Dream Theater Book - Lifting Shadows - Ordering And Book Details

Hi All

Just to let you all know that the second edition of the Dream Theater biography, Lifting Shadows, is now available to pre-order!

Full details of this updated book can be found at www.liftingshadows.com

IMPORTANT - If you ordered the first edition, then please do not order until you recieve your discount code which will be sent out to you via email later this week.

For the second edition of Lifting Shadows, I've tracked down and interviewed even more people involved in the Dream Theater story. The text has also been thoroughly revised and updated. So there's also a detailed look at the making of the Black Clouds & Silver Linings album, which includes all new interviews with the band. Plus I've also added an appendix which covers the numerous side projects, such as Liquid Tension Experiment, Transatlantic, OSI, G3 and other solo albums, with interviews with the likes of Neal Morse, Jim Matheos, Tony Levin and the DT guys.  This is edition is also around 40% longer than the original.

As you might know, the original, two book, one CD special edition set has now completed sold out. As that was sold strictly on the basis that it was a limited print run, the publishers have rightly decided not to reissue that. They are however producing a new limited edition version as there are people who want something more special than just a hardback. So there are two versions of the book on sale.
The Classic Edition of the book is a standard hardback version. If you imagine the “Words” book of the first edition, expanded by 40%, with 8 pages of colour photos.

The second of these is the Limited Edition book, which is bound in real leather. This contains the same text as the Classic Edition and also has 8 pages of colour photos. The print run is limited to 2000 copies and each copy is hand signed by myself.
The books are being published by Essential Works who printed the first edition of the book. All sales of the book will also be made via their website.

The book is priced as follows:

Classic Edition:

This retails at $28.95 in the US, £17.99 in the UK and EU plus shipping.
Those of you who bought the first edition will shortly be receiving an email from Essential Works offering you a 25% discount off the retail price as a “thank you” for your support in getting the first edition off the ground.
But even if you did not buy the first edition, for a limited time, those of you pre-ordering will be entitled to a discount of 15% off the retail price.

Limited Edition

This version retails at £30 in the UK and EU, and $50 in the US plus shipping.
Due to the high production costs, low production run and the price already being kept as low as possible, there will be no discount available for this version of the book.

Full details of all the ordering process, details of shipping charges, a list of FAQ and other details on the book can be found at [size=3 font="times new roman"]www.liftingshadows.com

Thanks again for all your support!!

I’d also like to ask a small favour – if you could help spread the word of this release through other forums you may visit, through any of your Facebook / MySpace pages I’d be really grateful!

Rich

Great news Rich!!!... thanks for the info.

Amazing news! Today's my birthday, and this will make a wonderful late present when it actually comes out!

Thanks so much for all the hard work, and many thanks also to the band and everyone who participated!

Thank you so much, Rich.  I loved the first one and can't wait to get the LE.

Fuckin A \m/ I'm all over this. 25% sounds sweeeeet. Thanks Rich \m/

 Ordered the limited edt. :D

That's a nice pre- order discount!!

Thanx for all the job and updates Rich! I'm sure it going to be a pleasure reading it!

Here's a small extract for you. This is a small part of the section where JP talks about the story behind "The Count Of Tuscany" :
 
“We then pulled up at this vineyard and it was unbelievable,” continues John. “It was breathtaking and was a combination of an old castle with servants’ quarters and vines with a more modern distillery section. We went in there and met his brother and he was a total character right off the bat. He was smoking a pipe and speaking with an English accent, even though he was Italian, and he was telling us story after story about the wars and the land. So we did everything from look at the grapes on the vine to going down into the cellars to taste the wine right from the barrels. It was really interesting but there were just so many bizarre things that kept on happening. We had this Hannibal thing in the back of our heads and any time something freaky happened we would just look at each other and be like ‘Well, it’s been nice knowing you!"

Rich - PLEASE, make them add a PayPal option! 
It was possible to use PayPal the last time... Why not now? :(

Can't order otherwise... they don't accept American Express either. gawd. 

I'm sorry if this has been answered before, and I can't find it on the site.  Any idea when or around the orders will be shipped?  Was going to buy this for a friend who's birthday is Mid Nov.

Thanks

Thanks Rich! Just ordered the Limited Edition. Can't wait to hear about the BC&SL studio sessions :D

Also I must add. The new site looks fantastic. Really cool. Clean and awesome.

P.S.: I want the high res pics of the band used for the site :P I've been looking for them all over the place. These are definitely the high res versions you've got there. Lucky lucky :D

Ordered limited edition!

I will be going with the limited edition as well this time around.  Thanks for the heads up.

The e-mail I gave to essentialworks.com last time doesn't exist now. How are they going to reach me to tell me  what my discount is? How do I contact them to give them amy new e-mail?

By the way, there is also a decent FAQ at the www.liftingshadows.com website which will answer most of your questions. I will try to help where I can, but most questions will be in the FAQ and specific queries about your order should be directed to Essential Works who will be able to help you.

Just ordered a copy ^^

Thanks alot Rich!! L Ed. ordered.

Limited Edition Ordered

Here are a couple of extracts from the second edition of the book for you!

