Dream Theater

=spock84 said:

=Hprog said:
JP: My point of view is rather conservative. I'm no liberal. When I write about spiralling towards disaster, it is about people who profit from the system and live off of it. The song begins with the words "Standing on the backs of angels". The big thinkers, the creatives and the people who work hard keep the country alive, whilst there are others who just let themselves be tagged and dragged along. The american dream means working hard and being your own man in order to fulfill your own dreams, people who have won their lives through hard work and a belief in something. The new american dream works differently. It's based on taking advantage. It's no longer working hard, but rather living out of the common welfare. These people burden the system and bring it down.

I disagree with that 100% and I find it unfortunate that he's got that kind of an opinion (it's ill-informed, naive and prejudiced and I could go on quite a bit as to why), but I can ignore it and just enjoy the music, just as I do with Rush, whose lyrics are riddled with "objectivist" garbage.

The fan base is also completely international now. I would suspect that there are fans in other countries that don't "hear" the lyrics the same way the OP does. As a lyricist, I hope James and John continue to write what moves them as people whether it's pro-left or pro-right. In their international audience, some are bound to agree with their POV, and some are bound to disagree with it. Just like this post.

I enjoy their politically inspired songs. The message I get from On the Backs of Angels, is that this once great country is being torn down by people that would rather find a way to take advantage of others to get ahead, than put their nose to the grindstone and earn what they get. Honestly if you live in the United States and don't see this happening, then you really need to wake up and open your eyes. There is a serious deficit of integrity and morality in the leaders of country today. When I think if the sacrafices that my grandparents and those of that generation made during WWII, it is embarrassing and an absolute tragedy how we have abused and misused the gift of freedom that they gave to us. We did this because this freedom that we enjoy was provided to us, we didn't earn it as they did, therefore we take it for granted.

And another thing, stop cutting me off on the freeway! If you were standing in line at the bank and some jerk walked past 10 people behind you and squeezed between you and the person at the front of the line, you would probably punch them in the back of the head, right? So stop driving the same way. Trust me the world would be a much happier place.

Art, whether it be music, writing or painting, should be self indulgent. It should be done for the artist first and the audience second. They are going to respond to what is going on around them