So long ago
Was it in a dream?
Was it just a dream?
I know, yes I know
It seemed so very real
Seemed so real to me
Took a walk down the street
Through the heat whispered trees
I thought I could hear
Hear
Hear
Hear
Somebody call out my name (John)
As it started to rain
Two spirits dancing so strange
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Dream, dream away
Magic in the air
Was magic in the air?
I believe, yes I believe
More I cannot say
What more can I say?
On a river of sound
Through the mirror go round, round
I thought I could feel
Feel
Feel
Feel
Music touching my soul
Something warm, sudden cold
The spirit dance was unfolding
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Was it in a dream?
Was it just a dream?
I know, yes I know
It seemed so very real
Seemed so real to me
Took a walk down the street
Through the heat whispered trees
I thought I could hear
Hear
Hear
Hear
Somebody call out my name (John)
As it started to rain
Two spirits dancing so strange
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Dream, dream away
Magic in the air
Was magic in the air?
I believe, yes I believe
More I cannot say
What more can I say?
On a river of sound
Through the mirror go round, round
I thought I could feel
Feel
Feel
Feel
Music touching my soul
Something warm, sudden cold
The spirit dance was unfolding
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse
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Took a walk down the street (Lennon was walking on the street towards his apartment)
Thru the heat whispered trees (Late at night-less noise in NYC. A mild night for December)
I thought I could hear (hear, hear, hear)
Somebody call out my name as it started to rain (Chapman calls out Lennon's' name)
On a river of sound (Four gunshots)
Thru the mirror go round, round (I had read one time that as Lennon was hit he spun from the bullets)
I thought I could feel (feel, feel, feel)
Music touching my soul, something warm, sudden cold (As he passed the music touched his soul-his blood would have made him feel something warm and as he went into shock and passed he would have felt sudden cold)
The spirit dance was unfolding (a dance was coming to an end that had started earlier in the day betwwen Chapman and Lennon)
Just my opinion but I have always felt that Lennon dream t his own passing and wrote it in this song.
John seems to be prophetically anticipate the events of the night of his death. In fact, sends a shiver down my spine when I hear the lyrics. The lyrics seem to match up so well with the events of that horrific night. ( ...and, coming from me, a non-religious materialist, is a tad surprising). I have often wondered if it was only me who noticed the parallels. Apparently not.
The first set of lyrics seem to describe a reverse deja vu experience. He takes the perspective of being in the future, looking back at the events of that night as if he was remembering them. And in a dream-like state, he is wondering if what he is remembering was all real or just a (very bad) dream.
"So long ago
Was it in a dream, was it just a dream?
I know, yes I know
Seemed so very real, it seemed so real to me."
A couple of possible variants on the above poster's interpretations:
"Thru the heat whispered trees" -- "trees" possibly referring to the tall buildings of NY. "Heat" possibly referring that these "trees" (buildings) were heated (unlike the coldness of the actual trees).
"Thru the mirror go round, round (I had read one time that as Lennon was hit he spun from the bullets)"
Don't think he spun around. Rather, I have read that, despite being shot, Yoko commented that he just continued walking forward until he entered the inside guard kiosk where he collapsed.
Another interpretation of "Thru the mirror go round, round." Could refer to his recently released album "Double Fantasy" -- a mirror fantasy between him and his assassin Chapman of the events of that night.
"The spirit dance was unfolding" He was dying -- leaving his body -- thus the "spirit dance was unfolding."
And the verse before this:
"Dream, dream away
Magic in the air, was magic in the air?
I believe, yes I believe
More I cannot say..."
He believes something (what? the afterlife? another dimension?), but, he cannot say more because he is no longer in this universe / dimension (?).
Again, I am a complete skeptic re psychic phenomena, an afterlife, etc. But, OTOH, quantum physics is damn weird, so who the heck knows?
The lyrics do seem prophetic, and every time I hear the song, I am taken through the dream-like sequence of events of that horrific night.
It does seem to be a dream of his future death "Something warm sudden cold" you are on to something there. I would also add "I believe, yes I believe. More I cannot say. What more can I say?" He is admitting his faith was solidified by the dream and the conundrum that creates if he says that directly. Spiritual experiences like this are usually buried and then you bury the shovel you buried them with, Romans 10:9
I think the song is about the Beatles and his modest childhood origins, reminiscing, like Strawberry Fields:
So long ago was it in a dream (looking back on his life and that amazing time)
Was it just a dream? (again, so incomprehensively amazing, was is a dream?)
I know, yes, I know, seemed so very real (it was real as it happened, but was incomprehensively unreal)
It seemed so real to me (it was real to him)
Took a walk down the street (251 Menlove Avenue, his childhood home)
Through the heat whispered trees (Menlove Avenue is an avenue so lined by trees)
I thought I could hear
Hear, hear, hear
Somebody call out my name
As it started to rain
Two spirits dancing so strange (Lennon and McCartney)
Ah, bowakawa pousse, pousse (Ah, bowakawa pousse, pousse" - Lennon said it was nonsense lyrics as per the faux Spanish in Sun King. Curiously though: Bo = "staff/weapon" in Japanese; wa = "as for…" in Japanese (as a topic particle) or "harmony" on its own; kawa = "river" in Japanese; pousse = "push" in French, though allegedly "pussy" was Lennon's original lyric. So, "staff/weapon/phallus, pussy, river, harmony"...?)
Dream, dream away, magic in the air (The magic of the Beatles)
Was magic in the air?
I believe, yes, I believe, more I cannot say
What more can I say?
On a river of sound (The Beatles' music)
Through the mirror go 'round, 'round (I think this could be 'merry-go-round', as per "No longer riding on the merry-go-round' of Watching the Wheels.
I thought I could feel
Feel, feel, feel
Music touching my soul (The Beatles' music)
Something warm, sudden cold (Happiness is a Warm Gun to Cold Turkey)
The spirit dance was unfolding (The Beatles' legacy)
Ah, bowakawa pousse, pousse
So Lennon is probably saying with "b'wakawa pousse" "the situation pushes." Which would be an indirect/clever way of saying "the plot thickens".
from bagism.com/…
But regardless, rather than a dream dream, I always imagined a drug filled thought or hallucination.
Who knows tho
Two spirits dancing so strange
Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé
....odd but nice... any1 get me?
"Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé" is just syntax without sematics - nice sounding words without meaning.
Also, I checked the female whispering voice in the background during the line "Music touching my soul, something warm, sudden cold". It's the same voice as during "Somebody call out my name as it started to rain" saying the same thing, "John", but this time backwards. I assume it's Yoko.
How far'd you get
To that place where You can't remember
And you can't forget"