All at once in 2004, Dream Theater dropped three bootlegs under the sub headings of DEMO, COVER and LIVE.
The DEMO release was reviewed here, and it covered the “When Dream And Day Unite” period between 1987 and 1989.
The COVER release is their play through from start to finish of the “Master Of Puppets” album and will be reviewed next.
This review is on the LIVE release and as I’m writing this review it has not been re-released as part of the Inside Out re-releases/new releases.
So all we have at the moment is the Ytse Jam Records release.
The full 2 hours and 20 minutes, recorded live on the run of shows used to promote the “A Change Of Seasons” EP.
This is from October 28th, 1995 at NHL Hall, Tokyo, Japan.
The band is John Petrucci on guitars, Mike Portnoy on drums, John Myung on bass, James LaBrie on vocals and Derek Sherinian on keys.
Intro
There is a tape intro that goes for about 1 minute. It’s got a clock ticking and the sad piano lines from “Space Dye Vest” are played.
Then there is a voice over, some backwards sound effects and the octave notes from “Under A Glass Moon” kick in.
Under A Glass Moon
I like the surrealist title.
The verse riff on this song with the keys playing Chords over it. Perfection.
Stick around for the solo as it’s one of Petrucci’s best.
The Mirror
It’s a heavy song with Petrucci deploying the 7-string. Its intricate arrangements and dynamic shifts are interesting.
Lie
It goes together with “The Mirror” as some musical sections appear in both songs. This was a single from the “Awake” album, however it didn’t have the same success as “Pull Me Under” from the album previously.
The mix of heavy riffs and melodic moments, highlights their versatility.
Petrucci as usual delivers a few killer solo sections.
Lifting Shadows Off A Dream
It starts off like a slow jazz blues fusion jam before it goes into the well recognized bass intro.
It feels like a cross between U2, ballad like Marillion and 80s synth Rush.
Instrumental Medley
You get to hear “The Rover” from Led Zeppelin, “Killers” from Iron Maiden, “Damage Inc.” from Metallica, “In The Flesh” from Pink Floyd and “Heart Of The Sunrise” from Yes.
Press play to hear the way they fuse all these different songs into one cohesive track.
Innocence Faded
It’s in a major key. While it rocks it does have pop sensibilities.
But it’s the outro that you should listen to.
Because if you worship at the altar of guitar gods then the outro is for you. Even James LaBrie screams “John Petrucci” when it starts.
If you can’t find this track, then any other official live version or even the studio cut will suffice.
A Change Of Seasons
You get the full 23 minutes.
The way this piece is written is that each part can be played separately in the set list amongst other songs or it can be played as one song, like it is here.
And like all multi-part epics, it serves as the grand centerpiece of the show, displaying their songwriting prowess and technical skills in a live setting.
Lost Without You
“Lost Without You” was officially released in 2005 on John Petrucci’s solo album “Suspended Animation”.
But here it is, live in 1995.
Its an intimate and introspective moment within the setlist, very blues/jazz fusion like and I’m all in.
Petrucci nails it and the emotion drips from the strings.
Surrounded
The “Images And Words” album is all killer.
And this song is largely out of the conversation, however the band does a stellar job playing tracks from the back catalogue in the live setting.
After the piano intro and verses, the song picks up. Listen to how Petrucci decorates.
Derek Sherinian Keyboard Solo
I’m not a huge fan of solos in concert like this, but this one actually rocked and kept me interested.
It was a mixture of ragtime, blues, classical and cinematic/video game like music.
Erotomania
Mike Portnoy takes over the middle of the song with a drum solo.
But at least they go back into the song and to one of my favorite instrumental sections.
Voices
This is another song that seems like it’s out of the conversation when it comes to Dream Theater songs.
But it’s a classic
The Chorus is arena rock.
And that solo is what guitar heroes are made of.
The Silent Man
It’s a great acoustic song.
And they bring the 70s Classic Rock vibes (which is known as Country Rock these days) to it live.
Pull Me Under
Closing the main set with their most recognizable hit, leaves the audience energized.
The 1st Encore begins with a cover.
Perfect Strangers (Deep Purple cover):
The Deep Purple cover sounds like it came from the minds of Dream Theater.
You can hear the fun in the music and they definitely jam it out.
The 2nd Encore begins with the last two tracks of the “Images And Words” album. And for a 1995 set list it’s perfect.
