Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (song)
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| "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" | ||
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| Song by Dream Theater | ||
| from the album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence | ||
| Released | 2001 | |
| Genre | Progressive Metal | |
| Length | 42:00 | |
| Label | Elektra Records | |
| Producer(s) | Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci | |
| Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence track listing | ||
| Disappear (Disc 1 Track 5) |
"Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" (Disc 2) |
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Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence is the sixth song and title track on the album of the same name, written and performed by progressive metal band Dream Theater. The song explores the stories of six individuals suffering from various mental illnesses. Particularly represented are post-traumatic stress disorder, delusions of grandeur, autism, bipolar disorder, post-partum depression, and dissociative identity disorder.
The song also contains musical influences from classical, to metal, to folk and progressive. Some parts of the song are direct nods to some of the bands musical influences. The piece's main theme bears resemblance to the ending of Kansas' "The Wall", and "Solitary Shell" is similar to Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill".
Contents |
[edit] Song Listing
The song is also more commonly split into eight different parts, each with their own distinctive styles.
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- I. Overture – 6:50 (Dream Theater, instrumental)
- II. About to Crash – 5:51 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)
- III. War Inside My Head – 2:08 (Dream Theater, Portnoy)
- IV. The Test That Stumped Them All – 5:03 (Dream Theater, Portnoy)
- V. Goodnight Kiss – 6:17 (Dream Theater, Portnoy)
- VI. Solitary Shell – 5:48 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)
- VII. About to Crash (Reprise) – 4:05 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)
- VIII. Losing Time / Grand Finale – 6:01 (Dream Theater, Petrucci)
[edit] Song Analysis
The lyrics of the songs never stay on one particular object, instead describing each of the six people (referred to as the Six Degrees) in turn. All six parts (excluding Overture, as it is an instrumental, and About To Crash (Reprise), as it is a continuation of Degree 1), are describing six different mental problems.
[edit] Degree 1
- II: About To Crash
- VII: About To Crash (Reprise)
The lyrics tell of a girl (Degree 1) who presumably has Bipolar Disorder, type II, a disorder which has at least one manic depressive episode ("Then one day, she woke up to find, the perfect girl, had lost her mind") and one hypomaniac episode ("She can't stop pacing, she never felt so alive"). Bipolar II sufferers tend to get worse when the affliction is untreated, and her father, presumably, has seen this ("I've never seen her get this bad").
Later on, About To Crash (Reprise) comes back to Degree 1 where her story left off. This time the song is sung from her point of view and describes her going through another hypomaniac episode ("I'm invincible, despair will never find me"). She then makes the realization that she will come out soon only to have another manic depressive episode ("And when I fall out of the sky, who'll be standing by"). The lyrics here possibly show the bipolarity is getting better as sufferers tend to become more conscious of the syndrome when they start to feel more like themselves.
[edit] Degree 2
- III: War Inside My Head
Degree 2 suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, as some soldiers do after war. The lyrics show he was in a tropical locale which may be Desert Storm ("palm trees and shrapnel"). The chorus reveals he has flashbacks ("Hearing voices from miles away / Waging a war inside my head"), and is under the impression he is still in Desert Storm. The second verse implies that he may believe he will have the condition indefinitely ("Trading innocence for permanent psychotic hell"). During the final chorus, it is revealed that his anxiousness have become more pronounced ("Tasting danger with each word I say"). The song then becomes very middle eastern with different musical scales giving you the sense that this war took place around the time of Operation Desert Storm.
[edit] Degree 3
- IV: The Test That Stumped Them All
This patient (Degree 3) is suffering from delusions of grandeur, ("He lives in a world of fiction"), in the form that he imagines himself as a musician, ("Intro tape begins to roll...igniting sonic rage"), and, that this is a problem unknown to medical science (hence the name, The Test That Stumped Them All). The doctors don't know what to do with him, and fire an awful lot of tests at him to try and find the answers ("Random urine testing", "We can't seem to find the answers"), and one jokingly suggests "Why don't we try shock treatment?", as a reference (and very dark humour) to the tests. The doctors could not find what it was.
[edit] Degree 4
- V: Goodnight Kiss
This is a piece about a mother (Degree 4) who has lost her child, in one form or another, and is suffering from post-partum depression ("Are you lonely without Mommy's love?"). There is also evidence of the child being hospitalised at some point, and maybe being taken away or has died as a result of the doctors ("Those bastard doctors are gonna pay"). A heart monitor, and a baby crying can be heard in the latter part of the song, suggesting a medical problem with the baby.
[edit] Degree 5
- VI: Solitary Shell
Referred to as Degree 5, this person is suffering from autism. This is explained in the second verse, ("and steadily he would decline into his solitary shell"), showing that the symptoms have declined quite gradually. The lyric tells us that he started off quite normal ("He learned to walk and talk on time, but never cared much to be held"), however, he did develop the tendency autism sufferers have, and that is the withdrawal of social contact (the title, "Solitary Shell", shows that he is quite reclusive). The autism is shown in a series of unexpected bursts ("A Monday-morning lunatic, disturbed from time to time"), and when things perhaps don't go his way ("A temporary, catatonic, madman on occasions"). Yet another autistic symptom is referenced, ("He poured himself onto the page, writing for hours at a time"), and this shows the concentration aspect of the autism. The lyrics end with a plea for social acceptance from a peer or relative ("When will he be let out of his solitary shell"), showing that they are perhaps pleading to a higher power to save the patient.
[edit] Degree 6
- VIII: Losing Time
The last degree is suffering from dissociative identity disorder, previously called Multiple Personality Disorder. The lyrics tell the listener that she does not have many friends ("She never wears makeup, But no-one would care if she did anyway"). This is probably caused by having her life split among multiple personalities. The results of which is her relative amnesia caused by her inablity to keep track of her life among her multiple personalities ("She doesn't recall yesterday, faces seem twisted and strange"). The "Losing Time" title refers to the fact that she isn't living parts of her life due to her dissociative identity disorder, which in turn implies that she is "losing time". She has some reprieve though; it seems that through daydreaming ("She learned to detach from herself, a behavior that kept her alive") she found a way to relieve the pain.
[edit] Ending
- VIII: Grand Finale
In this section, the lyrics advise the listener to be more understanding of the people who carry these and similar afflictions, and to accept them as they should be. This section is similar to the "Intervals" section in the song "Octavarium", in which the songs on the album are summed up in six lines, one per degree:
Deception of fame — Degree 3: The Test That Stumped Them All
Vengeance of war — Degree 2: War Inside My Head
Lives torn apart — Degree 4: Goodnight Kiss
Losing oneself — Degree 6: Losing Time
Spiraling down — Degree 1: About To Crash (and Reprise)
Feeling the walls closing in — Degree 5: Solitary Shell
The Grand Finale ends with a drum fill and gong from Mike Portnoy while the final chord fades over the course of the remaining minute and forty-five seconds. The final chord is the same chord that starts As I Am, the first song on the next album Train Of Thought, which is a further example of Dream Theater's continuity between albums.
[edit] Trivia
- The song is the longest song Dream Theater have ever recorded, being 42 minutes long.
- The song was played in its entirety at Score with the full symphony orchestra playing Overture.
[edit] References
- Lyrical analysis at DTFAQ (Unavailable for the time being)
- Lyrics
