A Change of Seasons

One of my favorite Dream Theater albums (ok so they are all my favorite give me a break), A Change of Seasons is more of an EP than an actual album. The album contains one main song "A Change of Seasons" which is only 23 minutes long. The next four songs are all covers of famous songs by famous people, Imagine that. "Funeral For A Friend - Love Lies Bleeding" originally by Elton john. "Perfect Strangers" by Deep Purple. "The Rover - Achilles Last Stand - The Song Remains The Same" a medley of Led Zeppelin songs. The song "The Big Medley" is a bunch of songs by Pink Floyd, Kansas, Queen, Journey, and others put into one.
The main song on the album, "A Change of Seasons" was written by Mike Portnoy (drummer) and the lyrics are based on his own life. The song is split into seven different parts and each one is supposed to represent a different part of a season. The first part, The Crimson sunrise, is an instrumental. It then moves onto Innocence where there is a man who lived a happy life and is now depressed. The next part Carpe Diem is based off Portnoy's father tell him before he passed away due to cancer. In this part of the song the man from the previous part is supposed to be recovering only to be struck by tragedy.
The next part, The Darkest of Winters is an instrumental. After the next couple of sections, we reach the end of the song The Crimson Sunset. In this part the man from the beginning is explaining to his son what his dad told him. The intro repeats here from the beginning signifying then end of his life and the start of his son's.

I am the Walrus follow up

Since a certain someone asked for a post about the symbolic meaning of this song, here it is. The part "I am the walrus" is a reference to a Lewis Carroll poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter." When John Lennon wrote this song, he didn't realize that the walrus was actually the villain and Lennon even said "It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist system. I never went into that bit about what he really meant, like people are doing with the Beatles' work. Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the bad guy in the story and the carpenter was the good guy. I thought, Oh, shit, I picked the wrong guy. I should have said, 'I am the carpenter.' But that wouldn't have been the same, would it? [Sings, laughing] 'I am the carpenter...." In the song Glass Onion, "the walrus was Paul" and in the song God "I was the walrus, but now I am John." Sorry, the walrus doesn't represent the man bringing down the world or anything. The Eggman also has no real special meaning. Eric Burdon (singer for The Animals) was known by John as the Eggman because of a certain egg related fetish.
The lines "yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye" is based off an old English nursery rhyme. As far as the rest of the lyrics of the song go, some are based off the three unfinished songs that became part of this song, the rest really are just random lyrics that don't make sense. When this song was being written, Lennon got a letter from someone who had a teacher who was giving a deep analysis of The Beatle's lyrics. That's where Lennon decided to add those random lyrics.
So there really is no special meaning behind this song. It's not about capitalism or drugs or war, it's just a bunch of really random thoughts put into a song. It wasn't that The Beatles needed drugs to write songs, it was probably more for their entertainment and while high they got some of their ideas. You may or may not have known this, but several inventors or philosophers (sorry I can't find any links) had been quoted saying things about being just a little bit high enough to get some different thoughts in their heads.
Link to information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_The_Walrus

I Am the Walrus

One of my favorite Beatles song of all time, I Am the Walrus is awesome. Of course, everything by the Beatles is awesome but that is besides the point. This song defiantly has a psychedelic feeling to in. John Lennon even admitted to writing part of it while on acid. The song is basically three separate ideas Lennon couldn't make into three individual songs and he combined them into this.
This song defiantly is on the border of rock and just plain weird. Besides the normal band instruments, this song includes violins, cellos, horns and clarinets. Something defiantly not seen day, and surely not seen back in the 60's. I am not basing this off personal experience, but I think this would be the best song to listen to if you were under the influence.

Good Mourning/Black Friday

Well I guess I am week late with the Black Friday post, but never-the-less, here it is. Good Mourning/Black Friday is a song written by Megadeth. It's about seven or so minutes long. The first part of the song is pretty calm and consists mainly of just instruments with only a few lines of lyrics, one being "Good mourning".
The song then leads into the Black Friday with a quick drum fill. At that point, the tempo of the song probably doubles. It then goes into a heavier metal feeling. The guitar part picks up and goes into some wailing solos. Dave Mustaine then enters with the vocals. Now, if you had never heard of what Black Friday was, you would probably assume it was some horrible event that happened in the past or something, right? Well Megadeth decided that this song was not going to be about shopping, instead it is about killing and murder and all that fun stuff. At the end of the song the whole band repeats the line "It's Black Friday, paint the devil on the wall" several times. I love this song.

Here's a video of it from Rockband because it censors a certain word.

