dreamcatcher

(Shoes Thrown Out Of The Bridge)

Words & Music: Thads Bentulan
(Tempo: 110 bpm; Key: Am)
(make separate lyrics only, with no chords)

17:454 or 17:455 each verse

Intro Verse 1: (Time: 00:04:364)
Am Am Am G
Dm Dm Dm C
F F F G
Em Em Em G
Intro Verse 2: (Time: 00:21:818)
Am Am Am G
Dm Dm Dm C
F F F G
Em Em Em G

Verse 1: (Time: 00:39:273)

Am Am Am G
In the evening of New Year
Dm Dm Dm C
With the shoes, I’d surprise her
F F F G
Pretending to taste her rhum cake
Em Em Em G
She didn’t come out, said she had guests

Verse 2: (Time: 00:56:727)

Am Am Am G
I raced to the bridge upon the city’s edge
Dm Dm Dm C
Spreadeagled on top of the bridge
F F F G
And in the still chaos on the edge of darkness
Em Em Em G
I finally saw the vision of my madness

Chorus 1: (Time: 01:14:182)

Am Am
Shoes thrown out of the bridge
F F
In my anger and rage
G G
At night, when nobody could see
Am Am
I heard them, splash to the sea
Chorus 2: (Time: 01:31:636)
Am Am
Shoes thrown out of the bridge
F F
Like us, those shoes, were not meant to be
G G
Not for her Birthday, Christmas, or New Year
Am Am
Cause each time, she said, things that hurt me

Verse 3: (Guitar Solo) (Time: 01:49:091)

Am Am Am G
xxx peak of the bridge xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dm Dm Dm C
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
F F F G
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Em Em Em G
xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx

Verse 4: (Time: 02:06:545)

Am Am Am G
She made two promises, for Christmas Eve
Dm Dm Dm C
She called at midnight, I could hardly believe
F F F G
What’s the unkept, second promise?
Em Em Em G
Yes, you’re right, it’s her heavenly kiss

Chorus 3: (Time: 02:24:000)

Am Am
Was it merely, for her, a promise delivered?
F F
Or was it finally, for her, a feeling expressed?
G G
While she was sleeping with the guy, she only met that Saturday
Am Am
I was flailing in the wind, of her infidelity
Chorus 4: (Time: 02:41:455)
Am Am
Shoes thrown out of the bridge
F F
With her actions and words, she broke my heart
G G
She said she would never engage
Am Am
She spoke the truth, that’s why it hurt

Verse 5: (Time: 02:58:909)

Am Am Am G
“I’ll make it up to you, I swear”
Dm Dm Dm C
She always says that, I doubt, she’s sincere
F F F G
I’d clasp her hand, while driving
Em Em Em G
She’d kiss my cheek, to stop arguing

Verse 6 : (Guitar Solo) (Time: 03:16:364)

Am Am Am G
She said, “Don’t care anymore, if you judge my past.”
Dm Dm Dm C
“I’m not ashamed, of my history list.”
F F F G
“If you can’t handle me, at my worst,”
Em Em Em G
“You certainly don’t deserve, me at my best.”

Chorus 5: (Time: 03:33:818)

Am Am
Along the shore, watching seagulls fly
F F
Reciting lines from, Catcher in the Rye
G G
Swimming at the beach, oh, was she a beauty
Am Am
She was like Venus, coming out of the sea
Chorus 6: (Time: 03:51:273)
Am Am
Shoes thrown out of the bridge
F F
Slapping each other was, liberating
G G
She’s unready, unable, unwilling
Am Am
She has tasted everything forbidden

Chorus 7: (acoustic) (Time: 04:08:727)

Am Am
Shoes thrown out of the bridge
F F
Lost forever? Or can be retrieved?
G G
Maybe we’re soulmates, yet undestined
Am Am
Have you found, your Paradise, the one in your song?

Chorus 8: (acoustic) (Time: 04:25:182)

Am Am
Right now, by chance, I’m thinking of you
F F
And what it was like, softly touching your tattoo
G G
But, if by chance, you’re listening out there
Am Am
I miss the girl, the Dreamcatcher

Chorus 9: Instrumental (Time: 04:43:636)

Am Am

F F

G G

Am Am
Chorus 10: (Time: 05:01:091)
Am Am

F F

G G

Am Am

Chorus 11: (Time: 05:18:545)

Am Am
What if they didn’t cancel, my trip to London
F F
What if there was no earthquake, or super typhoon
G G
Do you believe, in “blessing in disguise?”
Am Am
‘Cause I have gazed, into your pretty brown eyes?

Chorus 12: Instrumental (Time: )

Am Am
And, if by chance, you’re hearing this tune,
F F
Don’t you ever think, this is your song
G G
You have no right, to call this your own
Am Am
Remember, you said, “Please leave me alone.”

Chorus 11: Drum Solo (only one verse) (Time: )

Am Am
F F
G G
Am Am

Chorus 12: (Time: ???? )

Am Am
And if you hear me singing this song
F F
Come up onstage, plant me, your promised kiss
G G
Girl, make this song, come true tonight
Am Am
Let’s make wild love, in the moonlight
Am Am Am – Am – Am –
Extro Verse 1: (???Time: 05:46:909)
F F
If you hear me singing this song
Am Am
Rescue me, I’m out of tune
F F
If you hear me singing this song
Am Am
Let’s make wild love, under the moon

Extro Verse 2: (Time: ??? 06:04:364)

F F
If you hear me singing tonight
Am Am
Girl, make this song, come true tonight
F F
If you hear me singing tonight
Am Am
Let’s make wild love, in the moonlight
Am Am Am – Am – Am –

Extro Verse 3: (Time:???? 06:32:727)

F F
If you hear me tonight, singing
Am Am
Rescue me, from the using and the faking
F F
If you hear me tonight, singing
Am Am
Rescue me, from the lying and the cheating

Extro Verse 4: (Time: ????? 06:50:182)

F F
If you hear me singing this song
Am Am
Rescue me, I’m out of tune
F F
If you hear me singing tonight
Am Am
Girl, make this song come true tonight
Am Am Am - - -
Extro Verse 5: (Time:???? 06:32:727)
F F
If you hear me screaming your name
Am Am
Rescue me from this nightmarish dream
F F
If you hear me screaming your name
Am Am
Let’s make wild love, within my dream

Extro Verse 6: (Time: ????? 06:50:182)

F F
If you xxxx
Am Am
Rescue xxx
F F
Am Am
Am Am Am - - -

Extro Verse 7: (Time: ?? 06:50:182)