Firstly, a section from the appendix (which covers the side projects) on the Chicago LTE show, when the keyboard broke down mid-set

With the keyboard written off, and Jordan feeling disappointed for himself and all the audience, he decided on a radical and unexpected solution – wandering onstage and trying to persuade John to let him use the guitar.
“I decided that rather than just have the disappointment of having the keyboard go down, I would just go out there and do a bit of jamming on the guitar,” smiles Jordan. “So I remember getting the courage up to go out on stage when they were playing. When I walked on stage, John was doing this thing where he was playing so fast, playing with two hands on the fretboard and was looking down. And as I got close to him, I realized he was really wrapped up in his own world. He looked up and was like ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ So I kind of said ‘Give me your guitar,’ and he realized and thought ‘OK what the hell’ and passed his guitar to me. He went over and played bass while Tony was playing the Chapman Stick. I hadn’t played the guitar in a long while and his guitar was like some wild animal and was screaming. I was doing my best to control the beast and play some riffs. I think I did a few good ones but I could definitely have done with some practice. It was one of the most dreadful nights of my life but I think the fans got a kick out of it, and we all ended up having some fun.”
“If you can’t play keyboards, alright play my guitar. That’ll work,” laughs John at the memory. “Obviously I felt sorry for Jordan because having a technical problem that you really can’t solve really sucks because you are just in panic mode. And because we were only out there for five shows, it was low budget and you aren’t going to take out back-up rigs. You are just trying to do it inexpensively and have fun. So if I was in that position, and my amp blew up and there was nothing I could do, I’d be like freaking out. I also felt bad because there were only a few shows and the people in Chicago didn’t get to see the whole thing and it was going pretty well until that point. But what are you going to do? We made the best out of it in the spirit of improvisation which was how the whole project was born.”

And here is a section from the mammoth chapter covering the making of Black Clouds & Silver Linings

One of the criticisms levelled at Systematic Chaos was that lyrically – certainly in terms of those written by John Petrucci – there was a tendency to dwell on supernatural tales. Although there was unquestionably a proportion of the Dream Theater fan base that lapped up songs about dark masters and vampires, there were those who found those lyrics incongruous and impossible to relate to. Perhaps recognising that fact, John deliberately veered away from fantasy worlds as a subject matter.

“Yeah, this album is all reality for me,” explains John. “I thought I’d try something different, went in the exact opposite direction and I wrote about real experiences. I was talking to my wife before I started writing the lyrics, and she was saying that I have so many interesting stories that I’m always telling. She was saying ‘Why don’t you think of some of those events as you have such colourful stories.’ And it seemed so obvious but I guess I’ve never really done that. I’ve written songs that are fantasy based, and even early on in our career, I’d done that with songs like ‘Metropolis’ or ‘The Killing Hand’. But at the same time, I’ve also written songs that are reality based about my own experiences. So those are songs like ‘Take Away My Pain’ or ‘Another Day’. But I realized that I’ve never written stories about things that actually happened to me. You know, about situations that I went through that were unusual or bizarre, or interesting. Whenever I wrote about reality it would always be more emotional. It would be about a loss, a feeling, a philosophy or generalisation about something. So this album, I wrote about experiences and I started to think back ‘What are some interesting stories that I’ve told my friends’. You know, like ‘Guys, you’ll never believe what happened to me!’ So I started to realize that these were really cool stories. And when you do that you are able to really write from your heart and you’re not making it up. You are just reflecting back and thinking about what happened. All these people that seem like really weird characters are actually real people. And when you hear the lyrics you will be like ‘What the hell happened here?’ Who the hell are these people?’”

Thanks for your dedication Rich for another edition, you rock !
Can't wait to get my hands on this one

"classic edition" just pre-ordered!

Make sure you follow @liftingshadows on twitter, Weve already had a discussion about the current state of the british rail system

Superted


Make sure you follow @liftingshadows on twitter, Weve already had a discussion about the current state of the british rail system

Very rock 'n' roll !!

Apparently, the publishers are starting to send out the discount codes by email. These will be sent in batches over the next couple of days, so don't panic if you don't get one immediately :-)

There's also a decent FAQ at the publishers www.liftingshadows.com site

Cheers
Rich

Got the publisher's email - thanks!

Anyone else having problems with their voucher code? Whenever I click Continue it just takes me back to the "enter code" page, not to the "buy now" page.

My voucher code won't work either - help!!!

Not working yet.  I'll give it another day or two and just try again.

Publishers informed - I'll let you know when I get a reply . . .

Thanks Rich, I am very excited to read the new edition!

I have it on good authority that the problem with the codes has now been fixed! Shout if there are any further problems!

Nice. Just ordered the limited edition

Got the code and ordered the limited edition!

Just ordered the Classic Edition. I wanted to get the limitted but couldn't pull the trigger for the $60. Oh well maybe one of you who bought the Limited will take a few photos and post for those of us envious types. Rich thanks for the Discount for those of us who purchased the original that helps out alot. Looking forward to re-read the old and see the new. BTW, has it been mentioned when a general date/time would be to expect delivery?

I am unsure of the delivery date, but I would expect it to be towards the end of November. As soon as I know more I will of course let you all know!

Is it REALLY worth if I have the first book?
I did not recieve and e-mail for the discount x.x

Well, only you can decide if it's really worth it. What I will say is that the book is 40% longer than the first edition, with new interviews with people who I couldn't track down for the first run (such as Steve Sinclair, Gail Flug, John Hendricks, Robert Mason, Andrew Ross). Plus there's an appendix covering the side projects, so there are interviews with the DT guys, Neal Morse, Roine Stolt, Pete Trewavas, Tony Levin, Jim Matheos. Oh and there is a new (and very long) chapter on the making of BC&SL, how the band work in the studio, how songs are created, the meaning of the lyrics etc etc. I don't want to sound like I'm trying to hard sell here, but if you know what the improvements are then at least you can make an informed decision!!

If anyone has any questions about not getting their codes, the differences between the editions, etc etc then check out the FAQ over at the publishers website www.liftingshadows.com which should answer most queries. If not, then please email the publishers via that site and I am sure they can help you.