Hello and welcome to Hearing Double, where I compare and contrast two unrelated songs of the same name and decide which one does the song’s title the most justice!
It is with great sadness that I write my final entry for Hearing Double which, in the final months of my time at UConn, has blossomed from a random idea bouncing around in my head into a full-fledged column. Though I wish I had more time to flesh out my infinite number of ideas, I have no doubt that my successor and current Associate News Editor Jenna Outcalt will do great things with the foundation I’ve built for this column. There is nobody more fit to carry the torch, and I look forward to seeing the great work she creates.
This week is a reflection of my personal internal conflict with graduating. I’ve spent so much time grieving the experiences and people that I’m leaving behind; now it’s time for me to look at the endless possibilities that lay before me. Now is the time for those of us who are graduating to explore our dreams and make them reality.
As Doc says at the end of “Back to the Future III,” “Your future hasn’t been written yet. No one’s has. Your future is whatever you make it. So, make it a good one…”
With this sentiment in mind, I’ll be reviewing “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac and The Cranberries for my final comparison.
I could write a whole novel on the beauty and layers of Fleetwood Mac’s bestselling album “Rumours,” but I only have so much time and space, therefore, I’ll stick to the basics. The lead up to this album was a tumultuous time for the band, with each bandmate going through their own personal heartbreak. Mick Fleetwood was going through a divorce, Christine and John McVie had separated and Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham had broken off an eight-year relationship.
“Dreams” was one of Nicks’ devastatingly beautiful contributions to the 1977 album which, alongside “Silver Springs,” expressed her pain, anger and confusion following the breakup. Suffice it to say, it was a far cry from Buckingham’s own contributions to the album, “Go Your Own Way” and “Never Going Back Again,” which expressed a much colder and more apathetic sentiment towards the split.
Sonically, the song doesn’t feel inherently sad. Nicks’ vocals, while beautiful, does not carry the raw emotion and power that we see in more evocative songs like “Silver Springs.” The beat is mellow and even, with no big swells or dramatic drops of instrumentation. At face value, it just feels like a classic easy listening song to add to a rainy-day playlist.
But it’s much more than that. It’s more a song about a woman’s intuition. Her “crystal visions” reveal the truth that though she’s hurting, she knows he’ll inevitably regret what he did.
“Like a heartbeat drives you mad / In the stillness of remembering what you had / And what you lost / And what you had / Ooh, what you lost”
The question is: How does this relate back to the idea of dreams? Well, it’s a bit of a loose connection, but I’ll take a crack at it.
“Dreams” is about the past and the future. It seems probable that what Nicks meant by the title is that she had dreams for what her relationship could’ve been, and she has visions of how the healing process will progress, but in that present moment, she’s suspended in a dreamy nowhere land with no defined beginning or end. The ambiguity of the title may reflect her feelings of uncertainty in uncharted territory.
Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” is the band’s number one song on Spotify with over two billion streams, and for good reason. This hit, and arguably Fleetwood Mac as a whole, transcends time and genres. It’s a song for everyone, regardless of differences in music taste.
In 1993, another rendition of “Dreams” was released by The Cranberries as part of their album “Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?” The Irish band is known best for their songs “Zombie” and “Linger,” with “Dreams” coming in at number three on Spotify, boasting over 600 million streams.
The song certainly has a dreamy feel, which seems to be primarily derived from the gentle and airy vocals delivered by lead singer Dolores O’Riordan. The upbeat melody also plays a role, but the vocal performance is really what sets the tone.
O’Riordan describes the song as being about “feeling really in love for the first time,” and she did a wonderful job expressing this. The dizzying, irrational and surreal nature of true love is woven through every line she sings:
“Oh, my life / Is changin’ every day / In every possible way / And oh, my dreams / It’s never quite as it seems / ‘Cause you’re a dream to me, dream to me.”
The narrator’s dreams are personified by the love interest that she sings of. In contrast to Nicks’ visions of the past and the future, The Cranberries’ song focuses on what’s important in this present moment. The dream is her present reality.
My favorite line in this song exposes the vulnerability of giving your love to another person:
“And now I tell you openly / You have my heart, so don’t hurt me”
Love is as terrifying as it is rewarding, but The Cranberries focus on what makes it beautiful instead of what makes it risky. They keep the dream alive by capturing the feeling of ecstasy that love can bring.
Maybe these two renditions of “Dreams” don’t exactly reflect my graduating spirit, but they do show that dreams can be anything you want them to be. There’s not one right way life is supposed to go. One person’s dream may be another person’s nightmare, but that’s what makes us all unique.
I’ve had the intention to cover “Dreams” in this column since I first came up with the idea, and even after all this time and research, I have not come to a conclusion on which version is better. Each song is beautiful and meaningful in its own right, and it feels incorrect to choose one over the other. For the first time ever in Hearing Double, I declare this fight a draw.
Title Winner: Tie
P.S.: I want to thank Ben Lassy and James Fitzpatrick — The Daily Campus Life editors — for supporting my vision and letting me run free with my imagination. I’d also like to thank my dad, who raised me with a proper music education and inspired my never-ending pursuit of good music. If you’re reading this, know that there’s a piece of you in every Hearing Double article I’ve written.
Finally, thank you to everyone who takes the time to read my column — it means the world to me to know that there are people who care about what I have to say.