THE PLAYERS
Michael Gould — keyboards, vocals
Jim McManus — bass
THE COMMENTARY
LYRICS
i had a dream
as the sun washed over the moon
as the light spilled into the clouds
i was asleep
and i had a dream
you and i were together
not like that, but just for an afternoon
you were shepherding kids
and i was shepherding no one but me
it was a dream
a very real dream
and you said something typically sincere
and i made some typical joke
and you had this typical look on your face
like “you always do that, you’re never real”
it was a dream
so real
and you shrank away to read to your kids
and i felt bad for all the times
and called you over, just for a moment
and told you i was sorry for all of the times
and i started to cry and i told you i love you
not like that but like this
and you cried too, and we kissed
not like that, but like this
like this
like this
and you said “i feel old around these kids”
and i said, “we are old, anywhere”
and we laughed as the sun came up
it was a dream,
a dream of a kiss
it was a kiss of remembrance
it was a kiss of age
a kiss of love
a kiss
not like that, but like this
not like that, but like this
Behind the Song
One morning I woke up from a dream about an old girlfriend with whom I'm ...
… still friendly. Without a word spoken, I reached for a yellow pad that happened to be by my bedside and wrote this lyric, or maybe really, it’s a poem. I was going to give her the poem, but kept wondering if it could be made musical, and about six months later I tackled it. The original poem survived about 90%; I only changed a few things for musicality and thematic strengthening.
Musically I tried to create the dream, a washed-out world of feeling and conversation, a love song, no, not like that but like this.
Special thanks to Jim McManus for his incredible work on this song. It has turned out to be a sort of duet between the bass and the lead vocal.
