entirety, and we have two medleys, all of which come from a live performance that the band did at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London in January of 1995. So not only do we get a whole bunch of wonderful cover versions, we get them in the live environment, and they are smoking. A medley of three Led Zeppelin songs is played, titled as just the three song titles - “The Rover" / "Achilles Last Stand" / "The Song Remains the Same". I love Myung’s wonderful running basslines through this medley, he really pays a great tribute to John Paul Jones here, it is fabulous to listen to, while Portnoy’s drumming is sublime as well. Following this is what the band titles “The Big Medley”, a 10.5 minute voyage through a number of different songs from different bands. They take a walk through “In the Flesh” by Pink Floyd, “Carry on Wayward Son” by Kansas, “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” by Journey, “Cruise Control” by Dixie Dreggs and “Turn it on Again” by Genesis. There’s a lot of progressive rock bands there from the 1970’s that they have obviously drawn inspiration from in their own music, and they pay tribute to all of them in this one big mashing of tracks.
But the two absolute standouts are the two tracks they do as standalone performances. The first is their amazing version of Elton John’s “Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding” from his “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” album. This sounds just incredible, and amplifies everything great about this song. The keys are so well performed by Sherinian. The guitar is crushed by Petrucci. And James LaBrie is marvellous on vocals. When I first heard this version of the song it reminded me of how much I enjoy Elton John’s album, and it sent me back to it to relive, and I remember thinking how good that album still is, but that now Dream Theater had destroyed that opening track from the album for me, because they improve on it tenfold from the Elton John version. And the other song here is the version of Deep Purple’s “Perfect Strangers”, where Sherinian seems to be channelling Jon Lord through him as he plays so closely does it sound to the original organ on the track, and how LaBrie’s wailing at the end of the track is so brilliant. I don’t think anything can beat Deep Purple’s original version of the song, but this really does run it close.

I was not aware of the band Dream Theater until 1999. That of course was a massive oversight on my behalf, but as should have become aware by now over the course of this podcast, my seeking out of new music during the 1990’s was almost non-existent. Having moved into the big wide world away from trusted friends and their constant ‘you MUST listen to this band/album’, I had a slight cocoon around me in regards to searching for and finding new bands. The bands I already knew? Sure, I bought their stuff, which is why I had to listen to “Load” and “Reload” more often than a normal person would. Idiot!
As we moved into the new century though, most of my friend group had managed to move into locations much closer together again, and we began to see more of each other and so the music began to start up again. So, inevitably, it was my heavy metal music dealer who informed me that this band Dream Theater had something about them, and that I would be wise to start listening to them. The result of this was four albums that came at me almost at the same time, ready for my adoring approval. And while I would listen to them, I wasn’t really getting what was supposed to be great about them. It wasn’t as if they didn’t sound good, it’s just that I didn’t get all the time changes and mood changes and weird drumming and guitar things that were happening. But then my ear caught this, and so it was “A Change of Seasons” that I began to concentrate on, because something about it hooked me in, and made me want to listen to it more. And that is how Dream Theater dragged me in. Their longest song, with more intricate and intimate changes than anything else they had done to that point in time. THAT was the song and EP that won me over. It probably didn’t hurt that the cover songs that followed it were all tracks that I knew and loved, and hearing them play those so well no doubt encouraged me to keep playing the EP over and over, and thus coming to appreciate everything about the band, which I could then enjoy by switching to their other albums. Which is exactly what I did.
My CD copy has been out in the Metal Cavern again this week, and I can honestly say it never gets old. I spent most of my time now though just listening to the title track, and then hitting replay to listen to it again rather than listen to all of the cover songs. They’re still good, don’t get me wrong, but what I really wanted to hear was the 23 minute masterpiece that they created this EP for in the first place. And while they have continued to produce some amazing albums in the 30 years since this was released, this is still one that I can come back to at any time and still enjoy. It is still a fabulous listen.