Music in Plastic

Being part of the three blogs focusing on music, I feel that I should also follow the other two and post about fake instruments. I'm not going to lie, they are expensive. When they first came out, the Rockband drum set was about 90 dollars. The guitars for Guitar Hero were about $30. I would know because I love music rhythm games. I don't play them too often now, but I still enjoy picking up my plastic guitar and setting down my real one.
I'm not sure where all the hate for these games started. The majority of people who play these games know there is a difference between their instruments and real ones. Most people recognize there are more than five frets on a guitar, or that a drum set has more than four pads. I like to think that the people who hate on these games are the people who are really bad, or have never played it. I remembered when I first played- I thought the game was stupid. I literally spent ten minutes in the tutorial trying to figure out how it worked. At the point in time, I laughed at people who played it and never wanted to play it again. Now I play on expert (even Through the Fire and Flames *gasp*) and I know there is a huge difference between real and plastic. Although I do play the real guitar as well so I guess I never thought they were the same.


Now I would like to the few videos I have of me playing Guitar Hero, but then you will also find the videos of me singing Ballroom Blitz and Pull Me Under, which is bad. So instead, here's a video of a rockband song and the real version of it.







Honestly I think the Rockband chart looks harder.

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

The song Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is one, if not my favorite song. It is by Dream Theater (I bet you didn't see that coming) and wow do I love. The album it is on also has the same name as this song. This song is 42 minutes long and split into eight part. On the studio album, the first part of the song titled Overture is an instrumental that includes the melodies from the rest of the song. On the live album, Score, this part of the song is played by a symphony. The last note of this leads into the next part, About to Crash, where piano notes lead into the joining. The entire SDOIT song carries a theme of mental disorders. In About to Crash, the song describes a girl with a multiple personality disorder. Towards the end of the song the band enters a short solo that leads into the next part, War Inside My Head.

War Inside My Head is about a veteran who's mind keeps drifting back into the days of war. The song goes on to tell that this soldier will never get rid of these flashbacks. The end of the song says that he is "tasting danger with each word I say." This part of the song is only about two minutes long and is the shortest part of the entire song.

The Test that Stumped them all is the next part. This part of the song describes a man who has schizophrenia. This part of the song has parts where the drummer, Mike Portnoy, provides noticeable backup vocals. I think they are hilarious. Portnoy has a deep voice so when he says those high notes the outcome is horrible. But that doesn't ruin this part of the song. This part of the song explains certain ways schizophrenia can affect those who have it.

The next parts of the song go on about different mental disorders and finally, in the last section of the song, titled Losing Time/Grand Finale, the song comes to an end.

John Petrucci

A man of much experience, John Petrucci earns my respect as the greatest guitar player. I will admit, there is a lot of room for debate on this title. Some would argue Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Jimi Hendrix, etc. I think Petrucci is the best because of his technical talent. He goes above and beyond the simple chord playing and the fast strumming. One of my songs has this great solo. I think that Petrucci goes beyond good guitar playing and has this style that is amazing.
He started playing guitar at a young age with a fellow bandmate, John Myung. Together, they practiced studying and playing music for six hours a day. The two eventually went off to Berkley. Twenty years later, John Petrucci is the lead guitarist for Dream Theater. He has also done several solo albums. He has been on the G3 tour several times. Seen here, Petrucci is jamming with Joe Satriani and Paul Gilbert.

Trial of Tears

Ipods are not clothes. They are not required to be worn, you will not be charged with indecent exposure if seen without one. For God's sakes people, there is a world out there (I can see it through the window sometimes when my Xbox isn't on). You should not be walking everywhere with your headphones on. You should not be listening to your Ipod at maximum volume. You know what happens when you do? You know what happens when you go through life not expecting anything to happen? This is what happens. A sad story, but this is the price payed for thinking the world will just go around you. Remember this story the next time you cross the street, or else you will die. Yes, you will die right then and there.

The Count of Tuscany

I'm sure just about everyone of you uses Itunes (because you are not good enough for Winamp), but how many of you actually buy your music from Itune's music store? I bet you don't. Do you buy your music from the store? Once again, I bet you don't. So where do you get your music from? Well I guess it would be alright to say you got some music from your friends, but we all know the real place you obtain your music files. I can guaruntee that just about everyone of you who is reading this has Limewire downloaded on their computer. Well I laugh at you because real torrents are better, but anyway, you good sir/ma'am who is reading this, you are a thief. You are a liar, a cheater, a scoundrel, a juvenile delinquent who doesn't play by the rules. You don't waste your money on petty things like music, no, you use it on more important things, like gum. You download your music illegally and scoff at the fool you payed twenty dollars for one album.
How do the record companies feel about this? Well this poor fool knows, and he is going to pay a heavy price. This price is the price of justice. All the man wanted to do was break a few petty laws and share some music. Well the RIAA is going to have none of this. Although most people don't get caught downloading music, there are those poor saps who do. And do you know what happens when you do? You end up like the guy in that link- 650,000 dollars in debt.


As for me, I do not admit to downloading anything that can't be proven in a court of law.
Here's a nice song to listen to while you think about what you've done.

