John Petrucci singled out “Pull Me Under” off 1992’s “Images & Words” as the most important tune in DREAM THEATER‘s catalog, telling Gitarre & Bass (via Blabbermouth):
“‘Pull Me Under‘ was a surprise to everyone – it’s over 8 minutes long, never meant to be a single. The songs being played on the radio were nothing like Dream Theater, but for some reason, it must have stuck out to where people were calling the radio stations: ‘What is that band? Oh my God! I wanna hear that song again.’
“And that kind of snowballed and grew, and ‘Pull Me Under‘ became a rock radio hit. I remember at the time I was living in New Jersey, on the East Coast of the US, and I’d turn on the radio and I’d hear it all the time. It was a cool feeling.”
“Yeah [it’s the most important song in DT catalog]. Probably. Yeah. If you think about what it did for us as far as the future is concerned, it really put up on the map.
“It enabled us to go from local guys driving around in a van, playing to a few people in clubs to an international touring band with this whole long and very busy and productive career.
“And who knows? Without that kind of initial spark, we may never have been able to be as successful as we have. I mean, who knows? Maybe we would have. I don’t know. But it certainly, certainly helped. Big time.”
Focusing on the whole album, John noted:
“Well, we had no idea that it would end up doing what it did for us – basically launch our touring and international career as a band. We had no idea, no.
“In fact, we didn’t even write songs, really, that had that potential in that atmosphere, because all the things that were being played on the radio sounded nothing like Dream Theater, so we didn’t really think we had a chance.
“They were playing Nirvana and Pearl Jam. There was still some kind of ’80-ish bands around and stuff. Even the band that David Prater, the producer, had done right before us was this band Firehouse, and they were like a big pop-metal ballad band. So we didn’t think we had any place. But, we did feel really good about how the album came out. We felt very proud of it. We knew that it sounded good.
“I remember feeling really proud anytime I would play it for somebody. Like, ‘Oh, you have to hear this. Check it out.’ And the reaction was always, ‘Wow! That sounds really good.’ So we knew there was something there, but we had no idea what it would do for us.”
DREAM THEATER is planning to bring the “Images, Words & Beyond” tour to North America in the fall. Each performance will see the iconic progressive rock band delivering a live set of “Images And Words” in its entirety along with fan favorites from their renowned catalogue.