Wait For Sleep (Acoustic version)
An acoustic version of “Wait For Sleep” is excellent.
Learning To Live
The grand finale. The whole song is a masterpiece.
And then that outro section. Wow.
In summary, its raw as a bootleg should be.
The setlist is diverse and it showcases their instrumental virtuosity and ability to navigate complex musical compositions.
There are mistakes and pitch issues but hey, if I wanted the studio recordings I would play them.
The inclusion of covers and acoustic moments also adds depth to the overall concert experience.
It was released in 2004 on Ytse Jam Records, the official bootleg label of the band created by Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci, but Portnoy was the main driver.
Yep, the thing that bands are doing right now, Dream Theater has been doing it since 2003. Marillion, one of Portnoy’s favorite bands have been doing it even earlier via their fan club.
This was also released as part of their Inside Out record deal via the “Lost Not Forgotten Archives” on 12 May, 2023.
The CD contains pre-production demos as well as instrumental versions of the songs and songs that did not make it on to the album, or were recorded around the same time. Also included are six tracks the band recorded as a Christmas gift for their friends.
The band started this recording process as Majesty. By the end of it they would be Dream Theater.
They started it with Chris Collins as the vocalist. Then a whole year would pass before Charlie Dominici would join Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci, Johnny Myung and Kevin Moore. This is the band that recorded the debut album.
Afterlife – Instrumental Demo
It’s my favorite track from the debut album and it was the first new track they wrote upon returning home from Berklee in the Summer of 1986.
It’s straight ahead speed technical Metal and the instrumental demo highlights it.
And Johnny Myung is one hell of a bassist.
The harmony solo between the keys and guitar is still here, however the solo before is different to the recorded version.
The song was performed live with vocalist Chris Collins however it had different lyrics and melodies.
The Killing Hand – Instrumental Demo
It’s weird how my two favorite songs on the debut are the first two songs written.
You can say this song is the start of the Dream Theater epics.
That section after the solo still hooks me.
The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun – Instrumental Demo
The working title of this song was “Death Of Spock”.
It’s the most progressive of the tracks so far and the Arabic Metal feel is very prominent in the demo.
The Rush influence is also prominent when you hear the song instrumentally.
Ytse Jam – Instrumental Demo
Well the song was written to be an instrumental so instrumental demo doesn’t make sense.
Regardless, it’s a fan favorite and that Intro gets peoples attention immediately.
Cry for Freedom – Instrumental Demo
I needed to rehear it to remember it. A leftover from their Berklee jams.
Standard riffing that seems lost without a vocal melody.
But I do like the Sunset Strip riff from about 2.40 and then the change in feel at 3.00. The drums play a simple groove, the synth takes the lead and it sounds like “Stranger Things” took it for their intro. Or maybe the band was heavily influenced by the “Signals” album from Rush.
It’s also been preformed live with Chris Collins.
Resurrection of Ernie – Instrumental Demo
It’s like a John Carpenter soundtrack piece and I like it.
The music here has never been used or rewritten for another song, so it’s a true rarity.
Drum Solo – Instrumental Demo
I hate drum solos in concert and I hate them on albums. If they add some music to it and have the drums doing intricate things then I’m all in.
Portnoy created it for a contest that Modern Drummer magazine was running. The prize, “Neal Peart’s Tama Drum Set”.
Portnoy submitted it under the title “Peartnoy’s Complaint”.
He didn’t win.
A Fortune in Lies – Instrumental Demo
It is the opening track on the album. I still get hooked on the verse riff and how the keys decorate it.
And in the demo here, there’s no Chorus
Only A Matter of Time – Instrumental Demo
It’s missing the excellent synth lead which defines it.
A Fortune in Lies – Early Charlie Demo
Charlie Dominici is a great vocalist.
But at 36 years of age when he joined the band, he was always on borrowed time with the Dream Theater guys.
Mike Portnoy said it was like having Billy Joel singing in Queensrÿche. In this case it was more Steve Perry singing in Dream Theater.
A good singer in the wrong band, they would amicably part ways after this album.
Afterlife – Early Charlie Demo
My favorite track with a killer chorus. But you had to wait for it.
The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun – Early Charlie Demo
You hear a lot of Marillion in the demo and I like it.