New Millennium

I was looking through my Ipod the other day and I noticed something: none of the bands on there were created after the year 2000. I know what you may be thinking but before you accuse me of having eight bands on my Ipod I'll tell you I have 75 artists. I thought "why is this?" Well the answer was simple, there were no good bands formed after that year. Feel free to disagree. I may have forgotten about a couple of bands and I apologize if I called a good band bad. However, the point still stands that generally bands started after the year 2000 are horrible. Let me take Fallout Boy for example. They are horrible in every aspect and if you like them you are either a 15 year old girl or you are a huge loser. That being said I know some of my friends who do listen to them. They also think Travis Barker is the best drummer ever but that is besides the point.
My last fm account hasn't been used in awhile, but you get the general idea of what I listen too. It isn't as accurate as I would like it to be but hey it's something. You know who my top band was? Well just look at pages 1-62 and you can see it is clearly Dream Theater. FORMED IN THE 80's. You know who is second? Metallica and Megadeth, formed in the *gasp* 80''s. Steely Dan, Judas Priest, Rush, definitely not 2006. These bands are all great, and there are many more I didn't list that are just as great.

Oh how did this video get here? Well you might as well listen to it since it's here.

Dave Mustaine

After doing some home repairs on my guitar, I thought of a great idea. I would post my top ten favorite songs, but they'd all be Dream Theater songs. Instead I will post about my favorite guitarists. I know I will be leaving out some great guys, maybe I'll make another list. Amid all the guitar players who think playing the same chord progression over and over is being talented, there are those guys who put them in their place. These guys (not in any order) are my top favorite guitarists. Also, girls can't play guitar well, just saying.

Dave Mustaine
Lead guitarist and vocalist for Megadeth, Mustaine earns this right on my list by being all around amazing. After being kicked out of Metallica for being drinking and drug issues, he formed his own band. After several studio albums, he went into rehab and came out a born again christian. It was cool though, he still made great music. Mustaine is a pretty awesome guitarist. He sings and plays. When it is solo time man he can solo. He is also known for having a really high voice. I think it's cool.

Examples of work
Holy Wars
Hangar 18

Octavarium

A song longer than 90% of songs created, Octavarium is 24 minutes long and one of my favorites. Composed by Dream Theater, it is their third longest song. It definitely shows the pinnacle of music creation. This song is one of my favorites because of the use of keyboard in the intro, and throughout the whole song. Octavarium is not a song showing a message, but rather, telling a story. Divided into several different parts, each one with it's own message that fits into the whole theme in the song and each portion relating to the others.
I feel that this song is pretty damn amazing. In my opinion, the best song you can think of does not even compare to this song. Go ahead and think about it. I don't implore you to listen to this song, I demand it. I'm sure you are turned off by the fact the song is 24 minutes long. Don't be a baby and just listen to it. It's not that you won't like it, it's that you will not be good enough to like it. The song will reject you, it will tell you to go on listening to whatever you listen to. You will forever be doomed to listen to the mediocracy that is current generation music.
Song length isn't an issue to me. I can listen to a song like this several times over before I finally get bored. I've heard people tell me the longest song they've heard was seven minutes. I'm sure they'd enjoy listening to a song four times that length. It's not that they ignore the greatness of a song like Octavarium, it's just they've never heard it. I'm sure that if someone wasn't some kind of musician they would have never heard of Dream Theater, and thus, they would have never been exposed to this kind of music. I will make it my job to show you what good music truly is.

Sweet Blog O' Mine

Music is much like beauty- it can be seen by the eye of the beholder. People like all kinds of music ranging from rap to polka. Personally, I prefer metal/hard rock. I believe that technical ability and song writing are more important than conveying a message about twenty different girls leaving you. It's fine if a song has a message, but for the love of God, can rap be about something other than drugs money or be a womanizer? Song length is something that is quite interesting. I hear people tell me they can't listen to songs longer than five minutes. I just laugh at them. I wonder if people don't listen to the kinds of music I listen to because they can't focus on a song for more than a minute.

My favorite band is Dream Theater. I wouldn't be surprised if just about everyone reading this had no idea who the hell they were. I can understand that. They are certainly not mainstream. I'll go more in-depth of them later, but I will tell you I have not seen a band with such talent. My other favorite bands include Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Rush, the Beatles (seriously who doesn't like them?) and Steely Dan. Another band no one has heard of, Steely Dan is the greatest rock/jazz fusion band I've heard. They have some songs in Guitar Hero and Rockband, but that doesn't show the kind of diverse sound they have.

People are entitled to listen to their favorite kind of music. I like to laugh at people who say their favorite band is amazing and then it sounds like crap. I am being a music elitist here- there is bad music. You can listen to the stuff that you like, but I will look down upon you and laugh. People can disagree with me all they want, but I can be very close-minded. It doesn't mean I secretly hate everyone and never want to see them again, it's just my music is superior so bow down to it.

This is a test post

Testing to see how this will come out with the layout I'm using. hoping it looks fine.