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Broken Dreams Lyrics
There's an ocean in my mind
I'd give the world if I could find
A sailing ship and leave the past behind
Now that I must say adieu
It's killing me, I'm telling you
When freedom calls what can a person do
I have felt the winds of change
Go stealing through my heart and soul
How wild it seems
In love songs and in nursery rhymes
On movie screens, in fairy tales
Lie broken dreams
Life's broken dreams
Love's broken dreams
Sometimes a broken dream
Will make you sad or make you mean
Sometimes things ain't as bad as they might seem
You might walk a lonely street
Until one day you chance to meet
A stranger who might ask where have you been
You will see the light of change
Come shining through your windowpane
When hope is gone
Though money, fame, and riches are
For fools and kings or anything
That turns them on
Life's broken deals
Life's spinning wheels
There's an ocean I have found
I'd like to sail the world around
And dream about the life I hope I'll find
Now that I must say adieu
To love's returns, I'm telling you
When freedom comes what can a person do
I have felt the winds of change
Go stealing through my heart and soul
How wild they seem
In sounds of spring, in winter storms
In autumn gales, on summer morns
Lie broken dreams
In love songs and in nursery rhymes
On movie screens, in fairy tales
Like broken dreams
Life's broken dreams
Love's broken dreams
I'd give the world if I could find
A sailing ship and leave the past behind
Now that I must say adieu
It's killing me, I'm telling you
When freedom calls what can a person do
I have felt the winds of change
Go stealing through my heart and soul
How wild it seems
In love songs and in nursery rhymes
On movie screens, in fairy tales
Lie broken dreams
Life's broken dreams
Love's broken dreams
Will make you sad or make you mean
Sometimes things ain't as bad as they might seem
You might walk a lonely street
Until one day you chance to meet
A stranger who might ask where have you been
Come shining through your windowpane
When hope is gone
Though money, fame, and riches are
For fools and kings or anything
That turns them on
Life's broken deals
Life's spinning wheels
I'd like to sail the world around
And dream about the life I hope I'll find
Now that I must say adieu
To love's returns, I'm telling you
When freedom comes what can a person do
Go stealing through my heart and soul
How wild they seem
In sounds of spring, in winter storms
In autumn gales, on summer morns
Lie broken dreams
In love songs and in nursery rhymes
On movie screens, in fairy tales
Like broken dreams
Life's broken dreams
Love's broken dreams
Song Info
Submitted by
butneveroutgunned On May 27, 2006
More Gordon Lightfoot
If You Could Read My Mind
Sundown
The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
Carefree Highway
Summer Side Of Life
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This is an exhilerating anthem of a person breaking free of false dreams promoted by "love songs, nursery rhymes, fairy tales and on movie screens". He also puts "money, fame and riches" in the same category, as being "for fools and kings" (i.e., people who are chasing pipe dreams and the powerful) because it turns them on, their broken dreams would be broken deals. One can intuit that the writer has had a negative experience, but instead of being depressed about it, they are looking at it positively, as a wind of change and freedom.
I'd love to know what Gord was thinking when he wrote this, but for now, I can only guess.
I see two recurring themes, which centre around deep personal setback, and change. Taking a semi-wild guess, this seems to be a classic optimist's philosophy on turning crisis into opportunity.
There are a few lines I find insoluble:
1) Though money, fame, and riches are For fools and kings or anything That turns them on Perhaps this is Gord deprecating a popular metric for success, which is even more popular for iconoclastic folk singers like Gord to deprecate :)
2) Why does Gord cite various art media as a source of examples that illustrate his point? Movies have a powerful influence on mainstream media, and there's a great wealth of examples of lots of things there. Love songs also are very mainstream. Nursery rhymes and fairy tales have very little influence of that sort, and I can't imagine how any of them are connected to this song.