Metropolis—Part I: "The Miracle and the Sleeper"

"Metropolis—Part I: 'The Miracle and the Sleeper'" (often shortened to "Metropolis") is the title of a song by the American progressive metal band Dream Theater, from their 1992 album Images and Words.

"Metropolis—Part I"
Promotional single by Dream Theater
from the album Images and Words
Released1992 (1992)
RecordedOctober 1991 – December 1991
StudioBear Tracks Studio in Suffern, New York
GenreProgressive metal
Length9:32
LabelAtco
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)David Prater
Music video
Live at Luna Park on YouTube

It was released as a promotional one-track cassette.

History

"Metropolis—Part I: 'The Miracle and the Sleeper'" was originally known as "Crumbling Metropolis."[1] Sometime around 1989, "Crumbling" was dropped. "Part I" in the title was originally added by John Petrucci as a joke, as no sequel was ever intended.[2] As fan demands began to increase, however, the popularity of the song eventually led to a second song being written. The second song was originally conceived as a twenty-minute epic for Falling into Infinity; it was cut from that album at an early state, before the song was completed. Lyrics for "Metropolis Pt. 2" were never written and the only recording of the whole song is a rough rehearsal. These song bits evolved into their own album, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory.

Live performances

Much like "Pull Me Under", "Metropolis" is one of the band's most popular live songs, and is played often and with many variations. The song instantly became a live favorite even before the song's actual release, opening many of Dream Theater's early shows. The song was originally written when original singer Charlie Dominici was in the band, and was played live at every show in 1989, although this version had a different intro and a slightly shorter outro. In recent years, it has often been performed as the final encore, allowing the band to extend the solo section and James LaBrie to address the crowd. This version was released on Live at Luna Park. Metropolis has also been played as part of many medleys, including "Metropolis"/"Learning to Live"/"The Crimson Sunset", which closed Once in a LIVEtime, the "Instrumedley", which was included on the Live at Budokan album, and "Pullmeopolis", a mashup with "Pull Me Under" that has never been commercially released. In total, it has been played live 638 times as of December 2017, making it Dream Theater's second most played song after "Pull Me Under".[3]

Use in media

"Metropolis" is featured in the 2015 music video game Rock Band 4, where it is considered one of the hardest songs.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by John Petrucci; all music is composed by Dream Theater.

No.TitleLength
1."Metropolis"9:30

Personnel

Dream Theater

Releases
  • Cassette, Single, Promo – Atco, US 1992.

References
  1. "Mike Portnoy.com The Official Website". Mike Portnoy. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  2. Blum, Jordan (January 23, 2015). "Miraculous Metropolis: A Reflection on Dream Theater's 'Scenes from a Memory'". PopMatters. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  3. "Dream Theater Tour Statistics". setlist.fm.
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