The River Of Dreams

Album

River of Dreams

Label

Columbia Records

Genre

Gospel

Composer(s)

Billy Joel

Entered Chart

Jul 31, 1993

Peak Date

Oct 16, 1993

Released

Unknown

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Columbia 77086

B-Side

"The Great Wall of China"

Billy Joel gets a lot of song ideas in his dreams, and often struggles to remember them when he wakes up. For this song, however, he woke up with the song in his head, but tried NOT to write it. He explained on The Howard Stern Show in 2010: "I thought, Who the hell am I to try to pull off this gospel song, so I took a shower to wash this song away. I sang it in the shower and knew I had to do it." In Joel's dream, he was "walking in his sleep," which inspired that lyric. Joel has said that the phrase "River of Dreams" is a play on the phrase "Stream of Consciousness." This is a very spiritual song where Joel, who identifies himself as an atheist, includes some biblical imagery, including the line, "Through the valley of fear," which is a reference to Psalm 23:4 - "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Joel also says that the river is a religious image, as "there's baptizing in a river and you have to cross the river - people are getting dunked in the river and there's rivers of blood." The cover of the River Of Dreams album was painted by supermodel Christie Brinkley, who was Joel's second wife. >> Danny Kortchmar co-produced this song with Joe Nicolo, who was also the engineer. In the '70s, Kortchmar toured and recorded with James Taylor, and also played on popular albums by Jackson Browne, David Crosby/Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt and many others. Some of his other production credits include the albums Blaze of Glory by Jon Bon Jovi and End Of The Innocence by Don Henley. In our interview with Kortchmar, he talked about his production philosophy, which suited the introspective nature of this track: "Get the most out of the artists you're working for. And get something that's true to them and that represents them and is also catchy and is going to attract people - attract ears. So it's really just a matter of being true to the artist's original vision of himself, because I'm not one of these people that wants to be a svengali and wants to change somebody into something else." Joel performed this song at the Grammy Awards ceremony in 1994, where it was up for Record of the Year (it lost to Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You"). Joel, backed by a large gospel choir on a set designed to look like a church, used the false ending about two-and-a-half minutes into the song as an opportunity to make a point: instead of waiting a beat and continuing the song, he stopped cold, looked at his watch and said, "Valuable advertising time going by... dollars." Joel later said that he was protesting because producers cut off Frank Sinatra's acceptance speech earlier in the telecast when Sinatra was given a Legend Award. The video was directed by Andy Morahan, who also did Joel's clip for "The Downeaster Alexa." It was shot in Connecticut; the bridge scenes were done at the Providence & Worcester railroad bridge in Middletown, which crosses the Connecticut River. Joel's daughter, Alexa Ray, and wife, Christie Brinkley, appear in the video along the riverbank with Brinkley painting the album cover.

In the middle of the night(middle of the night)
I go walking in my sleep(i go walking in my sleep)
From the mountains of faith(moutains of faith)
To the river so deep(river so deep)
I must be looking for something(looking for something)
Something sacred I lost(sacred i lo-o-ost)
But the river is wide(river is wide)
And it's too hard to cross(too hard to cross)

Even though I know the river is wide
I walk down every evening and I stand on the shore
I try to cross to the opposite side
So I can finally find out what I've been looking for

In the middle of the night(middle of the night)
I go walking in my sleep(i go walking in my sleep)
Through the valley of fear(valley of fear)
To a river so deep(river so deep)
I've been searching for something(searching for something)
Taken out of my soul(taken out of my so-o-oul)
Something I'd never lose(never lose)
Something somebody stole(something somebody stole)

I don't know why I go walking at night
But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore
I hope it doesn't take the rest of my life
Until I find what it is that I've been looking for

In the middle of the night(middle of the night)
I go walking in my sleep(I go walking in my sleep)
Through the jungle of doubt(jungle of doubt)
To the river so deep(river so deep)
I know I'm searching for something(searching for something)
Something so undefined(so undefined)
That it can only be seen(only be seen)
By the eyes of the blind
In the middle of the night

I'm not sure about a life after this
God knows I've never been a spiritual man
Baptized by the fire, I wade into the river
That is running to the promise land

In the middle of the night(middle of the night)
I go walking in my sleep(i go walking in my sleep)
Through the desert of truth(desert of truth)
To the river so deep(river so deep)
We all end in the ocean(end in the ocean)
We all start in the streams(start in the streams)
We're all carried along(carried along)
By the river of dreams(river of dreams)
In the middle of the night

(repeat: I go walking in the middle of the...)
Sam and Ree