I had such a lovely dream last night I hope you won't mind if I share it here. Because it featured Robert Smith*!
Before you ask – no, it wasn’t that kind of
dream. But it was incredibly feelgood,
and there is nothing quite like waking up after having a particularly pleasant dream,
instead of either just a nonsense one, or worse - an unsettling or frightening one. The emotions we feel in our more vivid reveries
often seem to linger on the following day, just like an actual experience would
and again, much like in real life, there’s great pleasure to be had in actively
revisiting the good ones in our minds to keep those feelings alive.
So, in the dream, Robert Smith was a lovely old pal from my college
days. And I was back at some art school, within
a big campus area, walking about in the sunshine waiting to meet up with some mates and go to a gig, when this (young) Robert appeared out of the blue. He just put
his arm around my shoulder as he fell into step with me and a warm, easy, lovely conversation
ensued throughout the rest of this sweet unconscious flight of fancy as we wandered around together on a soft Summery day. There was music as well – meeting up with the DJ
who was going to do the set before the gig and who played us a few previews of
his record choices, all of which were completely imagined and yet I heard them vividly,
as real songs. I wish I could recall the
tunes, they were good; I
remember lots of fuzzy guitars and a lively bass. Do you ever dream up music in your sleep too? If only we could record it!
“I’m definitely going to treat myself to Three Imaginary Boys”,
I announced as I remembered the dream this morning (and then giggled at the ambiguity of what I'd just said…) But
it was just that I had bought and loved TIB soon after it was released many
years ago and, somehow, like many other albums I’d owned in my teens, it had been
replaced by something else I’d subsequently decided I’d listen to more. Now I
have a hanker to own it again and to keep it forever this time. I find myself doing this more and more with
the music I loved so much in my formative years but later let go. As has often been said I’m sure, it
goes much deeper than just the music - it’s about the feel of the time, the
associations, youthful memories, identity, growing up… so much more, all of
this wrapped up in 12” of vinyl and some idiosyncratic cover art.
Anyway, thanks Robert, for inadvertently turning up in my head last night and being one imaginary boy in that dream. It really was lovely to see you!