F F
If you hear me singing this song
Am Am
Let’s make wild love, under the moon
F F
If you hear me singing tonight
Am Am
Let’s make wild love, in the moonlight

Extro Verse 8: (Time: ??? 06:50:182)

F F
If you hear me singing this song
Am Am
Let’s make wild love, under the moon
F F
If you hear me singing tonight
Am Am
Let’s make wild love, in the moonlight
Am Am Am - - -

Extro Verse 9
(Piano Instrumental)
(Time: ????? 07:18:545)
Am Am
F F
G G
Am Am

Extro Verse 10
(Piano Instrumental)
(Time: ????07:36:000)
Am Am
F F
G G
Am Am

Extro Verse 11
(Piano Instrumental)
(Time: ????07:36:000)
Am Am
F F
G G
Am Am

Extro Verse 12
(Piano Instrumental)
(Time: ????07:36:000)
Am Am
F F
G G
Am Am

Extro Verse 13
(Piano Instrumental)
(Time: ????07:36:000)
Am Am
F F
G G
Am Am

Extro Verse 14
(Drums and Piano Instrumental)
(Time: ????07:36:000)
Am Am
F F
G G
Am Am

(Time: ?????07:53:455)
Dm7 F/G A A
I love the illusion, and its falsity
Dm7 F/G A A
I hate the truth, and its reality
A A
(Time: ??????????)
--- the end ----
 He thought the shoes would seal their fate
She refused the bait; she knew it’s a mistake
xxxx
Not because she told a lie
but because she told the truth
xxx
Shoes thrown out of the bridge
when I least expected her.
xxxx
Not a feeling expressed
She’s just keeping a promise, not expressing a feeling
\ Am Am
Was she just delivering, on the promises she made?
F F
Or were they real feelings, that she finally expressed?

Was it merely for her, a promise delivered?

or was it finally for her, a feeling expressed?

Was it merely, a promise she was keeping

Or was it finally, a feeling she was expressing?

Was that a promise delivered? Or a feeling expressed? Was that a merely a promise delivered or was that
finally, a feeling expressed?
It was a promise she was keeping, not expressing a feeling
It was a promise kept, not a feeling expressed
she had to invest in emotional equity
emotional investment
im not even your type
I could never understand her,
she just disappears xxx
xxx xxx
xxx
ice cream feeding xxx
hamster care
bluetooth pairing
Despite the truth of reality, he chose the falsehood of illusion.
xxx
you know you’re unwanted
I think she’s shallow, that what she assumes
She thinks I am low, that what I assume

I assume, she’s shallow

She assumes, Im very low.

She always keeps her promises

Excep those times when she doesn’t keep them

yout text im sorry

asking me if im busy

There’s an aura, around her

Sometimes, she’d just disappear
 xxxxx
This was the last section of this song to be written. Why? Just hang on and you shall see.
Verse 2 is about the realization of an exercise in futility.
Despite being in the early part of this song, this juncture is not the beginning, rather it is the peak of frustration.
Thus, this is a fast forward scene. It is when the guy finally realizes the uselessness and the futility of it all: that
this relationship wasn’t going to start and wasn’t going forward.
The imagery of shoes being thrown out of the bridge, and that bridge is located on the edge of the city, is
connected to another Springsteen song.
The first verse of Springsteen’s Darkness of the Edge of Town goes like this:
Well if she wants to see me
You can tell her that I'm easily found
Tell her there's a spot out 'neath Abram's Bridge
And tell her there's a darkness on the edge of town
Notice the following images: a bridge located on the edge of the city, a place where the guy goes frequently, and
if the girl needs to find him, she knows exactly where he would be.
Here in Verse 2, it is very clear that Darkness provided the inspiration for this “bridge on the edge of the city”
scenario.
This sense of the height of disconnect, and the sense of going nowhere, is represented by the peak of the bridge.
Either way, it can only go downhill from the peak.
Given the spectacular view of the city from the peak of the bridge, it is ironic that such as a great vantage point to
the most beautiful sight of the city at night, is also the same vantage point of the peak of frustration, disconnect, and
aimlessness of the never-born relationship.
Yet, at that particular moment, the juxtaposition of the highest and most beautiful vista of the city, and the
highest and most frustrating realization of the futility, causes the guy to think only of one thing to do that seemed
right that night: throw the damn shoes out of the bridge - as a symbol of being fed up with everything, a realization
that all these is an exercise in futility.
Why the peak of the bridge? It is the peak of both happiness or sadness, depending on what you see or what you
feel, while standing there.
Why the sea? It is the peak of ambiguity: whether what you throw in there will be lost forever sinking to the
bottom, or being carried far away by the current, or, whether, by some stroke of luck, by some tiny hint of hope, by
some improbable fate, the shoes, will be retrieved.
This the the culmination of his consolidated experiences of frustation.
Maybe some Deus Ex Machina could be introduced to retrieve the shoes and by extension to redeem the doomed
relationship. A hint of this intervention of fate is found in Chorus 11.
By the way, as a song writer, try to capture these images into 4 lines of 8 syllables each.
Now, you see why I can’t write lyrics, and hate writing so.
As you sing Verse 2, try to imagine the ideas that supposedly should have been captured by these four lines yet
not included because of the limitations of a song structure.

xSo far we have seen to guy to be innocent yet longing for a wild love xxx

ends in longing, missing, wanting, to experience what he was just imaging would happen.
somehow the girl is fixated somwhere else with someone, leaving the guy in a state of flux, vortex of ambiguity,
equilibrium of hope and hopelessness, investment in emotion, equity has seen no return or reward… the brownie
points.. etc..
The peak of the bridge irony of the juxtaposition

The city’s most beautiful vantage

Is on the peak of the bridge
Height of disconnect
Peak of frustration
most beautiful vantage of the city
most frustrating realization of futility
unfulfilled destiny

the slapping and the

rejection
sense of going nowhere

m
xxxxxx

I ran like mad, the evening star is my witness

Standing eagle-spread on the top of the bridge
And in the chaos of the still darkness
I saw, finally, the vision of my madness

I ran merging into the darkness

Climbed the top of the bridge
With the evening star as my witness
Finally, I saw the vision of my madness

I ran to the peak of the bridge

In the darkness, I ran to the city’s edge

I ran to the edge of the town

Where there’s a bridge to be found

I raced to the peak of the bridge

Found at the city’s edge
And in the center of the darkness
The vision was clear with the stars as my witness

In the darkness, I raced to the bridge

On its peak by the city’s edge
the most beautiful vista of the city
yet I feel so down and lonely
raced to the
no saxophone
Am Am
Was she merely delivering on the promise she made
F F
Or were they her real feelings expressed
G G
While she slept with the guy she met only that day
Am Am
I was surfing on her ambiguity