These “Early Charlie” Demos are the ones that got the band signed. A friend of Portnoy’s had an ex-band mate who left Combat Records to start Mechanic Records and on June 23 of 1988, Majesty signed their deal.
Once signed, Terry Date was selected as Producer, who at the time had a reputation for making albums sound great on a low budget.
Portnoy’s 4 track came out and away they went with the Pre-Production demos.
A Fortune in Lies
Afterlife
Ytse Jam
Only A Matter of Time
The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun
The Killing Hand
Light Fuse and Get Away
All of the pre-production demos are more polished than the instrumental demos.
The solos are still a work in progress however most of the elements are there.
“Light Fuse And Get Away” was newly written during this phase.
“Status Seeker” was written just before they entered the studio and never demoed.
The entire album was recorded and mixed in 3 weeks.
Shortly before the release, the guys were informed of another unsigned band who held the registered trademark for the name Majesty. So they had to change their name.
And Dream Theater was born.
The album dropped on March 6, 1989 to little promotion and fanfare. The label reneged on their promise to fund a video and provide touring support.
It was dead on arrival as the guys retreated back to their basement rehearsal studio and their day jobs at delis, Chinese food places and music stores.
To Live Forever – Xmas Demo
The song was written after the guys watched “Rattle and Hum” from U2.
It’s stuff like this which I like from Dream Theater. They would take all kind of influences and still make it sound like Dream Theater.
On here, you can really here the pop vocals in Dominici.
Mission Impossible – Xmas Demo
A little jam with Portnoy losing his shit at the end of the song at Petrucci who was wailing away.
Golden Slumbers/Carry that Weight/The End – Xmas Demo
A Beatles medley.
O Holy Night – Xmas Demo
It’s not a Xmas demo with a Xmas song.
A Vision ’89 – Xmas Demo
I like Dominici’s vocals as well. Then again I’m a fan of this song, so I enjoy all versions of it.
This one is very Queensryche like.
And there you have it.
If you want to hear Dream Theater as a technical speed Metal band with various influences of other styles then this is the album.
You see, large legacy artists today are releasing these kind of albums as part of their anniversary editions. Whitesnake comes to mind with their excellent box sets. But Dream Theater, well, they were doing it as part of their Official Bootleg series.
Released in 2003 on Ytse Jam Records, what you hear on this double CD “Making Of Scenes From A Memory” are alternate takes, partial jam sections that are a bit different, random noises and improvisations, plus alternate mixes.
Some of the stuff on CD1 is not that interesting. For die-hard fans like me, it’s okay to listen once and then it goes to the collection.
But there is also some great stuff here.
“Regression” is an alternate vocal take. The guitar progression that JP wrote became the central theme tying the album together. It appears in “Through My Words”, “Finally Free” and is the foundation for the excellent, “The Spirit Carries On”.
“Through Her Eyes” has James LaBrie trying a few different vocal melodies but the piece d’resistance is the sax solo on the outro which was left off the final mix.
The booklet notes from Portnoy mentions the following for “Through Her Eyes”;
“Originally we wrote 2 different versions of this song.
The working title was “Titanic” so there was the “Short Titanic” (this arrangement that ended up making the final CD) and the “Long Titanic” (which was more of a traditional rock arrangement, with drums and some additional chord progressions).
Because of time restraints, the “Long Titanic” is not included on this CD, but it can be found on the closing credits of “Metropolis 2000 – Scenes From New York” DVD.
John Petrucci’s vocal demo guide for ‘The Spirit Carries On’, is warts and all auto-tune free and pretty funny to listen to.
And then we come to CD2, which are the original mixes for the album.
This was the first album that had John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy producing. David Bottrill was hired to mix the album because of his work with King Crimson, Peter Gabriel and Tool. It was a weird mix, because Dream Theater in sound is more heavy metal and hard rock with progressive elements. The bands that Bottrill worked with are not hard rock and heavy metal. They have unique soundscapes special to them.
Bottrill mixed the album in 10 days with the band members giving him “expert advice” to make the drums louder, more guitars, more keys, higher vocals and higher bass.
While the mixing process was happening, the band members were giving it their tick of approval, however after the mixes were complete and sitting with the mixes for a few days, the band expressed concerns at the sonic intensity of the mixed songs. It was a bitter pill to swallow as they all had large inputs into how it should be mixed.
