Chords for DREAM THEATER - Room 137 (Track By Track)

Hey everybody, this is John.
I'm sitting here with Mike and
I'm going to talk about a couple of tunes from the new album.
Yeah _ _
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[Ebm] _ [B] well, I
Guess [Eb] there's a few kind of really cool [D] things about the song.
[F] First of all, it's [E] the lyrical debut of Mike Mangini
yes, yes, which is really really cool and _ _ _ _
_ _ [F] It I
Guess maybe you could talk about how [E] it came about like with the tempo
Yeah, [Gb] the tempo and it was the only example [G] on the album [E] where the working [Fm] title was the title of the song
Right [E] because you said it and we [G] have a chart.
It was like [B] that's the title wrote it down.
It was [G] called
Room 137.
[A] Yes.
I noticed the tempo was 137 and it reminded me of a story about [Em] a physicist [F] named Wolfgang Pauli
_ [D] _ and he
[Gb] Went to a hospital.
I didn't remember [G] all the details at the time
I just [Ab] knew he went to a somewhere and on the door
it was room number 137 and he knew that he [Am] was going to die when he saw it because
_ Turns out he spent his life
Trying to figure out what the answer [A] to one over 137 is which is supposed to be the [G] physics
Quantum key to different dimensions [N] and all kinds of things and I told John about that.
Yeah, it was well
[Bm] It was kind of it was a progression [D] of you know
Eventually writing the lyrics because he had this great idea.
I was like that [E] it's freaking [Gbm] awesome
I love [E] that song title wrote it [G] down and [Ab] then Mike had sent me an email
[D] With all this kind of research, you know, and he was kind of like I don't [Em] know, you know
What you gonna do lyric wise but [Gb] here's like some [Eb] research on the [Gb] whole thing and Pauly [D] and I was like great cool
I didn't really you know think about it because we were still writing and then the next step is Mike was like
Yeah, I had some time and I [Am] wrote a lyric
And I read it I was like that's awesome and [D] so
You know it something that obviously, you know, you really were interested in
Yes, and so you were able to write that in such a way that I think it comes across really cool.
Thanks
Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Yeah, and I think
Also the other cool thing about the song there's a couple of songs on this album _ that are more fun
_ _ Rhythmically and very different than anything we've ever done right so the groove to this song
_ Song eight is the other song [G] the shuffle feel these are like not typical [D] dream theater feels or grooves
I feel like
_ We tend to be a little more serious
With our feels and grooves and these just have [N] this kind of swing.
Yeah, this is swing.
That's it
Which is [Dm] different the man genie swing [E] yeah sassy swing.
[D] Yeah, it's kind of the balance to like try to make the swing
You know as a guitar player write a riff that is heavy in a swing
So that it doesn't because sometimes that swing kind of thing could it'll sound [C] too like rock and roll
And so there's a way that you can kind of [G] darken it up.
Totally
That's [D] that's a seven string song and it's a thing I had suggested the key of [A] O minus right to be extra heavy
O-minus [D] work for a bridge and go like extra low yeah _
_ _ That's cool, and it also took a [G] funny turn that we don't [D] normally do there's a little bit of [Eb] a beatle II vibe going on
[D] Yeah, right.
Yeah, and the [Ab] in sort of the [D] B section bridges and the [E] outro of the song
[D] _ [E] Just by using a succession of dominant chords it kind of [D] went in that direction
It's almost thinking like King's X Beatles
_ And and we went with that
_ _ You enjoyed right? _
Moment, _ yeah
Talking about the keys of the the treatment of that [G] right, but very cool really cool groove
Mike Mangini debut lyric [Gb] and what I liked also just [D] one last thing about the lyric when you presented it
Because you're a drummer and everything you rhythmically you knew exactly how to
Put [Em] the lyrics in the stanzas, [D] so it was like this works perfectly.
Thank you.
That was really cool
That's one of my pet peeves
_ Lyric doesn't sit right vocally like when that when the singer action actually has to sing it if it sits in an awkward spot rhythmically
[Dm] _ It's very jarring to the listener.
So [F] Mike was really you worked out.
[A] Yeah, very cool.
God.
It was the [B] first time _ _ _ _ _ _
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