These Dreams Of You Lyrics

Lyric discussion by macadavy 

Cover art for These Dreams Of You lyrics by Van Morrison

The first line of the lyrics: "I dreamed you paid your dues in Canada" has always intrigued me. Anyone know what or who it refers to?

Song Meaning

I would guess that this song is written about The Band's Richard Manuel. The Band and Morrison lived in Woodstock around the same time when it was an arts community and not a hippie town. They grew a close bond especially Richard and Van for their love of similar music (one only needs to listen to their singing to see that). Richard was a horrible alcoholic and I think this song is Van trying to get through to him. The giveaways are "paid your dues in Canada" (Richard is from Ontario) and "Ray Charles" (because if you ever read about...