Petrucci reached out to Kevin Shirley. Shirley had some time to do a few mixes, so they gave him three tracks to start off with in “Home”, “The Spirit Carries On” and “Through Her Eyes”. Shirley did the mixes (on his own, without any band input) and sent them back. The band compared the mixes to the three songs mixed by Bottrill and they were happy with the sonics this time around.
All was not lost as some of Dave Bottrill mixes survived to the final cut in “Regression”, “The Dance Of Eternity”, “One Last Time” and “Finally Free”.
The weird part is you have this low profile official bootleg release, where the fans get the original mix for the album, when nowadays these kind of tracks are the “in thing” for anniversary editions or special remixed editions.
And so far, this release has not been re-released as part of the “Lost Not Forgotten” series via Inside Out Music.
This original Ytse Jam bootleg has not been re-released as a “Lost Not Forgotten Archive” yet.
This was recorded on the “Falling Into Infinity” tour. The band was James Labrie on vocals, John Petrucci on guitars, John Myung on bass, Mike Portnoy on drums and Derek Sherinian on keyboards.
The mighty Bruce Dickinson guests on vocals for the songs “Perfect Strangers” from Deep Purple and the Iron Maiden songs “The Trooper”, “Where Eagles Dare” and “Killers”. And yes that is him on the cover as well, making it look like he was the frontman instead of James LaBrie.
Ray Alder from Fates Warning also guests on “Pull Me Under”.
This was recorded live at the House Of Blues in Los Angeles on May 18, 1998. There are no touch ups here folks, just a soundboard recording which was then mastered. So you get it all, warts and all.
Lines In The Sand
The opener, from the “Falling Into Infinity” album.
Live they pushed the 11 minute run time to about 14 minutes. On the studio recording the soulful voice of Doug Pinnick appears in the Chorus, however live, that job fell to Mike Portnoy.
Petrucci delivers his emotive solo as expected and LaBrie acknowledges it by telling the audience “that is John Petrucci on guitar” after the solo finishes.
Burning My Soul
This song is a groove metal behemoth. It’s also from the “Falling Into Infinity” album.
The only thing you could do is press play and bang your head to it because the “pressure keeps burning my soul.”
Take The Time
They have fun with this classic from the “Images And Words” album.
It moves between metal, rock, jazz fusion, funk rock and progressive rock.
Live they also chuck in a lot of cover solos in the outro like “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and “Hot For Teacher” by Van Halen and “Moby Dick” by Led Zeppelin and the intro of “YYZ” by Rush.
Anna Lee
From the “Falling Into Infinity” album, it’s a piano ballad that does nothing for me, so it’s a skip for me here.
Speak To Me
This one was written for the “Falling Into Infinity” double album, but when the label said they only want one album, it was left off the list. I still don’t know how “Anna Lee” made it over this one.
Press play and enjoy.
It’s Dream Theater’s take on how 1980’s U2 would sound through the DT blender. And its performed brilliantly.
A Crack On The Mirror / Puppies On Acid
It’s an instrumental, combining various ideas.
It starts off with Derek Sherinian doodling on the keys, before he starts to play a riff which gets Portnoy to join and eventually the band. They play some sections from “The Mirror”, forming their own medley from the song.
I would rather have heard the song “The Mirror”.
Just Let Me Breathe
Not my favourite song from “Falling Into Infinity” so I would have preferred to hear something else.
Sequencing in live gigs is important, and apart from “Speak To Me”, the other songs like “Anna Lee”, “A Crack In The Mirror” and “Just Let Me Breathe” lose my interest.
Lie
This is DT putting the groove metal from Pantera into their blender.
Is Progressive Groove Rock a genre?
If it is, this song stands tall.
LaBrie is a bit hard to handle here vocally, but hey, if you want the studio recording, press play on the CD. I would rather take a ticket to the show instead.
Peruvian Skies
They set a standard with this song.
Every time they play it, they play parts of the songs that inspired and influenced the song, so you will hear excerpts of “Have A Cigar” by Pink Floyd and “Enter Sandman” by Metallica. Not a lot of artists would mash up Pink Floyd and Metallica but Dream Theater did and it’s called “Peruvian Skies”.
Then again, not of a lot of artists would show which song influenced them, in case they get a writ.
Press play to hear how they mash it all up.