Am Am
Was it merely a promised delivered, or feelings expressed
F F
xxxx

Am Am
Shoes thrown out of the bridge
F F
Slapping each other was, liberating
G G
She’s unready, unable, unwilling
She did not invest, in emotion equity
Am Am
We’re an exercise in, futility
??? She had tasted all that’s forbidden

she had tasted everything forbidden

so
 Dreamcatcher
(Shoes Thrown Out of the Bridge)
The Story Behind The Song
Picture this. Halfway through a three-hour Bruce
Springsteen concert, for his next song, he comes up to
the microphone and shouts: “And, if by chance,
you’re listening out there, this is for you,
Dreamcatcher!”
And then he goes for the piano, and plays the
haunting piano and guitar intro verse of
Dreamcatcher.
And when you get through to the song, you’d
realize that the story of this song, Dreamcatcher, is
reminiscent of the story of Springsteen’s Bobby Jean.
This is no coincidence. I have long wanted to write
a song about the loss of a friend similar to Bobby Jean.
Bruce Springsteen’s Bobby Jean is the inspiration for
my song Dreamcatcher.
In fact, the extro verses of Dreamcatcher evokes
images similar to the last verses of Bobby Jean.
While the intellectual inspiration - meaning the
storyline of the song - has been there for years, I
waited for the moment, when I would go into the
appropriate songwriting mood and draw from
different experiences to put an emotional anchor to
the song.
And when, the mood finally set in, I wrote 95% of
the lyrics of this song in just one Sunday, although
the remaining 5% took several months to finalize.
This long, drawn-out, interminable process is what I
hate about lyric writing.
Anyway, when I was writing Dreamcatcher, in my
mind, I intended this song to be some kind of a rock
anthem, designed to be performed live, by no other
than a young 25-year old Bruce Springsteen, calling
out to one member of the audience, “And if you hear
me singing this song; Come up onstage, plant me
your promised kiss!”
99% Fiction, 1% Truth
This song is one of the fastest that I completed.
When I say completed, I mean, a song with lyrics.
As you know, being an amateur, it takes me years
to write down the exact lyrics for music I have
composed. Let’s move on.
Thads Bentulan, my most favorite songwriter,
once said: “If you have to be truthful in a song, you
would have to lie.”
Song writing is 99% fiction and 1% truth, but it is
the idea, event, or emotion behind the tiny 1% that
drives the whole story. That percentage is an
exaggeration but I am driving home a point.
The challenge for the songwriter is to conjure up
the fictional 99% into a very realistic, credible story as
if the entire experience actually happened to the
singer. That’s why, if you have to be truthful in a
song, you would have to lie.
The lyrics for this song came easily because it lacks
the grandeur and ambition of my other compositions.
Look at the ambitious concepts of my songs in
Final Dirge (Sea and Sky),
Silent Screams (The Suicide Song),
Free Angels (The Anti-Child Trafficking Song), or
Leaving (The Overseas Migrant Worker’s Song).
The subtitles of these songs alone signify the
difficulty of coming up with the complex imagery in
the lyrics to reflect the grandiose ambitions of the
songs. No surprise it had taken years just come up
with those lyrics.
On the other hand, with this song, there are no
grand ideas to put into six-syllable lines. All I had to
do was to conjure up images based on single-concept
ideas.
To add realism to any fiction, the author typically
introduces mannerisms, idiosyncrasies, and day-to-
day details to make the images and stories seem real.
Embellish the fiction to make it sound like the truth.
So much truth is in the song? The answer is:
Artistic license. It contains as much truth and as
much fiction as the artist desires. But again
remember, songwriting is 99% fiction and 1% truth.
Since I was not bound by grandiloquence, and also
not bound by historical truths, it was fairly easy to
create the scenarios to express the single-concept ideas
expressed in each verse.
Furthermore, unlike my other songs, since there
are no complex imageries here, is is very easy to
explain each verse.
However, as with any song, the realism has to be
credible so that any person singing this song, would
identify with the emotions and the situations called
for in it.
Fundamental Theorem
The fundamental theorem of this song is captured
in the stanzas of Chorus 7 and Chorus 8. But where’s
the fun in jumping there right away? Don’t be a
killjoy.
Essentially, this song is about soulmates, yet
undestined. Their relationship is doomed forever yet
there is the hope of redemption. The girl has gone off
to her Paradise, and the guy is longing for her. And
the guy uses this song as an instrument of connection.
That somehow upon hearing this song, she would
realize she has the power of redemption: she has the
power to make this song come true tonight.
Device
In physics, forces have carrier particles. For
example, the photon is the carrier of light. In the
same manner, many song writers focus on very
romantic things as carriers of emotions for the lovers
in a song. Usually it’s a ring, or a necklace, or a
bracelet.
But if it will just be another ring song, or necklace
song, how will my song offer a unique selling
proposition?
Thus, to differentiate this song from others, I use
the shoes as metaphor for the force carrier between
the lovers in the song.
Of course, the challenge is how to make it
interesting. Can a pair of shoes really capture the
imagination of the audience as a symbol of the success
or failure of the relationship between the lovers?
How is failure in relationship represented by a pair
of shoes?
In the song, I need to be creative because that is
the price of the path I have chosen. And so, the
manner I have chosen to represent a failing
relationship is by the scenario of the shoes being
thrown out of the bridge. Are they lost forever or can
they be retrieved? Is the relationship doomed?
Don’t you ever forget that for any relationship to
succeed, both partners should be ready, willing, and
able to commit to their special brand of
companionship.
If one of them is unready, unwilling, and unable,
then the relationship is doomed to failure.
Legends
By the way, I think it would soon become obvious
that each stanza of this song is inspired by concepts
from different songs from different musical legends.
For example, after much thinking and thinking
and thinking, I decided to design Verse 1 and Verse 2
after Bruce Springsteen’s Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
and Darkness of the Edge of Town.
Another example is Chorus 6. This was inspired by
Dr. No, a James Bond movie, and a painting by
Botticelli called Birth of Venus.
As a consequence, I wrote lyrics that are inspired
by the imagery of these songs, and other songs that
came to mind.
This means, that there are many songs that
inspired me in coming up with those verses that I may
not have acknowledged in this background story.
In a manner of speaking, you can say that my
stanzas are not original because they were patterned
after legendary songs; however, at the same time,
exact words being used are mine, so that makes the
lyrics original.
But are the lyrics true? Is the song true? Of course,
I get that question often.
But allow me to put this in some perspective.
 First, I admitted that each stanza is inspired by one
or more legendary songs. Second, I admitted that the
imagery of these legendary songs are the basis for my
song’s lyrics. Third, since the lyrics of my songs are
based on the imagery of a legendary song, and since
that legendary song is not related to my personal
experience, then, as a consequence, my lyrics wouldn’t
be true. Fiction begets fiction.
So now, you’re asking me if the lyrics of the song
are true? But if you are expecting the lyrics to be true
despite being based on fiction, then I think it could
be possible, but the person capable of conjuring up
that magic would have to be a genius.
He would have to be a genius alright, to conjure
up the truth out of a process of creativity based on
fiction. Someday, I would love to meet a genius like
that. I would really love to. And for just one moment,
I would love to be him. Trust me, I would love to be
him.
Anyway, lets’s move on.
Throughout this entire process of explaining the
story behind the song, you would hear a recurring
theme: I complain every so often that I hate lyrics
writing.
Why?
Wait a minute, you’re asking me why? Well, this
entire process of explaining this song, is exactly the
reason why. There are so many conflicting ideas, so
much inspiration, too many images in my mind that I
could not fit into mere syllables. And then the process
of changing imagery you had already decided on
earlier is burdensome.
Why would I change an imagery in Verse 1 when
I’m already working on Chorus 11? Because you
want the imagery to form a complete story. And
imagery are changed every time there’s a change in
another. Here we have a flashback, there we have a
flash forward, here we have a Dylan imagery, there we
have a Springsteen imagery.
It’s all so frustrating! I love writing songs but I hate
writing lyrics.
Anyway, let’s go over the song verse by verse.
Verse 1
In the evening of New Year
With the shoes, I’d surprise her
Pretending to taste her rhum cake
She didn’t come out, said she had guests

