{"id":9986,"date":"1992-02-09T11:00:00","date_gmt":"1992-02-09T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=9986"},"modified":"2026-02-14T12:15:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:15:59","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-book-of-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/1992\/02\/09\/roll-of-the-dice-book-of-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"Book of Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

“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.” — <\/span>Bruce Springsteen, Glendale Arizona, April 30, 2005<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Regardless, both songs reveal the significance of Bruce’s second wedding day to him as both songwriter and a husband.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n