How Dream Theater Finally Rescued ‘A Change of Seasons’

Dream Theater made arguably their first official long-form musical epic as a band when they released “A Change of Seasons” in September of 1995. But the 23-minute opus had actually been taking shape long before that.

“‘A Change of Seasons’ was written originally in 1989 [and] was one of the first things we wrote after When Dream and Day Unite [the band’s 1989 debut album],” drummer Mike Portnoy shares in a new conversation with the UCR Podcast, which you can hear below. “That was one of the first things we wrote, intending to be on [1992’s] Images and Words. So yeah, it’s got a long history. It’s really about 36 years old at this point.”

Why Didn’t Dream Theater Release ‘A Change of Seasons’ Before 1995?

Though it arrived after their third album, 1994’s Awake, the delay had nothing to do with the band being unhappy with their own work. Instead, Portnoy says it was their new label, Atco Records, helmed by A&R man Derek Shulman, that sent the lengthy suite packing.

“At the 11th hour, the label made us leave it off the album, just because they didn’t want a 75-minute album,” he recalls. “[They just] thought it was too much for a sophomore release from a new band. At that point, we hadn’t even had any success … and it was just a little too much for a major label like Atco/Atlantic to swallow. It [went] on the shelf after Images and Words, and it broke our hearts.”

As Shulman himself writes in his forthcoming Giant Steps memoir, he empathized with the young group, having faced similar frustrations during his own career with progressive rockers Gentle Giant. Even the idea of developing radio and MTV-friendly edits of Dream Theater’s initial single, “Pull Me Under,” was something he knew wouldn’t have flown in his world.

“God knows, Gentle Giant would have told the label to fuck off if they wanted to transform a fully formed composition into a bite-sized radio nugget,” he wrote. “But I wasn’t representing Gentle Giant, I was advising Dream Theater.”

How Did Mike Portnoy Take the News?

Portnoy was crushed by the shift in plans. “That was my first lyrical piece, and for it to not be on Images and Words, I felt kind of left out,” he explains. “I didn’t write any lyrics to the rest of the songs on Images because I thought ‘A Change of Seasons’ was going to be there. So it felt like a big part of my voice had been cut off the album. Because the lyrics and the story and the concept for ‘A Change of Seasons’ is very, very personal for me. It’s a very, very heavy subject matter.”

Dream Theater continued to fight for “A Change of Seasons,” finally getting the thumbs-up in 1995 from Atco to put it out as an EP. “But at that point, it had been through so many changes,” Portnoy details. “You know, there was the original version with Kevin Moore, and then we kind of revisited it for the EP version, with a seven-string guitar and with Derek Sherinian [Moore’s replacement] on keyboards. So we kind of reinterpreted it for the version that the world knows now.”

Listen to Dream Theater’s ‘A Change of Seasons’

Dream Theater is Performing ‘A Change of Seasons’ Again

With fans still celebrating Portnoy’s return to Dream Theater, their fall tour brings an extra Easter egg. Not only are they performing the whole of 2025’s Parasomnia reunion album, they’re also treating fans to all of “A Change of Seasons.” It’s a special milestone for the drummer, who hasn’t played the epic live with the band since 2004.

READ MORE: Dream Theater, ‘Parasomnia’: Album Review

“It brings back so many memories to be revisiting it after all of this time,” he says. “I listened to it and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s me when I’m in my early 20s.’ Now, I’m in my late 50s and it just seems like a couple of lifetimes ago. But it still also feels like Dream Theater. It feels natural to be sitting in the same set with Parasomnia. They were written 35 years apart, but yet they still feel like they’re the same band.”

Listen to Mike Portnoy on the ‘UCR Podcast’