Always fascinating about the affects of dreams on writing, and for me, particularly their problem solving in writing, as if some kind of muse. Over 50 years, dreams have come to my aid, somehow working out difficult passages in fiction or poetry, and they've all been stunning, to say the least. It doesn't always happen, but it HAS happened more often than I can remember. Long walks, which are a welcome change of scenery from a computer screen, are different regarding writing issues and problem solving, as they are obviously more conscious efforts, but just as interesting. Anyone else with the same experience, or am I just lucky?
Also, Ted, if you think you've got it in you to go full mystic, do us all a favor and go for it. When I read your latest book, it's like I'm just waiting for something to come bursting through, but we never quite get there, so there's this powerful anticipation all the way through with no relief in sight.
I am not at all surprised that so many songs come to their writers in dreams.
Musicians soak up musical influences their whole lives melodies, harmonies, riffs, motifs, scales, arpeggios, modes, rhythms etc .
Surely while they're asleep the subconscious as well doing the housecleaning has all this information to play around without the hindrance of the nay saying conscious.
It would explain why musicians are drawn to experiment with substances.
The dream stuff is absolute truth. If I don’t get up and write down the things that occur to me in sleep, the next morning I may remember I had a great thought but don’t remember what it was. It happened too many times. And they may not be truly inspired great thoughts, but they are mine and I don’t want to lose them. Your catalogue of great songs delivered by dream is fantastic.
I just watched this and was blown away! I posted it on Facebook, and here is the comment I posted it with:
For all my friends involved in music and the arts, or are just interested in arts and culture, this incredible interview with Ted Gioia is well worth watching to the end. The discussion is so wide-ranging that I cannot summarize it, but it was one of the most inspiring and educational two hours (!) I have spent in years. In many ways this seemed like a more modern version of "My Dinner with Andre."
I know it's long, but you won't be disappointed, especially if you are a writer or musician!
Love your focus on the muse and the visionary forces behind creative inspiration. This is actually my own long-time chief focus, both as a person and in what I write, so it's a pleasure to hear you talking about it here. And I can't help but be struck by the fact that when I just now stopped by and read your excerpt from the interview, and saw you mentioning the dream origin of Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are," I was fresh from working on a post that I'll be publishing next week *which includes Joel's account of that very thing.* I mean, you know, speaking of muses. Frequently if we're tuned into their wavelength, synchronicity abounds.
Bede's ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND (ch. 24) mentions a poet called Cædmon, renowned for his songs and his verse, incomparable in the English of his own time. Bede narrates how God gave Cædmon the gift of song in his sleep: "Awaking from his sleep, he remembered all that he had sung in his dream, and soon added more after the same manner, in words which worthily expressed the praise of God."
Bede later describes Cædmon's tranquil death—after a short bout of illness he died peacefully in his sleep—a singer passing in silence into the realm of song.
I'm watching this right now. Had to download the substack app and subscribe here. Such a great episode. The increase in minimalist and boring writing/music is so true.
The Art of Spiritual Dreaming by Harold Klemp and “Lucid Dreaming”. Were the two titles that brought me down the rabbit hole of dreams and waking dreams which was also written about by Carl Jung. I’ve been lucid dreaming since I was a kid. I also recall the story that Leonard Bernstein composed West Side Story napping on the sofa while Mozart caught snippets of his work while playing billiards.
Interviewer: Where did you get your ideas from?
Ellington: Ideas? Oh man, I got a million dreams. That's all I do is dream. All the time.
https://youtu.be/FA4ZSrAYOkQ
The Rick Beato interview was great, very much looking forward to this one too.
Always fascinating about the affects of dreams on writing, and for me, particularly their problem solving in writing, as if some kind of muse. Over 50 years, dreams have come to my aid, somehow working out difficult passages in fiction or poetry, and they've all been stunning, to say the least. It doesn't always happen, but it HAS happened more often than I can remember. Long walks, which are a welcome change of scenery from a computer screen, are different regarding writing issues and problem solving, as they are obviously more conscious efforts, but just as interesting. Anyone else with the same experience, or am I just lucky?
www.jim-frazee.com
That was a great interview.
Also, Ted, if you think you've got it in you to go full mystic, do us all a favor and go for it. When I read your latest book, it's like I'm just waiting for something to come bursting through, but we never quite get there, so there's this powerful anticipation all the way through with no relief in sight.
That is apt, sometimes there is no relief from many things , we move forward nonetheless, never to reach the horizon
Maybe so. The "left wanting more" feeling is a powerful driver in art - but it necessarily makes you ask just what that "more" really is.
Completely agree
Yes to full mystic mode - even just for short spurts. I crave this sort of thing.
I am not at all surprised that so many songs come to their writers in dreams.
Musicians soak up musical influences their whole lives melodies, harmonies, riffs, motifs, scales, arpeggios, modes, rhythms etc .
Surely while they're asleep the subconscious as well doing the housecleaning has all this information to play around without the hindrance of the nay saying conscious.
It would explain why musicians are drawn to experiment with substances.
The dream stuff is absolute truth. If I don’t get up and write down the things that occur to me in sleep, the next morning I may remember I had a great thought but don’t remember what it was. It happened too many times. And they may not be truly inspired great thoughts, but they are mine and I don’t want to lose them. Your catalogue of great songs delivered by dream is fantastic.
I just watched this and was blown away! I posted it on Facebook, and here is the comment I posted it with:
For all my friends involved in music and the arts, or are just interested in arts and culture, this incredible interview with Ted Gioia is well worth watching to the end. The discussion is so wide-ranging that I cannot summarize it, but it was one of the most inspiring and educational two hours (!) I have spent in years. In many ways this seemed like a more modern version of "My Dinner with Andre."
I know it's long, but you won't be disappointed, especially if you are a writer or musician!
Love your focus on the muse and the visionary forces behind creative inspiration. This is actually my own long-time chief focus, both as a person and in what I write, so it's a pleasure to hear you talking about it here. And I can't help but be struck by the fact that when I just now stopped by and read your excerpt from the interview, and saw you mentioning the dream origin of Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are," I was fresh from working on a post that I'll be publishing next week *which includes Joel's account of that very thing.* I mean, you know, speaking of muses. Frequently if we're tuned into their wavelength, synchronicity abounds.
Caedmon’s Hymn, the first known English poem, also came in a dream.
Bede's ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND (ch. 24) mentions a poet called Cædmon, renowned for his songs and his verse, incomparable in the English of his own time. Bede narrates how God gave Cædmon the gift of song in his sleep: "Awaking from his sleep, he remembered all that he had sung in his dream, and soon added more after the same manner, in words which worthily expressed the praise of God."
Bede later describes Cædmon's tranquil death—after a short bout of illness he died peacefully in his sleep—a singer passing in silence into the realm of song.
I'm watching this right now. Had to download the substack app and subscribe here. Such a great episode. The increase in minimalist and boring writing/music is so true.
It sounds fascinating, even just you excerpt. I'm looking forward to listening to the whole thing.
Chopin wrote “Raindrop” prelude after a dream about drowning. Fascinating stuff!
You write very well, with very few typos.
Oh, this interview is about something else. As you were...
The Art of Spiritual Dreaming by Harold Klemp and “Lucid Dreaming”. Were the two titles that brought me down the rabbit hole of dreams and waking dreams which was also written about by Carl Jung. I’ve been lucid dreaming since I was a kid. I also recall the story that Leonard Bernstein composed West Side Story napping on the sofa while Mozart caught snippets of his work while playing billiards.
Thank you for this interview. Question: why not post the video here on Substack, instead of offering the tedious youtube experience?