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Probably the most bluesy song on this page - another one from a cycle of songs about London. It's about being rudely awakened from dreams of paradise and facing the prospect of riding a crowded tube into the city to go to work. So the hero day dreams and remembers his night dreams!
Some more song notes:
The hero of this song is dreaming peacefully of girls with cherry lips, cavorting on the seaside sands, and other pleasant diversions, when the alarm rings its reality check, its clanging call to duty. Rudely awakened from dreams of paradise, the hero faces the day... not quite seizing it! He’s late as usual and dashes to the rainy street, joins the press of feet to the nearest tube, the prospect of work looming like a grey cloud. Then he remembers the girl in his dreams, the crimson lips, the hot kiss… The Northern Line fades to some distant, palm-fringed shore line in our hero’s mind, where mermaids wait and comb their hair back with the waves. So despite being Moorgate-bound, everything is okay. Paradise has been lost and found.
Just a Dream Away
5 o’clock, the sun is up,
I dream that it’s an apricot.
I take a bite dripping
The juice down my chin.
I kiss a dream girl on the lips
Then wake up to my Weetabix –
The dream fading
And it’s growing dim
So take a ride on the Northern line,
Don’t be late, gotta be on time.
But I think paradise
Is just a dream away
So take my advice
And daydream all day.
I wake up, the dream is gone,
Oh,can I have another one?
The alarm clock’s clanging
In my tired head
Take me back to the billows bright
Where flying fish fly all night,
And leave me here floating
In my feather bed.
I think paradise
Is just a dream away
So take my advice
And daydream all day.
Flying high like a kite in the sky
Old rocking horse rocks on by
Temple bells are ringing
At the break of day
Alice stands by a minaret
Trying to learn the alphabet,
Turns to me smiling
Then she fades away.
So take a ride on the Northern line,
Don’t be late, gotta be on time.
So take a ride on the Northern line,
Don’t be late, gotta be on time.
But I think paradise
Is just a dream away
So take my advice
And daydream all day.
Written by Steve Elliott
Produced by Sasha Badejkov