Hold Fast to Dreams

Christina and I were waiting at the bus station, talking about the best songs about dreams. She noted that it would be fun to have a mix tape entirely composed of dream songs. I promised to send her one.


Hold Fast to Dreams

1. Depeche Mode, "Dreaming of Me"
2. Fleetwood Mac, "Dreams"
3. New Order, "Dreams Never End"
4. The Everly Brothers, "All I Have to Do is Dream"
5. Blondie, "Dreaming"
6. Otis Redding, "I've Got Dreams to Remember"
7. Tom Waits, "Innocent When You Dream (78)"
8. TV on the Radio, "Dreams"
9. Caetano Veloso, "Dreamland"
10. Miles Davis, "Moon Dreams"
11. Nico, "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams"
12. Tom Petty, "Runnin' Down a Dream"
13. Eurythmics, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"
14. The Jam, "Dreams of Children"
15. Patsy Cline, "Sweet Dreams"
16. Roy Orbison, "In Dreams"
17. Van Morrison, "These Dreams of You"
18. The Human League, "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of"
19. Fiona Apple, "Sleep to Dream"
20. Bob Dylan, "Series of Dreams"

The one rule we decided on for this mix is that it had to be straight from my music library--no internet help. Even then, I had over 200 songs to choose from, not including Aerosmith's "Dream On", which I could have sworn was on my computer but apparently was wiped out somewhere in the Hard Drive Crash of '07. It might not have even made the final cut (putting it on a mix is a little like putting "American Pie" on a mix these days), and there were plenty of others cut for being too nightmarish, which may warrant its own mix tape. But what I've got here more than suffices.

Dreams are big in sythpop and new wave, inspiring some of the best songs by Depeche Mode, New Order, Blondie, Human League and Eurythmics, but the dream MVP is obviously Bob Dylan, who's been recording great songs about dreams from his 20s through his 60s. I settled on "Series of Dreams," the gorgeous closing track to his first Bootleg Series album, which sweetly ties the '80s new wavers to the rock pioneers (Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers) who grace this mix. Hold fast, Christina.

The Kinks, "Father Christmas"

Punk rock never had a bigger year than 1977, with Never Mind the Bollocks, The Clash, Rocket to Russia, Marquee Moon, Blank Generation, Damned Damned Damned, In the City and Iggy Pop's two Berlin records near the top of a year flooded with great music. It might have been a bittersweet time for the Kinks, whose proto-punk garage rock and cockney insolence had its fingerprints all over punk and metal but hadn't had a major hit in years (although hit covers from both Van Halen and The Jam were just a few months away).



Thus Kinks rose to the occasion with possibly the most punk rock thing they could have done, a new song about a department store Santa getting jumped by a gang of kids who want money instead of toys ("Father Christmas, give us some money / Don't mess around with those silly toys / We'll beat you up if you don't hand it over / We want your bread, so don't make us annoyed"). It's catchier than "Christmas Wrapping", funnier than "Christmas at Ground Zero" and infinitely more agreeable than "Do They Know It's Christmas?".

Bear and Beez's Excellent Adventure

Bear and Beez's Excellent Adventure

1. Bill Withers, "Lovely Day"
2. Fleetwood Mac, "Never Going Back Again"
3. Hank Williams, "Lost Highway"
4. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, "Tha Crossroads"
5. King's X, "It's Love"
6. Willie Nelson, "City of New Orleans"
7. Leadbelly, "Midnight Special"
8. Lynrd Skynyrd, "Call Me the Breeze"
9. Merle Haggard, "Mama Tried"
10. Sinéad O'Connor, "Mandinka"
11. The Meters, "Cissy Strut"
12. The Jam, "That's Entertainment"
13. Gladys Knight & the Pips, "Midnight Train to Georgia"
14. Yo La Tengo, "Autumn Sweater"
15. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, "Light of Day"
16. Tinie Tempah, "Pass Out"
17. Shuggie Otis, "Strawberry Letter 23"
18. Patsy Cline, "I Fall to Pieces"
19. Pulp, "Disco 2000"
20. U2, "Trip Through Your Wires"
21. Traveling Wilburys, "The End of the Line"
22. Van Halen, "Happy Trails"

For EQ and JB, somewhere between Nashville and Nebraska.