Verse 1 sets up a very inauspicious time and the

failure to connect. This is probably the only song
talking about the evening of New Year.
Well, you probably heard a thousand songs talking
about New Year’s Eve being one of the most
celebrated times of the year.
But a song set in the evening of the New Year
itself? The evening of New Year is probably the most
uneventful night of the calendar. This makes this song
already a tad different from other songs.
So on the most uneventful night of the year, the
guy in the song wants to surprise the girl with a pair
of shoes as a New Year’s gift. Again, it could have
been a ring, or a necklace, or a hamster, but then it
wouldn’t have been an unusual carrier of emotions as
we set out to design.
Under the pretense of wanting to taste any food
that she had prepared for New Year, he asks her to
come out give him some food to taste. He doesn’t tell
her of his surprise.
This is concept of asking the girl to come out is
reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen’s song Rosalita
(Come Out Tonight). In that song, Rosie comes out to
celebrate their love.
But in this song, the girl doesn’t come out. Why?
Is she tired? Is she hosting some friends? We don’t
know. Here, the surprise fizzles out. The frustration is
running extremely high.
And thus ends Verse 1.
Verse 2 do that seemed right that night: throw the damn
I raced to the bridge upon the city’s edge shoes out of the bridge - as a symbol of being fed up
Spreadeagled on top of the bridge with everything, a realization that all these is an
And in the still chaos on the edge of darkness exercise in futility.
I finally saw the vision of my madness Why the peak of the bridge? It is the peak of both
happiness or sadness, depending on what you see or
This was the last section of this song to be written. what you feel, while standing there.
Why? Just hang on and you shall see. Why the sea? It is the peak of ambiguity: whether
Verse 2 is about the realization of an exercise in what you throw in there will be lost forever sinking to
futility. the bottom, or being carried far away by the current,
Despite being in the early part of this song, this or, whether, by some stroke of luck, by some tiny hint
juncture is not the beginning, rather it is the peak of of hope, by some improbable fate, the shoes, will be
frustration. retrieved.
Thus, this is a fast forward scene. It is when the This the the culmination of his consolidated
guy finally realizes the uselessness and the futility of it experiences of frustation.
all: that this relationship wasn’t going to start and Maybe some Deus Ex Machina could be
wasn’t going forward. introduced to retrieve the shoes and by extension to
The imagery of shoes being thrown out of the redeem the doomed relationship. A hint of this
bridge, and that bridge is located on the edge of the intervention of fate is found in Chorus 11.
city, is connected to another Springsteen song. By the way, as a song writer, try to capture these
The first verse (????) of Springsteen’s Darkness of images into 4 lines of 8 syllables each.
the Edge of Town goes like this: Now, you see why I can’t write lyrics, and hate
Well if she wants to see me writing so.
You can tell her that I'm easily found As you sing Verse 2, try to imagine the ideas that
Tell her there's a spot out 'neath Abram's Bridge supposedly should have been captured by these four
And tell her there's a darkness on the edge of town lines yet not included because of the limitations of a
Notice the following images: a bridge located on song structure.
the edge of the city, a place where the guy goes
frequently, and if the girl needs to find him, she
knows exactly where he would be.
Here in Verse 2, it is very clear that Darkness
provided the inspiration for this “bridge on the edge
of the city” scenario.
This sense of the height of disconnect, and the
sense of going nowhere, is represented by the peak of
the bridge. Either way, it can only go downhill from
the peak.
Given the spectacular view of the city from the
peak of the bridge, it is ironic that such as a great
vantage point to the most beautiful sight of the city at
night, is also the same vantage point of the peak of
frustration, disconnect, and aimlessness of the never-
born relationship.
Yet, at that particular moment, the juxtaposition
of the highest and most beautiful vista of the city, and
the highest and most frustrating realization of the
futility, causes the guy to think only of one thing to
Chorus 1
Shoes thrown out of the bridge
In my anger and rage
At night, when nobody could see
I heard them, splash to the sea

This stanza for Chorus 1 is a syncopated stacatto

of frustration and hopelessness, of giving up and
going away.
The sound of the splash as the shoes touched the
sea represents the last sigh of futility. This imagery
captures the anger and rage that fills him as he loses
touch with what is valuable and what is redeemable.
He is blinded by frustration and forgets the
material value of the thing that he throws away.
He is focused on the symbolism of letting go. In
his frustation, he has let go. He has no qualms about
losing the shoes and the relationship it represents.
As we shall see in Chorus 5, the throwing is
liberating.
Chorus 2
Shoes thrown out of the bridge
Like us, those shoes, were not meant to be
Not for her Birthday, Christmas, or New Year
Cause each time, she said things that hurt me

