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Dreamland Lyrics

It's a long, long way from Canada
A long way from snow chains
Donkey vendors slicin' coconut
No parkas to their names

Black babies covered in baking flour
The cook's got a carnival song
We're gonna lay down someplace shady
With dreamland coming on

Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland
Dreamland

Walter Raleigh and Chris Columbus
Come a'marchin' out of the waves
And claim the beach and consessions
In the name of the suntan slaves

I wrapped that flag around me
Like a Dorothy Lamour sarong
And I laid down thinkin' national
With dreamland coming on

Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland
Dreamland

Good-time Mary and a fortune hunter
All dressed up, follow the drums
Mary in a feather hula-hoop
Miss Fortune with a rose
On her big-game gun

All saints, all sinners shinin'
Heed those trumpets
All night long
Propped up on a samba beat
With dreamland coming on

Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland
Dreamland

Tar baby and the Great White Wonder
Talking over a glass of rum
Burning on the inside
With the knowledge of things to come

There's gamblin' out on the terrace
And midnight ramblin' on the lawn
As they lead toward temptation
With dreamland coming on

Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland
Dreamland

In a plane flyin' back to winter
In shoes full of tropic sand
A lady in a foreign flag
On the arm of her Marlboro Man

The hawk howls in New York City
Six foot drifts on Myrtle's lawn
As they push the recline buttons down
With dreamland coming on

Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland
Dreamland

African sand on the trade-winds
And the sun on the Amazon
As they push the recline buttons down
With dreamland coming on

Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland
Dreamland

Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Song Info
Submitted by
threearmedman On Jan 05, 2007
3 Meanings

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Cover art for Dreamland lyrics by Joni Mitchell

This is one of my favorite songs. I love the way she sings it. I love when she sings "big game gun", haha.

Cover art for Dreamland lyrics by Joni Mitchell

what is this about?

A vacation to central or South America that I'd guess she took in the dead of winter.

Cover art for Dreamland lyrics by Joni Mitchell

Joni and her man are on holiday somewhere tropical. With the references to the explorers Raleigh and Columbus, samba beat, rum, sand, etc. I guess perhaps the Caribbean. In the final verses they're on the plane home.

Great arrangement with just drums, percussion and backing vocals - no regular instruments.

My Opinion
 
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