On July 7th, 1992, Dream Theater released their sophomore album, Images and Words. Their debut for Atco Records and first album with James LaBrie on vocals, there were modest expectations for the album, even though the progressive metal band was proud of the album. However, buoyed by the success of the album’s first single “Pull Me Under,” the album eventually went gold and established the band as a standard-bearer for complex yet melodic prog-metal. Metal Insider caught up with guitarist John Petrucci to discuss what went into making the album, the success of it’s first single, and his memories of their most successful album to date. 

Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Metal Insider: You had your biggest hit to date with “Pull Me Under.” Did you ever think playing that song would be such a behemoth? Were you thinking it would get played on the radio or that it’d have MTV success?

Petrucci: "No, we didn’t think that way at all. We were into writing progressive metal. We were all big fans of Yes and Rush, but we also liked Metallica and other bands. We came out with this stuff that didn’t have the normal pop structure, the songs were long. 'Pull Me Under' was at least eight minutes. Originally, 'A Change of Seasons' was supposed to be on Images, but the label voted against that. The whole nature of the album wasn’t really geared towards commercial standards. After we went on tour, that song started to gain legs from requests. We had no idea what was happening. We had to quickly film a video on tour at a club because we didn’t have a video and it just grew from there. It was unintentional."

Metal Insider: If you were to pick one song off the album to play in a bar on a jukebox, which song would it be and why?

Petrucci: "'Pull Me Under.' For some reason, it came out really good and it has a magic to it. It kind of exemplifies the style of the band. You can listen to it and you can hear the progressive metal in it, it has a big chorus in it, and I’m really proud of it. It would probably be one that more people would recognize. Like you said, that would be our greatest hit probably, as the album title says. When that song was done and the album was out I would play it for friends, and I remember feeling very proud of it. I was proud of the vibe and the sound, and I wanted to share it. We definitely didn’t know what it was going to turn into. I remember feeling like there was something special there."

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