While Verse 2 is the end of the story being the

culmination of frustration, and while Chorus 1, is the
symbolim of finally letting go, Verse 4 is a flash back.
Here we realize just how much frustration has been
accumulated. Here we find out that the shoes were a
gift originally intended for her birthday, but
somehow, things got bad between them in the
meantime. So the guy tried to move it as a Christmas
gift, but then the same volatile situation prevents it
from being given. And finally, we are brought back to
the night of New Year, which as we have seen in
Verse 1 was failure, too.
Can you imagine trying to give the gift on three
major occasions throughout the year and all of them
resulting in extreme emotional failures? There’s the
birthday, Christmas Day, and eventually New Year’s
Day. There were no heart connections.
Thus, finally, we have established the
accumulation of frustration over time which resulted
in the culmination of exasperation.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This stanza reinforces the failure of the shoes to be

given as a gift, as a symbolism that the guy and the
girl are not meant to be: again that sense of futility,
hopelessness, and frustration.
While the birthday, Christmas and New Year are
mentioned here, the significance of these images shall
be explained only at a later verse. But we do know is
that it was not given on the birthday of the girl, nor
on Christmas, nor on New Year.
Can you imagine all these attempts to give the
shoes to the girl, on these three major occasions, yet
unsuccessful? How could a simple activity such as
giving a gift could not be consummated on these
major occasions?
Is this another harbinger that the relationship itself
would be stillborn?
Verse 3
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ddddddddd
xxxxxxxxxxx
thafdkkkjkasfd
ddddddddd
xxxxxxxxxxx
thafdkkkjkasfd
ddddddddd
xxxxxxxxxxx
thafdkkkjkasfd
ddddddddd
xxxxxxxxxxx
thafdkkkjkasfd
ddddddddd
xxxxxxxxxxx
thafdkkkjkasfd
Verse 4 And can you deny him his extreme expectation
She made two promises, for Christmas Eve that given the first promise, he is justified in feverishly
She called at midnight, I could hardly believe anticipating the second promise?
What’s the unkept, second promise? Which gives rise to more ambivalence and more
Yes, you’re right, it’s her heavenly kiss ambiguity. Does she care? Or is she a player? Will he
ever get that heavenly kiss? Chorus 11 will tackle on
Repeating the concept of ambivalence and this issue once again.
ambiguity, this stanza tells of the girl making two Will she ever deliver on this promise? Does she
promises on the day before Christmas. love him or is she just extending goodwill? Does she
The girl’s first promise is to call at around need him or is she just feeling guilt?
midnight of Christmas eve. Thus, you have seen the Dylanesque imagery of
She actually does make that midnight call, and this this stanza.
makes the guy very happy.
But the question remains, does she do it because
she cares, or does she do it merely for goodwill?
The theme of this stanza came to me via Bob
Dylan’s Is Your Love in Vain with the opening line,
“Do you love me,
or are you just extending goodwill?
Do you need me half as bad as you say,
or are you just feeling guilt?”
In making that call, which is supposed to be very
special because it was done at midnight of Christmas
Eve, is the girl expressing her feelings, or is she just
delivering on a promise?
Is it a feeling expressed or is it merely a promise
kept?
The poor guy is so hungry for attention and
acceptance that even a simple phone call sends him to
celebrate.
But then, this stanza mentions of a second
promise.
While the first promise, which has been kept, is an
innocent phone call, the second promise, still unkept,
is a romantic kiss.
Here we immediately recognize that the two
promises are coming from different levels. What kind
of a relationship is it, when a promise of a kiss is
already part of the equation?
While we question the guy’s presumptuous
celebration of a mere phone call, when the second
promise is finally revealed, we realize that the guy is
ecstatic, not just because of the simple phone call,
rather, he is ecstatic because of the fact that she has
kept her first promise.
Chorus 3
Was it merely, for her, a promise delivered?
Or was it finally, for her, a feeling expressed?
While she was sleeping with the guy, she only met that
Saturday
I was flailing in the wind, of her ambiguity

The girl meets a new guy on a Saturday, and just

like that she has gone unreachable. The girl disappears
for a weekend of passion and sex with practically a
stranger, while the guy is wondering why she has
disappeared from the world, leaving him flailing in
the wind of her ambiguity.
dddddddddddd
xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
dddddddddddd
xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Chorus 4
Shoes thrown out of the bridge
With her actions and words, she broke my heart
She said, she would never engage
She spoke the truth, that’s why it hurt

dddddddddddd
xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
dddddddddddd
xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
dddddddddddd
xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
dddddddddddd
xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
dddddddddddd
xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Verse 5
She said, “I’ll make it up to you, I swear”
She always says that, I doubt she’s sincere
I’d clasp her hand while driving
She’d kiss my cheek to stop arguing

ddddd
dddddd
dddddd
xxxxxx
xxxxxx
Verse 6
She said, “Don’t care anymore, if you judge my past.
“I’m not ashamed of my history list.”
“If you can’t handle me at my worst,”
“You certainly don’t deserve me at my best.”

asdfaskjklasdfas
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Chorus 5
Shoes thrown out of the bridge
Slapping each other was, liberating
She’s unready, unable, unwilling
She has tasted everything forbidden

Chorus 5 is about the emotional equity and

investments required from the partners in any
relationship.
xxx xxxx xxxx x
xxx xxxx xxx xxx xxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xx
xxxx xx
As I writing this stanza, the imagery that came to
my mind was Jackson Browne’s In The Shape of a
Heart.
xxx
xxx
Not only by words, but also by her actions, the guy
is hurt and crushed to extreme pain.
xxx
ready willing and able.. she is the opposite. For this
relationship. she is unready, she is unable and she is
unwilling.
xxxx
she’s a woman with a lot of experience.. she has
tasted everything forbidden.. that is, sex drugs and
alcohol xxxx …
Chorus 6
Along the shore watching seagulls fly
Reciting lines from Catcher in the Rye
Swimming at the beach, oh, was she a beauty
She was like Venus coming out of the sea
doomed? Has the girl gone to the paradise she dreams
about whenever she’s asleep?
And thus, this stanza ushers in the next section of
the song.

