Early last year I posted one of my favorite songs from my youth and it was by the band Heart. That song was “These Dreams” and still continues to be a favorite of mine to this day. My second favorite from this band is their power ballad from their 1987 album Bad Animals.
“Alone” is actually an even better song but “These Dreams” was just the song that first introduced me to the Wilson Sisters, Ann and Nancy. Where the earlier song was more folksy in it execution with “Alone” we get a full out power ballad that includes Nancy doing a guitar solo near the end. Ann Wilson crushes this song and just reinforces the fact that she remains one of the best, if not the best, female rock vocalist to ever belt out a song.
Oh, I still have a major crush on Nancy Wilson right up to this day. She’s definitely the first lady of rock.
The latest “Song of the Day” comes courtesy of one of my favorite bands of the 80’s. It’s the sister rock duo Heart, Nancy and Ann Wilson, and their chart-topping power ballad from their self-titled album released in 1985. The song itself was released in 1986 and soon rose up the charts in both Billboard’s Mainstream, Rock, Pop and Adult Contemporary Charts. The song I speak of is “These Dreams”.
I was 13 when I first heard this song and saw the video make it’s rounds on MTV (yes, MTV used to show music videos, shocking isn’t it). I wasn’t sheltered muscially enough not to have been introduced to female rockers (Jett, Benatar, Slick being some of the ones I listened to courtesy of my Dad and older cousins), but with “These Dreams” I was finally introduced to the pioneers who gave young girls someone to look up to and dream of becoming rock stars as well. Heart, by the time I discovered them in 1986, were more in tune with that eras soft rock and adult contemporary sound. It was later on when I listened to their earlier albums that I finally heard them as hard rock musicians.
“These Dreams” was a favorite power ballad growing up and it rivals Led Zeppelin’s own fantasy-themed power ballad, “Stairway to Heaven”, as a power ballad I listen to constantly. It also had a music video that was so very 80’s MTV with both Wilson sisters sporting the overly teased, big hair that was glam/hair metal of the day. It didn’t matter since both then and now I still carry quite the crush and torch for Nancy Wilson. She, as Wayne and Garth would say, is a babe then and now.
Now, just sit back, relax and listen to one of my favorite songs of my youth.
These Dreams
Spare a little candle Save some light for me Figures up ahead Moving in the trees White skin in linen Perfume on my wrist And the full moon that hangs over These dreams in the mist
These dreams go on when I close my eyes Every second of the night I live another life These dreams that sleep when it’s cold outside Every moment I’m awake the further I’m away
Is it cloak n dagger Could it be spring or fall I walk without a cut Through a stained glass wall Weaker in my eyesight The candle in my grip And words that have no form Are falling from my lips
These dreams go on when I close my eyes Every second of the night I live another life These dreams that sleep when it’s cold outside Every moment I’m awake the further I’m away
There’s something out there I can’t resist I need to hide away from the pain There’s something out there I can’t resist
The sweetest song is silence That I’ve ever heard Funny how your feet In dreams never touch the earth In a wood full of princes Freedom is a kiss But the prince hides his face From dreams in the mist
These dreams go on when I close my eyes Every second of the night I live another life These dreams that sleep when it’s cold outside Every moment I’m awake the further I’m away
These dreams go on when I close my eyes Every second of the night I live another life These dreams that sleep when it’s cold outside Every moment I’m awake the further I’m away
Through the Shattered Lens 