John Petrucci Guitar Solo
I don’t like guitar solos on their own like this.
I really like how Petrucci started to incorporate his solo moment into a song, by extending the normal solo section of the song, like how he did with “Hollow Years” from “Live At Budokan”.
Pull Me Under
Ray Adler from Fates Warning guests on vocals here.
This is the song that made me a fan.
From a song writing point of view, the band takes the initial intro riff and they keep tweaking it throughout. It’s a great study in how to write different iterations of the same riff and same chordal sequence.
But they don’t do the clean tone intro here, they go straight into the riff that comes about a minute into the song.
Scarred
It’s an 11 minute prog rocker, with a lot of vocal highs. And it doesn’t help LaBrie that the song is sped up a little bit, which is a curse of performing live.
Musically some of the riffs that sounded a bit buried in the studio mix are high in the mix here and I like it.
A Change of Seasons IV: The Darkest Of Winters
A small 3 minute diversion into the mammoth “A Change Of Seasons”.
Ytse Jam
Ahh yes the instrumental that defined Majesty, the name of the band before Dream Theater.
Mike Portnoy Drum Solo
Like the John Petrucci guitar solo moment, I’m not a fan of individual drum solo’s as well. I would rather hear a song with some kick ass fills in between bars than to hear just the drums on their own.
Once the drum solo is done they go back into “Ytse Jam” for about 10 seconds before they start “New Millenium”.
New Millenium
It’s actually the opening track on the album, however it is played as the last song of the set before the encores begin.
Press play and enjoy it.
The first encore begins with Bruce Dickinson lending a hand on “Perfect Strangers”, “The Trooper”, “Where Eagles Dare” and “Killers’.
Perfect Strangers (Deep Purple cover)
How cool it would have been to get Bruce Dickinson up on stage.
You need to remember this is Bruce Dickinson in 1998. His return to Maiden and the “Brave New World” era wasn’t yet done.
It took a verse for the mixer dude to put up his microphone.
The Trooper (Iron Maiden cover)
How iconic is “you take my life and I’ll take yours too”.
Where Eagles Dare (Iron Maiden cover)
They started it and then they stopped after a few verses, as Bruce said, “fucked if I know, it’s been years since I’ve sung it”.
Killers (Iron Maiden cover)
And they go straight into this classic. I never saw it as a progressive track, but hearing it today, it’s definitely got a progressive attitude.
They did a couple of verses before they stopped it as well. And Bruce walked off with a laugh.
It’s a fun little encore section, almost jam like in its nature.
The second Encore begins they don’t play the full songs, just a medley.
Metropolis
From “Images And Words”, the song is a classic. But they don’t play the full song. So I’m not a massive fan of this medley.
Learning To Live
My favourite track from “Images And Words” but they only play sections.
Why write long songs of your just going to cherry pick certain sections of them to do a medley.
A Change Of Seasons VII: The Crimson Sunset
A fitting finale.
To get a re-release, they would need to get Bruce Dickinson’s approval to do so or they remove the songs that he sang and tried to sing.
The above is the cover from the 2003 release. The only place to buy these official bootleg albums was via the Ytse Jam website or at Dream Theater live shows.
While Official Bootlegs are all the rage these last few years with acts like Kiss, Aerosmith and Cheap Trick jumping on, Dream Theater were one of the first few to do an Official Bootleg series. Mike Portnoy was the brains behind this and was inspired by the work his favourite band Marillion did for the fans via the fan club (which Portnoy was also a member of).
But Portnoy had to get John Petrucci’s approval to proceed and once he got it, Ytse Jam Records was formed.
In 2003, three Bootlegs dropped and they kept on dropping while Portnoy was in the band.
But.
Once Portnoy was out, Ytse Jam records ceased to exist.
However the Petrucci led version of the band signed an agreement a few years ago with current record label InsideOut Music.
The purpose of the “Lost Not Forgotten Archives” is to re-release and reissue the entire Ytsejam Records catalogue and the fan club CDs, alongside some new unreleased material. All of the new re-releases will be sold on CD and vinyl, as well as being made available for digital streaming with all new artwork.
Like the terrible one below they did for “The Majesty Demos” re-release”.
“The Majesty Demos 1985-86” covers the initial formation period of Dream Theater, with the songs recorded on a 4 track tape recorder. It was released in 2003 by Ytse Jam records and re-released in 2022 via the Lost Not Forgotten Archives.