The theme of this stanza is another flashback. A

flashback is an instrument used to emphasize a
current loss.
Therefore, this stanza is a harbinger of something
lost or something gone. This is the indication that the
relationship is lost, or the girl is gone from his life.
Anyway, in this flashback, we have different
scenes. There’s one scene where the guy and the girl,
probably with friends as well, going to a quay or the
shore, and watching seagulls diving into the sea for
food.
There’s another scene when they were talking
about J. D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye.
The second and third lines of this stanza is a beach
scene inspired by two historical scenes.
There’s that beach scene, patterned after the
Ursula Andress “coming out of the sea” scene in the
first ever James Bond movie Dr. No.
The second inspiration has reference to Botticelli’s
larger-than-life painting The Birth of Venus.
I read somewhere that the Ursula Andress scene
was inspired by Botticelli’s painting.
By the way, as you might have noticed one more
time, the ideas or concepts behind each verse or
chorus contain complex imageries which cannot be
captured by the syllables that were finally used in the
song.
This flashback of scenes establishes some kind
companionship between the guy and the girl.
What is the nature of this companionship?
So far, it involves going to the waterfront watching
seagulls, going to the beach together, promising a kiss,
talking about books, clasping hands, and spoon-
feeding with ice cream.
Yet, at the same time she hurts him, she ignores
him, and she says she would never engage.
Again, these images reinforce the vagueness and
ambiguity that permeates throughout this song.
Since this flashback is intended to emphasize a
loss. What is that loss all about? Is the relationship
Chorus 7 anxiety, the tension, and the frustration of unfulfilled
Shoes thrown out of the bridge destinies pervade this stanza.
Lost forever? Or can be retrieved? The fourth line is somewhat a departure for the
Maybe we’re soulmates, yet undestined first three lines of this stanza but somehow it’s role is
Have you found your Paradise, the one in your song? to provide us a glimpse of where the missing girl has
gone.
Both choruses 7 and 8 are the two most powerful “Have you found, your Paradise, the one in your
sections of this song. song?”
The purely acoustic accompaniment at this
juncture, (acoustic guitar and piano) provides a Paradise by Cold Play. So you think the song
respite and contrast to the previous stanzas. It also paradise has no connection to this song? the best rock
serves as an alternative to a bridge that would have single of the UK in 2011.
been put here. XX Chris Martin tells Billboard mag, paradise is
Yet, paradoxically, the intentionally subdued inspired by Bruce and Bob dylan .. Just like this
accompaniment in this stanza operates as the most song…
powerful amplifier to its message.
Perhaps no other verse or chorus in this song Come and think about it. Altogether, the four
carries the pure essence of this entire song than this lines in this stanza actually comprise the entire story
stanza. The four lines in this stanza captures the of this extremely long and extremely frustrating failed
perfect rhyme and rhythm of the fundamental love song.
theorem of this song. The girl is unready, unwilling, and unable to
The first line of this stanza repeats the resounding commit herself to the relationship and she slips off to
frustration symbolized by “shoes thrown out of the a Paradise of her own making.
bridge.” The frustation of why the relationship could
not be started at all.
The second line reveals the ambuigity, the
ambivalence, and the dichotomy of the situation.
When the guys asks “Lost forever? Or can be
retrieved?” we can see that he is expressing his
sentiment of simultaneous hope and hopelessness.
“Lost forever?” Refers to the irrevocable,
irredeemable, irretrievable, loss of friendship and love.
“Or can be retrieved?” Refers to the sense of eternal
hope, of redemption, of resurrection of lost feelings,
emotions, and relationships.
The third line is, “Maybe we’re soulmates, yet
undestined.” There’s another ambiguity. Are these two
lovers fated for each other? Are they destined for each
other? Are they soulmates?
Soulmates are supposed to find each other, but in
this case, are they soulmates undestined for each
other?
In other songs, soulmates are most likely to come
out better together. But in this song, there’s that sense
of an overhang.
This is probably one of the rare instances where
soulmates are undestined; egregiously tragic. The
Chorus 8
Right now, by chance, I’m thinking of you
And what it was like, softly touching your tattoo
But, if by chance, you’re listening out there
I miss the girl, the Dreamcatcher
Chorus 8 stanza is one of longing and missing. It is
a shout-out to the world. It is a calling out. It is a
broadcast.
In the early drafts of this song, this current Chorus
8 was supposedly Chorus 10, and vice versa, but after
several exhausting revisions the current sequence has
been adapted; but let’s not dwell into that.
Conceptually, this entire song ends at Chorus 11.
The remaining parts of the song are what I call as
merely Extro Verses.
Anyway, remember what I said earlier about the
positions of Chorus 7 and Chorus 8?
Musically, they are at the middle of the song, and
deliberately, the musical instruments are de-
emphasized in order to emphasize the lyrics.
And as I have told you, the lyrics of the song will
be amplified with this musical de-emphasis, and
therefore, I will have to place the most powerful and
the most meaningful lyrics in this section.
As I was practicing singing the lyrics, over and over
again to get the feel and impact, I realized that the
stanza containing the title word was very powerful.
And that’s why I had to rearrange the stanzas once
again.
And yes, indeed, for me, the resulting re-
arrangement is extremely powerful.
These constant and time consuming changes in the
lyrics is what I hate about song writing.
As mentioned earlier, to emphasize the importance
of Chorus 7 and Chorus 8, the musical instruments
have been de-emphasized, leaving only the strumming
of the acoustic guitar and the acoustic piano.
The last line of Chorus 7 suggests the loss of a
friend. The girl has gone to her own so-called
Paradise.
And now, Chorus 8 fully develops the theme of
loss of a friend that was started by the last line of
Chorus 7.
The first line of Chorus 8 (Right now, by chance,
I’m thinking of you) immediately brings to fore the
idea that the girl has been lost for a long period of
time.
Again, it need not be a physical loss, thousands of
miles away. It could just be an emotional loss as
suggested by the concept of the girl finding her own
Paradise where she can hide her demons and
imagined dragons inside.
Does the guy think about her every minute of the
day since she slipped away? We don’t know. But what
we do know is that at this very moment, he is
thinking about her.
Is this really, merely by chance, that he is thinking
about her at this instant?
Or, is he thinking about her all the time, but he’s
just to embarrassed to accept it, that he telegraphs his
defensive posture by a false declaration that this was
merely by chance that he is thinking about her at this
very juncture?
