I DREAMED I DREAM
   
Originally Released on:

SONIC YOUTH EP

also appears on:

  • Death Valley '69 EP
  • Screaming Fields of Sonic Love
  • Sonic Youth 2006 reissue (LP/live/demo)

  • SST Godhead Storedude In-Store Play Device #1
  • New York Noise Vol 2
  • Songs in the Key of B

Line-up:
Thurston - guitar
Kim - bass/vocals
Lee - guitar/vocals
Richard Edson - drums

Lyrics   status: confirmed

[Lee in brackets]

Look before you leap, okay?
  (Where do we move with each step?)
Do you read me?
  (Did I drift?)
May all your dreams come true
  (Do I dream?)
He's standing by the door
  (Do you read me?)
He's got something in his hands
  (I'm not speaking)
All the money's gone
  (Do you read me?)
All the money's gone
  (I dream)
The days we spent go on and on
  (hah)
Shift
Fucking youth
  (I dream, I'm not speaking)
Working youth

May all your dreams come true
  (Sounds today, I hear the sound today, I hear the sound of today)
A lot of people suffer from impotence
  (Sounds today, I hear the sound today, I hear the sounds of today)
All the money's gone
  (Today)
  (These things don't happen automatically)
The days we spent go on and on
  (The dream)
Fucking youth
Working youth
Fucking youth
  (You did move with each step)
Working youth
  (The days we spent go on and on)
Fucking youth
  (I dream)
Working youth
  (Do you read me?)

Track length: 5:12

First Known Performance: 09/18/81
Last Known Performance:  12/13/81 (likely)

NOTES:

  • Working title: "Where the Red Fern Grows"
  • With the remarkably delayed (but well worth it) reissue of the SONIC YOUTH ep, we finally have a live version (and a demo!) of 'I Dreamed I Dream', aka 'Where the Red Fern Grows', as it was known then. While the demo, recorded October 1981, is instrumental (and follows the EP version, recorded 2 months later, pretty closely), the earlier live version contains only Lee's vocals, and sporadically.
  • A unique Kim/Lee duet.
  • Lyrics mostly written by Richard Edson.
  • Mislabelled "I Dream I Dreamed" on SST cassette.
  • Used in an episode of the Sopranos, 2007!

    ALTERNATE VERSIONS: