Dreams find their way into my songs from time to time. This song plays with the idea that real life rarely imitates dreams perfectly, but that doesn't mean we should be disappointed. After all, dreams by definition are ideal, so we can't expect life to mimic them. All the same, life can still be pretty good.
The song opens in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, with two people looking at a painting by Paul Gauguin. From that lofty beginning, the song gradually comes down to earth as we know it.
Lyrics
As I Dreamt It
I met her one day at the Prado, we started talking about the Gauguin
It might have been my imagination, but I thought she brushed against my hand
We talked about the light and how he got it just right, her English was quite good
I tried un poco de español, just because I thought I should
Now it didn’t go quite as I’d dreamt it
No garden in the pale moonlight
It didn’t go quite as I’d dreamt it
But it went alright
They hired me to play the piano, and I threw in just a bit of guitar
They paid me with a little Côte du Rhône, and whatever got tossed in the jar
I sang my songs in English, with un peu de français on the side
A one-man band in a bar on the sand, rolling in and out with the tide
Though it didn’t go quite as I’d dreamt it
I might have been little uptight
It didn’t go quite as I’d dreamt it
But it went alright
Those were the days, my European phase
Where the people were quite kind
But when the money ran low, I had to go
Before I lost more of my mind
I decided that I’d wanna head back to Toronto because I was quite sure
I’d meet this man who would have this plan to set me up with a grand tour
But I met a señorita … well … she was really born in Fort St. John
But just a while with her and all she stirred, and my thoughts of the road were gone
And it didn’t go quite as I’d dreamt it
I’m rocking babies to sleep at night
It didn’t go quite as I’d dreamt it
But it went alright
Now the best laid plans of this guitar playing man
They kinda went south, or so it seems
But that’s okay, I’ve found a better way
To grow a whole new garden of dreams
Still I keep believing in my crazy dreaming, I couldn’t stop if I tried
But now I do my dreaming with another dreamer by my side
And it doesn’t always go as we dream it
Though we keep on thinking it might
No it doesn’t always go as we dream it
But it goes alright
Yeah it doesn’t always go as we dream it
Though we keep on thinking it might
No it doesn’t always go as we dream it
But it goes alright
© Gary Poole 2021