Flashing Palely in the Margins
I was dreaming when I wrote this
For a few years in my mid-twenties, I stopped dreaming.
I would go to sleep at night and wake up without any recollection of having thought of anything while I slept; in many cases, I would have no real recollection of having slept at all. It wasn’t that I couldn’t remember my dreams, but instead that I couldn’t remember having had any dreams.
I learned, a few years too late, that this was an issue with my sleep: I wasn’t dreaming because I was never entering deep sleep. When my sleep habits changed and I started to be better rested, the dreams returned, vivid and memorable.
When I learned that the theme for this month’s Mixtape Concern was “Dream festival,” I didn’t immediately think of building a playlist of the music festival of my dreams. Instead, I thought of those years when I could dream at all and thought about how so much of our music is based on dreaming, of hoping for love and life, whether while awake or asleep.
My “dream festival” playlist for The Mixtape Concern this month is made up of songs about dreams—dreams that, for a few years of my life, disappeared. Thankfully, the dreams have returned, and the music still inspires and excites.
Good night, and sweet dreams.
Track list:
- Juicy, The Notorious B.I.G
- Sweet Dreams, Beyoncé
- Sweet Dreams, Eurythmics
- Gasoline Dreams, OutKast
- Moonage Daydream, David Bowie
- Triple Beam Dreams, Rick Ross feat. Nas
- Only When I Dream, Roxette
- Together Again, Janet Jackson
- American Dream, Killer Mike
- Dreaming of You, Selena
- Dreamlover, Mariah Carey
- Dreams and Nightmares, Meek Mill
- Set Adrift on Memory Bliss, P.M. Dawn
- 1999, Prince