Take the Time

The band came together on this song to write about their individual experiences, with each member contributing to the composition. Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy said of the song: "We decided to write a song about everything we'd been going through for the past three years - looking for a new singer, a new label and new management - just all the changes we made and all the frustrations we went through, but have it coming from each of our four different perspectives. So, we broke it up, and said, 'Okay, you take the first verse, you take the second verse,' went away, wrote lyrics about our feelings about all the stuff we were going through, and then put it together. Then we wrote the chorus together. That was the first time we had ever done that, and it's the only song on the album where the lyrics were actually written by everybody."

Images And Words was the first Dream Theater album with lead singer James LaBrie, who cites this as one of their most challenging songs to sing. He recorded it before injuring his vocal cords in 1994, which left him with more limited range. "Some of those songs are notes in the stratosphere," he told Songfacts. "I had to alter the melodies to fit who the singer is today."

Running 8:21, "Take The Time" has held up as one of the most popular Dream Theater songs, and one they often play in concert. The Images And Words album was a watershed for the band, whose debut flopped when it was released three years earlier in 1989. Dream Theater quickly rose to the top in the genre of progressive metal.