Drifting & Dreaming - overt dream references in GD music

[John A]

Building on this post's title, I was thinking about an obscure concept (as, for better or worse, I'm want to do 😄) about overt references to dreams/dreaming in Dead song lyrics. And it occurred to me that there's a good correlation between such references and the notion of A-list Dead material.  To wit, with apologies for anything I've undoubtedly omitted, we have the following:

 

•Stella Blue: "All the years combine, they melt into a dream"; "there's just the pavement left, and broken dreams"; and more poignantly, "It seems like all this life was just a dream"  

 

•Hep on the Way: "Without love in the dream it will never come true"

 

•Black Muddy River: "And dream me a dream of my own" (underrated greatness)

 

•Mission in the Rain: "Ten years ago I walked these streets my dreams were riding high... now I would be happy, to just have one dream come true"

 

•China Cat: "Through a dream night wind"

 

•Crazy Fingers: "Gone both dream and lie" (perhaps somewhat under the radar, but a fascinating line) and "gone are the broken lies we saw through in dreams"

 

•Come A Time: "Gotta make it some how, all the dreams you still believe" 

 

•To Lay Me Down: "With our dreams entwined together"

 

•Althea: "You may be the fate of Ophelia, sleeping and perchance to dream" (Anytime Hunter wants to evoke Shakespeare is A-OK with me 😆)

 

•Foolish Heart: "A foolish heart will call on you to toss your dreams away"

 

•Fire on the Mountain: "It's more than just ashes, when your dreams come true"

 

•Box of Rain: "For this is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon, long ago"; "then please don't be surprised when you find me dreaming too"

 

•Attics of my Life - perhaps the crowning dream reference jewell: "full of cloudy dreams unreal"; "in the book of love's own dreams, where all the print is blood" (what a mesmerizing line)"; "in the secret space of dreams, where dreaming lay amazed"; "when there was no dream of mine, you dreamed of me" (tough to top that one)

 

Like I said, a plethora of A-list material...and not to leave Bobby out, we have, beyond Lost Sailor:

 

•Cassidy: "I can tell be the mark he left, you were in his dreams"

 

•Music Never Stopped: "Old men sing about their dreams, women laugh and children scream"

 

•Saint of Circumstance: "Was it you I heard singing, oh while I was chasing dreams"

 

•My Brother Esau: "Sometimes at night I dream, he's still that hairy man"

 

I suppose what I'm trying to get at is when the Dead overtly sing of dreams/dreaming they're almost universally at the height of their powers. 🥰

 

I'm sure I've missed some, but that feels like a serious list. ☺️

 

[John A]

Post script: this excersice made me think of one of my favorite songs, Romeo & Juliet, on Dire Straits' "Making Movies" (side 1 of that that record is near the top of my all time favorite sides of any LP):

 

"And I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real
How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals?"

[Greg from Chestertown]

I find myself occasionally singing Michael Sipe, just a dream, just a dream…

[Tea]

That's a pretty comprehensive list!  Can't think of many others

 

Big River:  "Then I heard my dream went back downstream cavorting in Davenport"

The Eleven:  "Seven-faced marble eye transitory dream doll"

 

Any others?

 

EDIT:  Big River is not a Dead Tune - ooops!

[Greg from Chestertown]

What about ‘Days between’? 

[John A]

Days Between does feel like one big dream scape, but interestingly no overt references.

 

Man, those Eleven lyrics are thick.  Hunter hadn't yet fully harnessed his powers yet, IMHO.  🤔

[Tea]

4 hours ago, John A said:

Man, those Eleven lyrics are thick.  Hunter hadn't yet fully harnessed his powers yet, IMHO.  🤔

China Cat was a kindred spirit with the Eleven.

[John A]

3 hours ago, Tea said:

China Cat was a kindred spirit with the Eleven.

True, although with a little more lasting power, as it turned out. 😂 😛

[Greg from Chestertown]

Also in Lost Sailor, Bobby sings, ‘till the chains of you dreams are broken.’ It’s a stand alone lyric, the way he sings it, I think. It always triggers deep thought when I hear it.