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The Man With single LINKS              ABOUT THIS SONG length: 3 min 8 sec music and lyrics: Chris Tong vocals: Chris Tong musical arrangement: Chris Tong key: D ISRC: QZK6K2180719 UPC: 196321078696 instruments: piano, violin, guitar, chime vibe, bass guitar, drums I wrote The Man With a Thousand Dreams when I was 23. It's a mysterious song that just came to me unexpectedly. It's unlike any other song I have written. If you took away the drum track, it might even sound like the theme from a 1940's movie (like, say, Laura), or one of Frank Sinatra's more dramatic songs (like, say, Long Ago and Far Away). LYRICS Do you know me? I am the man with a thousand dreams. And in those dreams, I dream of a life with you. Downpour. . . Sunshine. Anguish so human, laughter divine. And in your eyes, I am lost and seek no return. I burn with desire for you. Learn in your arms, I adore you. The years that turn violently grow silent, held by a moment of spring. Recalling the child deep in me, hearing his voice, I leap in me. . . A wonder-filled lover, I discover you were the song in my heart when I learned how to sing. Do you know me? I am the man with a thousand dreams. And dreams die. . . Still, I dream I can make dreams real. The castles I shaped in moonlight dwindle like shadows in noon light — give way to apartments, bills and heart rents— Stop. Someone's calling my name. It's you. I've returned. Is it rain out? Let's run, hand in hand, till we're drained. Then. . . come home, build a fire, then retire. This is life. Now you've come in mine will never be the same. ADDITIONAL NOTES Poetic lyrics. As with many of my songs, I like drawing on poetic devices frequently. In this song, there is a tremendous amount of rhyming in many different forms, for example, in additional to the usual rhymes:
Do you know me? I am the man with a thousand dreams. And in those dreams, I dream of a life with you. Later in the song, there is a similar verse, but with less idealism and more life struggle: Do you know me? I am the man with a thousand dreams. And dreams die. . . Still, I dream I can make dreams real. Yet another poetic device I enjoy (and used in Heart Song as well) is having the same word double as the end of one "line" and the beginning of the next — like the word "mine" here: Now you've come in mine will never be the same. A stickler for grammatical correctness might insist I write it as: Now you've come in mine. Mine will never be the same. But I find the way I did it so much more enjoyable for the listener (who does a double take, the first few times they hear it, until they figure it out.) Dream theme. References to dreams and dreaming are a recurring theme in some of my songs. (Space Girl 2 is a good example.) Often there is a tension between the desired dream and the reality. One of my favorite lines of poetry has always been from T.S. Eliot: "Between the idea and the reality. . . falls the shadow." (The Hollow Men). This tension between the idea (or dream) and the reality (and how to overcome "the shadow") was a major part of the "dream theme" in my songs. "Inner child" theme. Another recurring theme in my songs is references to the "child within". (My song, No Cares, has this as its central theme.) MUSIC A challenge to sing. This song is perhaps the hardest to sing of all my songs! First: the song has a large vocal range — nearly two octaves. (For comparision, the Star Spangled Banner (considered very challenging for most singers) is an octave and a half. Two octaves is about the maximum usable range of a good singer. I originally wrote the song in the key of F, and recorded a first version in that key, but found my voice straining most of the time. So I lowered the song to the key of D, where the song ranges from low G2 to high F4# — almost the entirety of my vocal range where I can sing without straining. (I'm somewhere between a bass and a baritone.) Second: the song is emotionally dramatic, almost operatic in certain places. The voice has to shift between very quiet passages and passages where the song is really belted out, all the while also shifting between different emotions. Enormous fun for the singer! But it did take me a while to create a version I was satisfied with. Use of the tritone. The song opens with an alternation between the tritone and the home chord: maximum tension followed immediately by resolution of the tension. (In the opening of the "Dream Bridge" of Space Girl 2, I use a similar alternation between the the tritone and the home chord.) Pauses. In certain songs, I like creating "spaces" or "pauses" that are either literal silences or in which much of the instrumentation (and/or voice) falls away. In The Man With a Thousand Dreams, there are many such pauses, that essentially allow the song to focus on my singing particularly dramatic lines. I've boldened those places where most of the instruments fall away for a moment: And in those dreams, I dream of a life with you. And in your eyes, I am lost and seek no return. The years that turn violently grown silent, held by a moment of spring. A wonder-filled lover, I discover you were the song in my heart when I learned how to sing. And dreams die... Still, I dream I can make dreams real. Stop. Someone's calling my name. This is life. Now you've come in mine will never be the same. ART The song title, "The Man With a Thousand Dreams", is unusual and unique, and I wanted album cover art to reflect that. The first thing the title made me think of was songs from the 1940's. So I wracked my brain for a scene I could put on the cover that would suggest the 1940's. . . but I couldn't think of anything I was happy with. The other thing the song title makes me think of is the title of a sci fi story or movie. And so that's the direction I went with the art. The song's protagonist ("the man with a thousand dreams") is at the top of a mountain (maybe on earth, maybe not), looking at what could be actual portals into "dream worlds". I really like this cover design!
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