Lost Not Forgotten

Album: A Dramatic Turn of Events
Lyricist: John Petrucci
Subject: Ancient Persian history.

The Music

“To me, it's one of the most technical songs on the album. It has a lot of twists and turns and some crazy ideas that were confusing to us as we were writing and recording. It took a while to get it all under our fingers.

“Guitar-wise, it’s the one song where I tune down to D. I thought it would sound heavier that way. And it does – I think the song kicks some serious ass!

“One of the things that was a lot of fun to do is this diminished passage of unison playing. I wrote it out and built it piece by piece, programming drums as I went. I showed it to Jordan, who said, ‘That’s crazy!’ He learned it and put a harmony to it.
“We played it for some of the people from Roadrunner who came by as we were recording, and they went crazy. One of them remarked that the diminished section was like being tickled – that feeling you get where you’re saying, ‘Stop, stop!’ but somebody keeps tickling you anyway. So we started referring to that part as ‘The Tickle Section.’

(John Petrucci - Musicradar.)

JLB: "Lost Not Forgotten has... it's great. It has a beautiful guitar solo in it. It's classic, progressive Dream Theater, with huge vocals."
JP: "The song turned out to be extremely technical. It's a very technical song. It has some of the most wild playing on the album."

(James LaBrie & John Petrucci - The Mirror & Roadrunner Records - Published Aug 2011.)


The Lyrics

JLB: "The whole storyline behind it [is] that it was about the Persians. They were such an unbeatable force."
JP: "Nobody really knows too much about them, so they're lost, but they were this powerful fighting army civilisation back then. Not very rock and roll, but a little historical!"

(James LaBrie & John Petrucci - The Mirror & Roadrunner Records - Published Aug 2011.)

“The mood of the song always reminded me of an old-time epic film like Ben- Hur. So I wrote lyrics that are somewhat historical about this ancient Persian elite fighting force that kind of died out. Again, a good example of my love for storytelling and linking music to words.”

(John Petrucci - Musicradar.)


A Dramatic Turn of Events
1. On the Backs of Angels
2. Build Me Up, Break Me Down
3. Lost Not Forgotten
4. This is the Life
5. Bridges in the Sky
6. Outcry
7. Far from Heaven
8. Breaking All Illusions
9. Beneath the Surface