In September of 1985, John Petrucci and John Myung met up with Mike Portnoy at the Berklee College Of Music in Boston.
Within the first month of school, the two John’s saw Mike jamming in the practice room and introduced themselves. Besides having a common home base, they had similar tastes in music. They liked progressive, complex music like Rush, Yes, The Dixie Dregs, Frank Zappa and also loved heavy music like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Metallica and Queensryche.
It was just three college kids jamming and having fun. And it is captured on these recordings.
As Portnoy wrote in the CD booklet;
“the music on this very 1st Edition is the very first music we ever created together.
It is very raw (and sometimes even very embarrassing). The audio quality is usually fair at best. We had very limited recording resources available to us at the time.
In fact, we had only one resource at all; my trusty old Tascam 244 analog 4 track recorder that I received as a high school graduation present from my grandmother”.
None of these songs have even appeared on a proper studio album.
The CD booklet explains the tracks a little bit more.
Particle E. Motion
At 1.38, a small instrumental that shows Petrucci playing arpeggios over a Myung bass groove.
The title alludes to the key of the song. The CD booklet mentions how it is the first thing they ever recorded on Portnoy’s 4 track, to break it in and figure out how to use the damn thing.
Another Won
This is the instrumental version of the song, with Portnoy, Petrucci and Myung, as Kevin Moore was not in the band at this point in time.
“This is where it all began” states the CD booklet. The first song the power trio wrote together.
Musically, it you like the first Queensryche album, early Maiden and Fates Warning, then you will like this song. The bass of Myung is boss here, with a dominant Steve Harris like sound.
Press play at 3.29 to hear the riff and how Petrucci builds it into a solo.
At 5 minutes in length, it’s a standard heavy metal cut, heavily influenced by Queensryche.
The Saurus
An 80 second instrumental which has Petrucci playing this jazz like chords. It’s almost lounge rock when the lead kicks in. It’s very Al DiMeola like.
Cry for Freedom
This song has not had an official release on any studio album. Musically this is Petrucci, Myung and Portnoy (let’s call em “PMP”) living in their Queensryche meets Rush world. And I like it. It’s very accessible.
It’s also the second song the Berklee boys wrote. The CD booklet mentions how much of a lead instrument the bass was when it was just the three of them.
The School Song
Song number three for the Berklee boys. A song that got left behind, and it has never been played live.
A major key riff kicks off the song, something which Petrucci likes to do a lot and its similar to some of the riffs he has written on studio songs like “Our New World” from “The Astonishing” album and “The Bigger Picture” from their self-titled album.
At 2.31, it has this minor key section which screams Iron Maiden. The CD booklet states the same.
The last few chords to end the song is how “Ytse Jam” starts.
YYZ
A Rush cover. It’s how all acts start out. Playing the songs from our heroes.
Portnoy even plays the keys on this.
It’s perfect and it shows how precise they are.
The CD booklet does state how they would jam, “La Villa Strangiatio”, “The Spirit Of Radio” and this one.
The Farandole
A Talas cover which is classical in nature. Who would have thought that almost 30 years later, Portnoy would be in a power trio combo with Billy Sheehan.
The CD booklet mentions that Talas was Portnoy’s and Myung’s favourite band during this period especially their “Live Speed On Ice” album.
I love reading stuff like this.
Two Far
Original song number 4.
This is the instrumental version.
Musically its Dream Theater’s version of RushMaidenRyche.
Anti-Procrastination Song
A S.O.D. cover at 13 seconds long. Pointless, but hey, what else can you are young and have a 4 track recorder.
Your Majesty
They are still living in their Queensryche meets Rush world with a bit of Malmsteen chucked in. This is the instrumental version of the song.
It’s more of a straight forward type of song, maybe even commercial sounding.
This track was resurrected and played live in Paris in 2002 as a tribute to all of the French Fan Club members which goes by the Majesty name. A perfect way to honour their dedication to the band.
Tracks 11 to 17 are all little snippets no longer than 20 seconds as they play around with multi-tracking on the 4 track recorder.
The tracks in question are “Solar System Race Song”, “I’m About to Faint Song”, “Mosquitos in Harmony Song”, “John Thinks He’s Randy Song”, “Mike Thinks He’s Dee Dee Ramone Introducing a Song Song”, “John Thinks He’s Yngwie Song” and “Gnos Sdrawkcab”.
