In this video, I am checking out Learning to Live by Dream Theater to see if I think it sucks, or if it will make it to my playlist! (Recorded December 2019) For more of my content go to www.everysongsucks.com
As someone else has mentioned, this song is about the AIDS epidemic. The timing is also very important as the album Images & Words came out in July of 1992. That is just 9 months after Magic Johnson was forced to retire from the NBA after contracting HIV as well as Freddie Mercury dying from complications from AIDS (both happened in November of 1991). So needless to say, this was a real fear of the time.
The Count of Tuscany remains to this day my favorite song from them. There are musical wonders present elsewhere too though. DT is worth the "discovery".
Now we're talkin', Sarah! Good to hear some Dream Theater. I'm not surprised you didn't like it, save for the positive message in content. I think you're right about the analysis on the lyrics; deciding to live differently and be a different person. Thinking of it as a person who may have been confronted with a life-threatening situation of some kind I think would be a valid take too. Who knows.
Waow, this was my fav song through highschool. Amazing song. That end piano 09:09 is a entire song on the same album called "Waiting for sleep" but they play it alot faster in this song.
Great song! Images and Words is the best album ever made! I bought it when it came out in 1992 and it’s still the best. And I collect music and have over 6,000 albums mostly on vinyl and SACD.
To give you some context, this song is the last song of Images and Words, Dream Theater's second album. It came in a time that albums meant a lot. For instance, you'd never hear this song in the radio, and to listen this song you should buy the whole LP, which makes a lot of difference, because the song itself has this kind of ending atmosphere, like an ending theme for a long play (which it was). So, I dare to say that it is a great great song that unfortunately doesn't work on its own... because it is contextualized (musically) by the entire album (it literally goes back to the previous track ("Wait for Sleep") piano's theme, just as a concrete example of what I'm trying to say. It is a great song. But in a time when algums hasn't much of the importance that they had those days (now you can just hear any song, any time, and ignore all other songs of the album) it may not work for the listener that well.
Thanks for sharing. I think to experience an entire album can give so much context to song, a lot of the time. I did check out one of their full albums, Octavarium, on my website www.everysongsucks.com.
@@everysongsucks I just read your review of the full Octavarium album. The title song was supposed to be about how, despite all efforts, the band was always getting back to the same point (struggling with the record label, being pressured to write more commercial-appealing songs, etc.). They had been challenged with that since the beginning, and it was still difficult by their eighth album). The lyrics go about someone admiring someone else, but who refuses to follow their steps, until the day comes that he's just being 'someone just like him'). It's kind of a tribute to some other bands that inspired Dream Theater, and that could have a whole career without relying on big record labels. Ironically, this was the last album by Atlantic Records and the Warner Group altogether, and ever since it seems that the subject is no longer an issue (It was commonplace to have songs in their previous albums, like "Just Let Me Breathe" in Falling Into Infinity regarding the matter). I understand how the lyrics didn't make you feel connected at all, but I would argue that, musically, this is their masterpiece. Their best composition to this day, and I doubt they're gonna do something so well written someday (I hope so, though).
I love watching reactions but to be listening to this album when it came out and feeling the emotion and uniqueness is different from comparing it to more modern stuff you will hear. It hit different at the time if that makes sense at all. I had Images and Words in my car cd player for about a year straight back when it first came out 😆
In terms of DT, I think a song like "Forsaken" might be more your speed. Defintiely singalong-able, shorter in length, no crazy keyboard stuff, and some cool riffs and chorus
It sounds like you thought it out. I think my favourite song, I have heard by DT, so far is "The Best of Times", because it is so meaningful! I did do a written review for the album Octavarium, on my website :)
@@everysongsucks That's awesome, I will surely check out the Octavaruim review. And I love The Best of Times, one of my all time favorite guitar solos!
Correct. And in an interview Bassist John Myung revealed the song lyrics are about one of his Brothers who got AIDS around that time in late 80's, early 90's. Been a fan since 1997 and this album, Images & Words never gets old for me. Timeless Masterpiece!
