Song of the week #1 

Childish Dream

Welcome to the first in a new weekly series of blogs in which I reveal how and why I wrote some of my songs.

Although many of these blogs will be retrospective looks at some of the songs in my back catalogue, I have chosen to use this first blog to introduce my brand new song called Childish Dream.

Recently I was looking through some of my diaries from the 1970s and realised that many of the people mentioned in them, family and friends, had passed away during the 50 years that had flown by since I wrote their names in my diaries. My shock and sadness was the creative spark that led to this song - along with the famous Terry Pratchett quote: 

“Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”

For the first time I have used an AIArt generator to source the illustrations for the YouTube video. I don't see this as "cheating" - in the past I would have spent weeks trawling the internet to find suitable illustrations for a video (as in my Where the Sea Comes In video). Ultimately it is my creative decisions which are the arbiter to decide what gets used and what goes into the computer trashcan.

My song is unusual in my output for having verses which are unrhymed. As with Paul Simon's America this creates a conversational feel to the lyrics and (hopefully) draws the listener into the story. When I recorded the vocal I focused on the story-telling, closed my eyes and went for it. The song represents a journey from darkness into light and is a positive affirmation of old age. Even I get a lump in my throat when I watch the last few seconds of the video. The expression on the guitarist's face at the end says it all!

I have already received some very positive reviews from those who have heard early versions of the song. Although I am always in love with my songs in the honeymoon period after the song has been finished, I have a special feeling about this one.

Hope you like it!

A Childish Dream

Last night I dreamed a childish dream
A childish dream so real
So real I remember the way I was feeling
When I opened my eyes the next day

And in that dream, this childish dream
My childish friends appeared
And sad to recall some were no longer living
For their time on this earth had passed by

And all those ghosts of the past from the first to the last
They were standing so proud and so tall

Saying, "Please, please remember us all
For we once were as real as you are
Though your journeys have taken you far, far away
From those paths that we walked with you back in the day.
Please remember!"

And I dreamed I walked those childish paths
Those childish paths long gone
Long gone but I still can retrace every footstep
That I walked all those years long ago

And all those ghosts of the past from the first to the last
They were standing so proud and so tall

Saying, "Please, please remember us all
For we once were as real as you are
Though your journeys have taken you far, far away
From those paths that we walked with you back in the day."

And all those songs we once sang and the laughter we shared 
While we lived for the moment and nobody cared
Now our bodies are weary but our spirits' unbroken
For no-one is gone while their name is still spoken

Please remember. Oh remember.
Please remember. Remember, remember us all
Oh remember. Please remember
Oh remember. Please remember
Please, please remember