“It's not over until the old cricketer walks away.”
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫
A request, as second in a series of ‘opening up’ just one song.
The first one being “What’s in the suitcase” Mar 14. I’ve already written this one up as a shorter than long-form facebook post so what’s below is much the same as that, but with more links, images and some writing added for newsletter readers only.
I think "The Dream is Over" does what a song should do, it captures one specific feeling in a way that a number of people will be able to empathise with.
There was a shared dream, and it was partially realised, but it was perhaps never really sustainable, and now it's lost its shine and is all but finished. So it's time to call it a day and go home, if you have one. The feeling doesn't have a name. Nostalgia, loss, disenchantment, conclusion, end of journey, none of these quite fit on their own.
The lyrics quote European cities Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Rome and you wouldn't even know it's about Paris unless you know a bit about me. Some of the details in the song are very accurate, some a little fanciful.
The main idea of the song however, is not truthfully a report of what I decided to do at the time. It stemmed from feelings I arrived at several years later.
I left Paris temporarily in order to get a new passport, sort out a few things and get some driving lessons as I was now old enough to do that. Why couldn't I learn to drive in France? Good question, but probably for the same reason I couldn't get a rented place of my own to live. I'm not good with bureaucracy. I won't fight it, I have to fly underneath it.
I started off temporarily in England sorting a few things out, and slowly got kind of ensconced in an office job, carried on playing music in strange rural pubs wherever I could, and then got engaged to be married! So the process of concluding that the dream was over, happened in retrospect and the song reflects this. I met a lot of people of a similar age or probably a bit older, who had done the travelling around Europe thing, probably knowing it was only a gap year or something for them, and had consciously decided to give up on a dream and settle down. I wrote it with them in mind, drawing on some of my own experience but the central idea "things are not so good here, it may be time to go home" wasn't one I'd ever held.
There you go, I've admitted it. I hold a valid and in date, clean unblemished poetic license and I'm going to use it.
Even the year is a bit wonky. Pretty certain I was sixteen when I arrived in Paris after spending a birthday in Amsterdam, but seventeen scans better.
If I hadn't recorded the song on that cassette tape in 1980 it would surely have been forgotten, but I started singing it again at the Golden Lion (Romford) and one person in particular could strongly relate to it. He felt it typified a whole era for him, summing up the 70s dream. He had been on similar travels and adventures, although they sounded quite different to me, but that doesn't matter. For that reason, it got requested a few times and stuck in the repertoire and now I have recorded it again as part of a project to revisit songs from, and about Paris.
You can listen here to the 1980 recording from the album "Century - (Tapes Vol 3.)"
The new recording is on "Et Puis" :-
« Link to Bandcamp subscriber-only track ‘Dream Is Over’ »
And just for luck, there’s a recent live version in video right at the top of this email or web page, depending on where you are viewing :-) That’s taken from this month’s First Tuesday livestream.
Newsletter
There’s not much news since the last roundup on March 30th, detailing the four gigs lined up for April. The Ship and Castle was a great afternoon gig, thanks to all who came along, I might show you some clips from that later. The next two coming up, Caffe Isola Apr 10th 2-4pm and Ventnor Park 16th 2-4pm are new venues to me so I have high hopes but don’t know exactly what to expect!
And then it will be good to be back in the Star Coffee and Alehouse, Ryde for the first time this year on April 27th 7-9pm
I’ll definitely be out and about around Newport town centre some of these upcoming Saturdays, and taking some time off around the bank holidays. Another priority will be getting the Orchard garden and gazebo ready for the Blossomtime Celebration in early May. If you are interested and able to reach the West of the Island, do ask me about that.
Requests
‘The Dream is Over’ was suggested by Julie, thanks for that. I wouldn’t have written about it otherwise. I wonder which song might come up next in the series? If anybody has a suggestion, please reply by email or click through to comment at the site, and I’ll queue it up for next time, thanks.
All the best for springtime
Be seeing you,
Andy
The Dream is Over