“This is a song about wedding days. (I say ‘days’ plural, unfortunately.) But you know, it’s a funny day. It’s a day when everything counts ten times more.” — Bruce Springsteen, Glendale Arizona, April 30, 2005
It’s more accurate to say that “Book of Dreams” is a song about wedding eves than wedding days, but that’s a nit not worth picking with the songwriter.
What’s more interesting to me is the presence of both “If I Should Fall Behind” and “Book of Dreams” on the same album. The two songs are so very close in style, content and sentiment that one can almost imagine them as an exchange of wedding vows, the former from her to him, the latter from him to her.
Or perhaps they’re both from the groom-to-be. “If I Should Fall Behind” sounds like it takes place a few days before the wedding; “Book of Dreams” is mere hours away.
Regardless, both songs reveal the significance of Bruce’s second wedding day to him as both songwriter and a husband.
Rewind to the aftermath of Bruce’s first wedding, and we find songs like “Walk Like a Man” and “The Wish,” where Bruce’s focus is on his parents, as if he chose to settle down at least in part for their approval.
We also find “The Honeymooners,” very similar in structure to “Book of Dreams,” but with a narrator who sees marriage as at least a lark and at best a fairy tale.
In “Book of Dreams,” however, recorded mere months if not weeks after Bruce’s second and final wedding day, the narrator fully feels the weight of what’s taking place around him. One can almost imagine that it’s the same groom from “The Honeymooners,” a bit older and a lot wiser.
“Book of Dreams” chronicles the lead-up to the singer’s wedding. Most of the “action” takes place the night before, as the groom steps out from his rehearsal dinner for a few moments of quiet reflection.
I’m standing in the backyard listening to the party inside
Tonight I’m drinking in the forgiveness this life provides
The scars we carry remain but the pain slips away it seems
Oh won’t you baby be in my book of dreams
That’s a remarkable opening verse–in fact, it’s the high point of the entire song, and that is unusual in and of itself. Most of Bruce’s songs impart a lesson over the course of their arc, but in “Book of Dreams,” Bruce lays it all out at the beginning.
And that’s the point of “Book of Dreams,” and of second weddings in general: their very occurrence signifies the wisdom and life lessons learned through hard experience. That’s why the first verse sounds like a last verse: it’s actually the end of a story, not the beginning.
Bruce’s new story begins in verse number two, and it begins very similarly to “The Honeymooners,” with the observations of a key player who sounds instead like a detached observer. But that detachment doesn’t last long.
I’m watching you through the window with your girlfriends from back home
You’re showing off your dress, there’s laughter and a toast
From your daddy to the prettiest bride he’s ever seen
Oh won’t you baby be in my book of dreams
In the darkness my fingers slip across your skin, I feel your sweet reply
The room fades away and suddenly I’m way up high
Yeah just holding you to me as through the window the moonlight streams
Oh won’t you baby be in my book of dreams
That third verse is important. Taking place after the guests have gone home and the lovers retire to the bedroom, the singer is no longer an observer. He is both physically and emotionally connected to his bride-to-be, and the fact that he suddenly loses his vivid powers of observation that characterized the song up until this point is very, very significant. The groom is all in, Bruce is telling us, and his journey from here on out takes us places the eye can’t see.
In the final verse, the wedding day has arrived, and Bruce fully recognizes its power and mystery. As he previously wrote in “Brilliant Disguise” and would someday warn in “Secret Garden,” he knows there are parts of themselves that they’ll never truly share or see, but that’s part of what makes their pact so significant. He embraces it rather than fears it.
The penultimate lines of the song are a callback to “If I Should Fall Behind” (if you can call it a callback when the preceding song is on the flip side of the same album), further cementing the notion that both songs are about the same characters:
Now the ritual begins and ‘neath the wedding garland we meet as strangers
Well the dance floor is alive with beauty, mystery and danger
We dance out ‘neath the stars’ ancient light into the darkening trees
Oh won’t you baby be in my book of dreams
“Book of Dreams” is a deceptively simple song. Very little happens, but so much is said. Overlooked and underplayed, it’s a hallmark of the newly mature songwriter introduced to us on Tunnel of Love, cemented on Lucky Town, and who’s been with us ever since.
“Book of Dreams” is intimate and delicate; perhaps that’s why Bruce has only performed it a mere eight times in the more-than-a-quarter-century since its release. The bulk of those were during the original tour for Human Touch and Lucky Town, the remainder from Bruce’s solo acoustic tour in 2005, which afforded the opportunity for quiet, introspective material.
Fortunately, a few of those rare performances were captured on video, beginning with the song’s very first performance at a homecoming show in 1992. Bruce performs “Book of Dreams” in an arrangement very close to the album, but with the lovely addition of backing vocalists during the outro.
During Bruce’s MTV Unplugged appearance later that year, Bruce performed “Book of Dreams” but dropped it from the broadcast, the album and the video release. You can watch it here, though:
But my favorite performance is this one from 2005. It was the first time Bruce played “Book of Dreams” in almost thirteen years, and when performed solo, on piano, and in a small theater, the intimacy of the song shines through.
Book of Dreams
Recorded: Late 1991
Released: Lucky Town (1992)
First performed: August 2, 1992 (East Rutherford, NJ)
Last performed: June 13, 2005 (Munich, Germany)
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