This song is easy to identify with, even if you're from a later generation and never actually knew anyone who died of HIV/AIDS: although it is implied that the friend who isn't "sitting somewhere here with me" is someone who died, it might have been from drug OD, suicide, accidents (especially automobile), various other diseases, etc. I learned a few years ago that the younger daughter of my next-door neighbours when I was a child died — I think she was in her 20s — from septicaemia caused by MRSA that got into her IV catheter when she was in the hospital being treated for injuries from an automobile accident. It doesn't seem so long ago, but hospitals didn't understand the significance of antibiotic resistance in bacteria like S. aureus and didn't follow strict sterile procedures nearly as strictly as they do today (plus the misuse of antibiotics was commonplace — still a problem in a lot of countries, notably India). The point is, I think most of us, by the time we reach 30 or so, have a friend (even if not a really close friend) who was close to our age who died.
OK, that said...my question is, what does the "In spite of dreams..." part mean? Any ideas?
This song is easy to identify with, even if you're from a later generation and never actually knew anyone who died of HIV/AIDS: although it is implied that the friend who isn't "sitting somewhere here with me" is someone who died, it might have been from drug OD, suicide, accidents (especially automobile), various other diseases, etc. I learned a few years ago that the younger daughter of my next-door neighbours when I was a child died — I think she was in her 20s — from septicaemia caused by MRSA that got into her IV catheter when she was in the hospital being treated for injuries from an automobile accident. It doesn't seem so long ago, but hospitals didn't understand the significance of antibiotic resistance in bacteria like S. aureus and didn't follow strict sterile procedures nearly as strictly as they do today (plus the misuse of antibiotics was commonplace — still a problem in a lot of countries, notably India). The point is, I think most of us, by the time we reach 30 or so, have a friend (even if not a really close friend) who was close to our age who died.
OK, that said...my question is, what does the "In spite of dreams..." part mean? Any ideas?