Moving on, in the second line of this stanza (And
what it was like, softly touching your tattoo), we have
this particular scene: the guy is in a trance.
In his trance, he is living again the tender
moments he had with the girl, symbolized by
reminiscing and recalling his feelings and emotions
during those tender moments when he was softly
touching her tattoo, a long time ago.
The tattoo symbolizes the streak of rebelliousness
in the girl. This grants us a glimpse into the girl. She
is rebellious, a rule-breaker, hard-headed, confused,
with hurricanes and storms inside her mind, angelic
face but with innermost demons, sampling whatever
is forbidden, and sometimes disappears for days
without notifying the world.
Bobby Jean
The third line (But, if by chance, you’re listening out
there) should be taken together with Bobby Jean by
Bruce Springsteen.
I mentioned earlier that when you get through to
this song, you’d realize that the story of this song,
Dreamcatcher, is reminiscent of the story of
Springsteen’s Bobby Jean.
This is no coincidence. I have long wanted to write
a song about the loss of a friend similar to Bobby Jean.
Bruce Springsteen’s Bobby Jean is the thematic
inspiration for my song Dreamcatcher.
Let us quote from the song Bobby Jean:
 Maybe you'll be out there on that road somewhere
In some bus or train traveling along
In some motel room there'll be a radio playing
And you'll hear me sing this song
Well if you do you'll know I'm thinking of you and
all the miles in between
And I'm just calling one last time not to change your
mind
But just to say I miss you baby, good luck goodbye,
Bobby Jean
Motel room
Notice the lines from Bobby Jean that goes,
In some motel room there'll be a radio playing
And you'll hear me sing this song
This is the sense of longing and reaching out that I
wanted to evoke in Chorus 8.
In Bobby Jean, I’ve always liked that image of the
girl in some motel room, with the radio playing and
she hears a song about her. And that, if she does hear
the song, she should be reminded that the guy is
thinking of her, with all the miles in between.
And while he may not be able to change her mind,
he just wanted to communicate to her, through the
song, that he badly misses her and the few tender
moments they had together.
Loss and longing
That motel room scene in Bobby Jean is what I had
in mind when I wrote the last two lines of Chorus 8.
However, due to the limitations of four lines per
stanza, I removed the word “motel” and simply wrote
them as:
But, if by chance, you’re listening out there
I miss the girl, the Dreamcatcher
The last line is a confession of longing and loss: I
miss the girl.
The girl is gone. She has gone to her Paradise. She
is no longer within his reach. She left him. She has
abandoned their companionship.
It has to be emphasized that the girl need not have
gone to a physically far away area. She could just be
there physically within reach yet emotionally beyond
the ambit of the guy’s aspirations and emotions.
Dreamcatcher
The original work-in-progress title of this song is
Shoes Thrown Out of the Bridge.
And, accordingly, it is the most repeated phrase in
the song. However, as a title, the phrase is too long,
and then it lacks the sense of drama and enigma of a
mystery word.
I did not force the issue of finalizing the title early
on because I knew I had all the time in world to
contemplate on the title while I was ironing out the
details of the lyrics that I knew was to take months
anyway (and that’s already a very fast lyric writing
process for me).
Then, in a matter of weeks, the final title
materialized naturally: Dreamcatcher (Shoes Thrown
Out of the Bridge).
But what’s natural about Dreamcatcher as a title
when it has not been established before as a
consequence of natural evolution from the phrase
Shoes Thrown Out of the Bridge, and furthermore,
throughout the song, there’s had been no laying of the
predicate regarding the term Dreamcatcher?
It is only in the last line of Chorus 8, that the title
of this song, Dreamcatcher, is mentioned. It’s not even
revealed, who or what, Dreamcatcher is..
The phrase Dreamcatcher is not even repeated
anywhere else. The title of the song is only mentioned
once, and only once. It is not even mentioned in the
chorus, as is the standard guideline in songwriting,
The placement of the title in this line is very
subtle. The central theme of the entire song is
deliberately hidden in the innermost and the outskirts
of the song.
What is a dreamcatcher? According to Wikipedia,
dreamcatchers originated with the Ojibwe people in
America. They have an ancient legend about the
origin of the dreamcatcher.
Storytellers speak of the Spider Woman, known as
Asibikaashi; she took care of the children and the
people on the land.
Eventually, it became difficult for Asibikaashi to
reach all the children. So the mothers would weave
magical webs for the children, using willow hoops and
sinew, or cordage made from plants.
The dreamcatchers would filter out all bad dreams
and only allow good thoughts to enter our mind.
Once the sun rises, all bad dreams just disappear.
 Stephen King wrote a novel which was turned into How are these scenes and images tied up into one
a movie titled Dreamcatcher. single cohesive theme? Is there a unifying theme to
this collage of imagery?
I miss the girl
During Sinulog Festival 2014, I saw some street
entrepreneurs, and noticed some cute contraptions
and they told me it was a dreamcatcher. I bought one
which later on I gave away to a friend.
Anyway, based on this line, I miss the girl, the
Dreamcatcher, we can infer that the girl is somehow
related to the the device dreamcatcher. Remember,
that a dreamcatcher is a contraption, not a name of a
person.
Yet somehow, the only viable interpretation of the
song is that the girl is somehow referred to as
Dreamcatcher.
Why is she called the Dreamcatcher? We have no
indication why. There are no precursor images in the
entire song that mentions anything about the girl and
the dreamcatcher. It could be her nickname.
Remember the song Aubrey by Bread? A not so
very ordinary girl or name, yet we don’t know who’s
to blame for her name.
I have already mentioned that two most powerful
stanzas in this song are Chorus 7 and Chorus 8 which
together capture the fundamental theorem of this
song.
What is the fundamental theorem of this song?
This song is about soulmates, yet undestined.
Their relationship is doomed forever yet there is the
hope of redemption. The girl has gone off to her
Paradise, and the guy is longing for her. And the guy
uses this song as an instrument of connection. That
somehow upon hearing this song, she would realize
she has the power of redemption: she has the power to
make this song come true tonight.
Anyway, this very powerful stanza contains the
following imagery for the audience to meditate on:
Lost girl probably living in her own paradise;
tender trance-like moments such as touching the
tattoo engraved on the girl’s soft skin; the longing for
the elusive girl who was playing with his emotions; of
the guy missing the girl, and calling out to her
through a motel room radio; and the image of a
dreamcatcher contraption.
Chorus 9
What if they didn’t cancel my trip to London
What if there was no earthquake or super typhoon
Do you believe in “blessing in disguise”
‘Cause I have gazed into your pretty brown eyes?

