Repentance (song)
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| “Repentance” | |||||
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| Song by Dream Theater | |||||
| Album | Systematic Chaos | ||||
| Format | CD | ||||
| Recorded | 2007 | ||||
| Genre | Progressive metal | ||||
| Length | 10:43 | ||||
| Label | Roadrunner Records | ||||
| Writer | Mike Portnoy | ||||
| Producer | John Petrucci Mike Portnoy |
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| Systematic Chaos track listing | |||||
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| AA Suite track listing | |||||
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Repentance is the fifth song on Dream Theater's 2007 album, Systematic Chaos.
This song was written by Mike Portnoy and is part of his Alcoholics Anonymous suite about the twelve steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous program. The suite began on the band's sixth album, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, though "The Mirror" from the album Awake is considered by fans to be a "prequel" of sorts to the AA Suite. "Repentance" includes Steps eight and nine. Unlike the other three previous songs in the suite, "Repentance" has a distinctly slower, moodier feel.
The song's opening and bridge consists a melody previously heard in movement IV of the Alcoholics Anonymous suite, Reflections of Reality (Revisited), from "This Dying Soul" on Train of Thought, although it is brought up from the original B to a C# scale, despite the verses being in B. Additionally, the first lyric of the song, "Hello, mirror / So glad to see you my friend / It's been a while" is the same lyric that opens This Dying Soul. However, as seen on the Chaos In Progress: The Making of Systematic Chaos documentary, it is sung by Mike Portnoy rather than James LaBrie. Also, the vocals have been processed, making it sound like it's coming through a phone.
The song's ending contains a spoken passage known as "the twelve promises" from pages 83-84 of the Alcoholics Anonymous book. They read as follows:
If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Self seeking will slip away.
Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.
According to Chaos in Progress, the song's working title was "Song #7" or "Fisheye".
Contents |
[edit] Movements
- VIII. Regret
- IX. Restitution
[edit] Credits
[edit] Band
- James LaBrie - vocals
- John Myung - bass guitar
- John Petrucci - guitar
- Mike Portnoy - drums, vocals
- Jordan Rudess - keyboards
[edit] Spoken parts
The middle section of the song includes apologies spoken by the following people:
- Corey Taylor - "Until that moment, I'd never felt like I'd failed at anything...And I felt like I failed her...And I failed myself, and I failed my children...It's still really hard to deal with."
- Steve Vai - "I want to thank you for helping me to see my own selfishness and to tell you how regretful I am it has hurt you."
- Chris Jericho - "I'm sorry I didn't visit you in the hospital, Grandpa when you were on your deathbed. I'm sorry I didn't come to your funeral...I don't know if I was selfish or just too scared to face it. It's one of the biggest regrets of my life."
- David Ellefson - "I'm here to confess with you that what I did, was wrong... And I'm asking for your forgiveness..."
- Steve Hogarth - "The only unforgivable thing hauls itself out of bed, looks over my shoulder at the bloody English weather..."
- Joe Satriani - "I really regret not being able to see my friend Andy..."
- Mikael Åkerfeldt - "One of my best friends who's the godfather of my daughter, he asked me to sing or play something at his wedding, and I turned it down because I was busy and, I guess, too much of a chickenshit to do it...And I feel sorry for that, because it was a very very close friend of mine..."
- Steven Wilson - "So, I wanted to apologize to anyone that I've upset or offended.. by my words, it's just an opinion, but unfortunately, I tend to express it as a fact, and that's kind of arrogant. Isn't it?"
- Jon Anderson - "I think it's the betrayal...it still haunts me."
- Neal Morse - "I'm sorry for what I did back then... I was a different person. I really was and I'm so sorry. I wish it wouldn't have happened, but it did, and I'm sorry. Forgive me. I'm sorry..."
- Daniel Gildenlöw - "I guess I'm simply sorry for being me and not you. I so often wish you could be here with me to show me the way..."
The very ending of the song also features two final spoken dialogues, they are as follows:
- David Ellefson - "You're only as sick as your secrets, but the truth shall set you free..."
- Corey Taylor - "The truth is the truth, so all you can do is live with it."
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