Reading My Way Around the World

Friday 12 July 2013

Dreaming



I wrote this song back in 1994 in the middle of a tour in Germany and before the ceasefires here at home.

Things were very bad at home .... Everytime Tom and I headed away on a tour we both had been feeling that we didn't want to go back again.   But at the same time while we were away I was incredibly homesick.   We were staying in a part of East Germany where nobody spoke any English and while I loved the place I still couldn't settle.   Every morning I woke up feeling a compulsion to get back to Ireland as quickly as possible.


One night I dreamed a very vivid dream and our host suggested I write it down into a song ... The first 5 lines are exactly what I dreamt.

"I saw the devil, he was running after me
Past the Madonna who was happy just to be
In a room that was falling around her with thunder
That was coming from the floor not above as it should be
But when i turned around the door I'd just come running through was gone
And I awoke to find myself in the middle of this song
I'd been dreaming"

On the following two nights I had more dreams - I was very taken by the strength of the East German people who had stood up for themselves and brought about the collapse of the Wall.

Then I saw the women from the Eastern world come walking
'cross the desert from their homeland in the search for something better
And my answers to their questions didn't measure to their strength
And someone murdered someone and the money'd all been spent
And the cause they'd all been working for got swallowed in the greed
And I thought about these women and their struggle to be free
While I'd been dreaming.


  Only dreaming, I'd been dreaming
  Dreaming, only dreaming
  And I thought about these women and their struggle to be free
  While I'd been dreaming.

After all - at home we were all just the same, worshipping different named Gods but otherwise the same.

Then I saw a building with three women in the scene
One threw a bomb and the second one she screamed
As she pulled through the broken body of her child from the chaos
To the third dressed in green in the uniform of order
And as I calmly watched I suddenly could see
That they all looked the same and they all looked like me
But I'd been dreaming

  Chorus:
  Only dreaming, I'd been dreaming
  Dreaming, only dreaming
  And as I calmly watched I suddenly could see
  That they all looked the same and they all looked like me
  But I'd been dreaming

I didn't feel we were able to speak out at home and was feeling the effects of living under the stress of constant fear for so many years.   

Well do you wonder what it means?
All these pictures in my dreams
All the yearning and the fears
And all the terror and the screams
Well I can still feel the devil round the corner of my memory
And he's waiting for a woman who won't stand up and be counted
And I'm sure there's others like me
Afraid to have their say
Simply sitting back and hoping that it all will be ok
But that's just dreaming.

  We're just dreaming, only dreaming
  Dreaming, only dreaming
  And I'm sure there's others like me
  Afraid to have their say
  Simply sitting back and hoping that it all will be ok
  But that's just dreaming.



2 comments:

  1. What a beautiful song! I came to your blog from the link on Effy's Blogalong page, and I'm so happy I did! I really like the lyrics, especially in the last verse "Simply sitting back and hoping that it will all be ok but that's just dreaming." That applies to so many different things, and it was something I needed to hear today...that if I want something to change, I've got to take action. I can't wait to read more, and good luck on the Blogalong!

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  2. Thank you so much Sweet Red Clover :) It's so cool that you found another angle in it - you've given me courage.

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