Each song starts off with Portnoy yelling the title and then you hear 4 tracks of Petrucci harmonizing. Portnoy makes mention in the CD booklet, “it’s amazing how incredibly tight John can double track his guitar leads and still is a master of that today”.
Now we get to the good bit.
The rare “Majesty” demo with Chris Collins on vocals. He might have yelled, “Scream For Me Long Beach” while they played live and his stage presence and delivery might have been strained, but he does a pretty good job here to give the songs a unique Tate/Midnight vocal vibe.
The CD booklet mentions how the DT guys had a tape of Chris singing “Queen Of The Ryche” and they were in AWE of how perfectly he could hit those Tate notes (which Portnoy further elaborated, “unfortunately, it turned out that was about all he could do”.)
A friend from Berklee called James Hull also had a Tascam 246 and when they put the two four tracks together, they had a whopping 8 tracks to do a real demo.
They also wrote 3 new songs, the heavy and progressive “March of The Tyrant” and 2 more ballade-esque songs in Vital Star and the 11 minute epic power ballad “A Vision” which Portnoy mentions, has some really beautiful moments, not to mention an AMAZING guitar solo.
Portnoy, Petrucci and Myung recorded their tracks at Berklee. When school finished in May, they joined up with Kevin Moore and Chris Collins back on Long Island and added them to the tracks. Portnoy’s grandmother again came to the rescue and funded the band money to press 1000 cassettes.
And Portnoy mailed em and gave em to people who mattered.
Another Won
The delivery and recording of this is way superior to the instrumental version. The addition of the keys makes each section different.
But my favourite section (like the instrumental) starts around 3.37, when Petrucci starts the riff and then leads into the solo. The solo is even better than what he put down on the instrumental. His fast alternate picked lines are perfect this time around.
Your Majesty
Myung’s bass sets the groove for everyone to follow. The addition of vocals is welcomed and Collins does a fantastic job.
The Chorus is very arena rock like and some of the vocal highs are ball squeezing.
The outro solo is perfect from Petrucci. Simple, melodic and a perfect way to end the song.
A Vision
My favourite track. A 11 minute metal tour de force. I would have loved to hear this with a proper studio release.
An Em(add9) arpeggio chord starts it all off. It builds until the whole band crashes in and Collins is doing all ohhs and woohs. Collins moves between a Dickinson meets Tate vibe here vocally. He sounds fresh.
The Petrucci solo which starts around the 6.30 mark is essential listening. The way he builds it with all the different techniques he employs is a wow moment. At the 8 minute mark it gets a bit more frantic and Petrucci is wailing, while the band is building with him.
The solo finally ends at 8.49 and I wasn’t bored not a second while it played.
But he wasn’t done. He produces another guitar hero solo to end the song. The chops at the age of 19/20 goes to show how competitive the 80’s era was for guitarists.
Two Far
A Neal Peart inspired drum groove starts off the song, and then it goes into a Malmsteen like riff.
The verses are very busy musically so it is difficult to put a vocal melody over it and while the guys tried, they didn’t really pull it off.
However the Chorus is catchy.
The solo section and the unison lines between the guitars and keys is a sign of things to come.
Vital Star
My next favourite.
Collins does a good job in bringing this song to life vocally with his Tate like influences.
Musically, it is living in that Queensryche debut album sound except for the solo section which shows some of the progressiveness to come. And the outro solo from Petrucci is another great listen.
March of the Tyrant
The song is a mix of so many styles from the early 80’s. It has that exotic sounding Middle Eastern riff.
It definitely has that Rush element and how Alex Lifeson plays a power chord with the ringing E and B strings (DT does it more aggressively and distorted here), plus a lot more. There are musical elements of early Fates Warning, Megadeth, Metallica, Yngwie Malmsteen, Marillion, Yes and Iron Maiden.
The solo section is very Holdsworth/Morse like over an Iron Maiden like rhythm section. And I like it.
I’ll end the post with how Portnoy ended his opening in the CD booklet; “I hope you can look past the occasional audio distraction and enjoy a glimpse of where we were at, what we were doing and where we were going.”
Back in 2003, this snapshot back in time was perfect. And I wanted more. Which I got. But that is for another post.
destroyerofharmony 