The Dreaming Tree

From what I heard this song was written wit the help of Stefan Lessard, the DMB Bass player, and it's dedicated to Stefan's song, who died shortly after birth. Supposedly Dave wasn't originally going to put it on the album but Ben Affleck nd Gwyneth Paltrow, who he is apparently friends with, love it so much they inisted it be put on. This song has a lot to do with losing innocence and trying to go back to the way things were.

to me, it seems that the song is about two people that once were in love. Both had their idea's and dreams shattered through the process of life. Both are now lonely and old.

The man in the song (as a young man) fell in love with the the woman in the song. He "conquered his fear to climb (love)" with this woman. She was his first and last love. He's still "frozen in time", his dreams of love were shattered and he never recovered. His dreaming tree was "love". It took him many years to let himself love "Now progress takes away What forever took to find [love]". He was one of the men (adorers) left in "her wake". In the middle of the song, the man is trying to justify his lost love of her. He tells himself that "I know in my mind, I would leave you now". The man never knew why the woman left him, he asks himself "will you not talk", he needs to know why she left him.

The woman he loved (and in the 2nd portion of the song) was young and beautiful, she was confident and she had everything, so she thought ("she was sure she'd make the grade"). The irony is that everything she thought she had was based on her beauty, but her "[beauty} slowly faded". Shes now ready to die ("She feels the fall of dark"). She once had everything. Her beauty "wilted and soured". Now she's lonely and old, the world she knew was turned upside down. She now "drinks (alcohol) to fill [the fact that her life fell apart] up". Her dreaming tree was the the false assumption that everything she earned everything she had, when in reality all the attention she attained wasn't because of anything she did or earned, it was based on her fleeting beauty. In the end, The woman says to herself "take me back, save me please". I'd like to think that shes asking the man to take her back.

Both are now old, both Had their lives fall apart, yet as old men/women, they are there reverting/reflecting back to their childhood, when their dreams were still intact. Both beg their parents to make things go back to how they were before, when ignorance was bliss.

For many, life will eventually contain an event that alters it irreversibly, creating a clear "before and after". For some, it may be the death of a child, or of a spouse or a parent, or the suicide of a friend or their loss to cancer. It could also be a serious crime committed by your own child or perhaps to your own child.

This event disabuses us of the naive optimism (dreaming tree) through which we saw life at its beginning, and a new aware realism begins, where we can more clearly see our decline through old age and eventual return to dust. We think back to the "before" state, when life seemed full of opportunity, but we can never return there.

We thought our parents were powerful protectors, the world was full of opportunities, and love was just a game. This illusion propels us until midlife, when, metaphorically, "the dreaming tree, dies".

This song is wonderful work of art, that reflects on many lives in a beautiful way. Its melancholy sound is hypnotizing and varied arrangements from live performances, even with guest performances further show its greatness.

Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down wrote this song in math class when he was 15! So it’s probably not about drugs, growing old, or a complicated relationship with a girlfriend. Brad says:

‘It's not just asking, “If I fall down, will you be there for me?” Because it's easy to be there for someone when they're down. But it's not always easy to be there for somebody when they're doing good. It's asking, “If I'm down, will you still be there for me?” But at the same time … [it’s] kind of asking, “If I'm doing good, will you be there for me? Will you not be jealous of me? That song is so little about Superman.’

A 15 year old guy is worrying about how he fits in with his buddies and about being tight and loyal with his buds. The music video was made in 2000, seven years after the song was written. The video has overly influenced people’s interpretation of the song, but the video doesn’t reflect the original inspiration. Brad said, “Maybe throughout the years of singing that song, I might have come up with more meanings for it than it actually might have originally had.”

I think the song is about worrying that as things change (“the sands of time”), as life goes up and down (“I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon”), will we still be there for each other as friends (“as long as you'll be my friend at the end”)? Adolescent friendships are so intense (“your secrets I will keep,” “if not for me then you'd be dead”), but then when we grow and move on, will we still mean the same thing to each other?

The singer is determined to stay loyal and steadfast (“I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might”), but he’s worried that his friend might not (“Will you be there holding my hand?”), especially if the singer is more successful than his buddy (“If I’m alive and well”).

The meaning of the “Kryptonite!” refrain has bothered people. The singer’s loyalty and need for his friend makes him vulnerable to being disappointed by his friend. So in a way, his friend could be his Kryptonite: our loved ones have the power to hurt us in ways our enemies never could. Worrying (“my troubled mind “) about his friendship is what has him going “to the dark side” (“I knew it had to be something to do with you”). He realizes that he can’t control what life throws at them (the dark side of the moon is unknown) and that things will always change (“I feel there is nothing I can do”). But even though they may argue or have ups and downs (“You call me strong, you call me weak”), the overall message is uplifting:

“I really don't mind what happens now and then / As long as you'll be my friend at the end.”

[Edit: 01/01/1967]

This is one of my favorite DMB songs. To me, it's about when dreams die in the whole growing up process. Hearts being broken, Ideals being crushed, etc. And when these dreams die, it's so easy to feel lost in the world and just wish that you could go back to the days of "sitting under the dreaming tree".

I really think Raspberry put it perfectly. It could mean an actually physical tree, but i believe it's more of a metiphore for innocents and youth.

I agree completely about the innocence metaphor. It deals with the fact that when you get older the real world just comes at you so fast and so strong that alot of times you just feel like you can't handle it and you wish you could go back to the days of carelessness peace

think song iz ma fav dmb song! its so strong

to much to say about this song. it has to much meaning!

its about the innocence of childhood and dreaming. once you grow up, you lose the childhood dreams, and find yourself wanting to go back to the days when you were under your "dreaming tree".

i worship dave matthews. (marry me.)

I think it's about pollution too.