Bought this album largely blind... I heard the 30 second sample of this song and said "Nope, I'm gonna buy this record after all." I'm very glad I did.
It feels like this song is about being in a relationship that is failing because of lack of ambition on both sides. The imagery is not incidental, I think. For example, Amy's dreams of Patty Hearst imply that she wants to leave, but feels a loyalty to him akin to Stockholm's Syndrome, while his dreams of Bob Dylan seem to be him desperately wanting to be a success in music, but he plays his songs to a room that reacts in the same way her depressed soul reacts to him when he gets home--a silence, a facing anything but him (the wall in this case). I have been on both ends of this interaction, and I can say that when the one who loves you and has very good reasons to leave you for not having any reality in your head, all you can say is "I'm still having dreams." He resents her for not wanting anything better, and she resents him for the same, but it's simply that she wants something more concrete and he wants pie in the sky. Neither is better or worse than the other, really, but it's awful when you can't head in the same direction as the one you have given your heart to.
There's a lot going on this song, as there is in almost every one of his songs, but it seems like this is the one he gets to the root of why he released this particular collection--that hunger, that drive, that love for the country he calls home and the busy way of life they embrace, are all ever present throughout. It's so beautiful and a little sad.
Bought this album largely blind... I heard the 30 second sample of this song and said "Nope, I'm gonna buy this record after all." I'm very glad I did.
It feels like this song is about being in a relationship that is failing because of lack of ambition on both sides. The imagery is not incidental, I think. For example, Amy's dreams of Patty Hearst imply that she wants to leave, but feels a loyalty to him akin to Stockholm's Syndrome, while his dreams of Bob Dylan seem to be him desperately wanting to be a success in music, but he plays his songs to a room that reacts in the same way her depressed soul reacts to him when he gets home--a silence, a facing anything but him (the wall in this case). I have been on both ends of this interaction, and I can say that when the one who loves you and has very good reasons to leave you for not having any reality in your head, all you can say is "I'm still having dreams." He resents her for not wanting anything better, and she resents him for the same, but it's simply that she wants something more concrete and he wants pie in the sky. Neither is better or worse than the other, really, but it's awful when you can't head in the same direction as the one you have given your heart to.
There's a lot going on this song, as there is in almost every one of his songs, but it seems like this is the one he gets to the root of why he released this particular collection--that hunger, that drive, that love for the country he calls home and the busy way of life they embrace, are all ever present throughout. It's so beautiful and a little sad.