Have you seen the movie Serendipity? This is the

theme of Chorus 9.
This stanza is the story of where it all started. This
is the role of this particular stanza: to chronicle the
origins of this friendship.
Think about your newest friend. Can you think of
the series of coincidences that led to your friendship?
Once you realize how serendipitous your friendship
meeting came to be, you will realize how valuable that
friendship is.
In the song, major identifiable events such as a
powerful earthquake, and a super typhoon, are used as
historical backdrop to the serendipitous meeting
between the guy and the girl.
We rarely use the term serendipity. Instead, we use
the phrase blessing in disguise. Our society believes in
the idea of a “blessing in disguise” to the point that
sometimes are own negligence and lack of foresight
are tolerated because they could be blessings in
disguise.
In the stanza, cancelled trips and natural disasters
are fateful blessings in disguise. And the culmination
of these series of coincidences that led to their
meeting is symbolized by Cause I have gazed, into your
pretty brown eyes.
Chronologically, this is where it all started. A series
of coincidences that led the guy to gaze into her
brown eyes for the first time. And from there, they
weave their story of ambiguity, ambivalence,
friendship and hatred that led to the throwing of the
shoes.
Learn to treasure your friendships because they are
blessings in disguise.
Chorus 10 So the guy says, you have no ownership and
And if by chance, you’re hearing this tune, entitlement privileges: “You have no right, to call this
Don’t you ever think this is your song your own.”
You have no right to call this your own Another reinforcement, at this juncture, of the
Remember, you said, “Please leave me alone.” sense of distance and separation between the guy and
the girl, is the opening line of chorus 10, And if by
First, this stanza is supposed to be the anti-thesis of chance, you hear this tune. And the influence of the
Elton John’s Your Song. song Bobby Jean is still here.
And you can tell everybody She is lost and gone; he is longing for her. Yet,
This is your song somehow, it’s her loss that she isn’t entitled any
xxx emotional ownership of the song.
But then, “Like I care,” she might say.
Unlike in Your Song, xxxx Don’t you ever think this
is your song.
xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxx

And so it’s no coincidence that Carly Simon’s

You’re So Vain, is the lyrical inspiration of this chorus
10:
“You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about
you.
You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about
you, don’t you, don’t you, don’t you.”
Yes, this stanza has to be created because I wanted
to insert this Carly Simon ditty into this rock anthem.
So how do I incorporate the idea of “you probably
think this song is about you?”
Then, in a flash, I saw it. I saw the scene. I saw the
girl not wanting to be bothered.
And that’s why, the theme of this stanza, is the
direct, blunt, sharp and painful rejection of the guy,
by the girl: “Please leave me alone.”
This statement stuns the guy into absolute silence
for several seconds. Probably, the girl said, “Why is it
suddenly silent here?”
And this was already concretized in the last line of
Chorus 3: She spoke the truth, that’s why it hurt.
With this very hurtful statement and a bleeding
heart, the guy realizes that “with no investment in
emotion,” she didn’t deserve his loving attention.
This is already stated in the last line of Chorus 5.
This stanza is also about investment and return. It
is about ownership and entitlement. If one does not
put in the emotional equity, one should not expect an
emotional return.
Chorus 11
And if you hear me singing this song
Come up onstage, plant me your promised kiss
Girl, make this song come true tonight
Let’s make wild love in the moonlight
Don’t forget that this song was, from inception,
designed for a live performance on stage.
Therefore, it is logical to find that many of the
phrases in the lyrics have something to do with if you
hear me singing this song repetitions, and come up
onstage invitations, which are common during live
performances.
The inspiration for this come up onstage scene is
Springsteen’s music video of Dancing in the Dark
where he pointed at a girl in the audience and invited
her to come up onstage and dance with him. That
actress was young Courteney Cox who later became
famous as Monica in the TV series Friends.
Recall that on Chorus 8, the singer is pleading for
her to come back:
But, if by chance, you’re listening out there
I miss the girl, the Dreamcatcher
Then in Chorus 10, the guy is hoping that the girl
is again listening:
And if by chance, you’re hearing this tune,
Don’t you ever think, this is your song
This stanza, Chorus 11, is, conceptually, the end
of this song. The setting is a concert stage. The singer
is hollering at the top of his voice imploring his
missing friend to come onstage:
And if you hear me singing this song
Come up onstage, plant me a kiss
In the previous instances, the guy broadcasts his
longing via the radio in some motel room, or bus, or
car.
But this time, he carries his longing to the live
audience in the concert. He is hoping, that she’s not a
thousand miles away in some cruise ship or hotel, or
that she’s not tucked away in bed in some Paradise in
her dreams.
He is praying that she’s actually out there in the
audience as he performs live onstage this rock anthem
dedicated to her.
He is praying that tonight is the night of ultimate
closure. A closure that circumscribes the loose ends of
their fluctuating story into one wild passionate ending
of hope, love, and redemption.
When he shouts Come up onstage, plant me a kiss,
he is referring to the still unkept promise of a
heavenly kiss in Chorus 4.
He, is therefore, inviting her to deliver on her
promise, in public, on stage, and live in person!
Next, we find him singing in his hoarse voice,
imploring her to: Girl, make this song, come true
tonight.
Let’s pause for moment. What is meant by this?
What is in this song, and why should the girl make
this come true tonight?
Well, we know that the relationship is a complete
disaster. And this disaster is symbolized by the shoes
thrown out of the bridge. The girl is playing with his
emotions, and she abandons him.
Redemption
What part of the song should she make come true,
if ever? Well, the answer is, that part where he shouts
Girl, make this song, come true tonight.
Yes, that part. Before that phrase, there is no part
of the song that should come true because they are all
elements of disasters in a relationship.
But in this stanza, the guys says, come onstage and
plant me a kiss. Yes, that’s a part of the song that the
girl can help make come true tonight.
Therefore, it is in this part of the song, that the
guy is seeking redemption.
Are the shoes lost forever, or can be retrieved?
Here, tonight, is the chance of retrieval.
Here, and now, is the chance to keep the promises
made.
Here, live onstage is the chance of redemption.
Tonight is the night of redemption, the night of
the ultimate closure, the night of truth and reality.
Let’s make wild love in the moonlight!
And with this last line of the main body of the
song, comes the ultimate redemption.
How?
Making wild love in the moonlight is the ultimate
redemption because of the following implications:
1. The guy is able to establish a powerful heart
connection via what he broadcasted to the
world as his anthem of yearning for the girl.
 2. The girl has come out of her self-made
Paradise to come back to their on-again, off-
again relationship.
3. The girl has stopped playing him like a violin
and has developed genuine feelings for him.
4. There is no longer any uncertainty as to the
girl really loves because making love is made to
a specific person. This is not a group message
wherein you do not know the target.
5. Making love removes any ambiguity and
ambivalence as to whom the girl really offers
her love.
6. Making love in one romantic setting, is a
union of the mind, body, and spirit, therefore,
this redemption permeates different
metaphysical levels.
7. And finally, making wild love in the moonlight
means that the soulmates once undestined,
have finally turned around their chaotic
disconnect into a solid integration of fate and
destiny.
If this song becomes a reality, then it is the
ultimate redemption.
But, the big question is: What if she’s not here
tonight? What’s if she’s not in the audience? What if
she’s not within the ambit of his life anymore?
Then every night, he calls out to her: I miss the
girl. Rescue me, I’m out of tune. Come up onstage
and plant me a kiss. Girl, make this song come true
tonight.
We don’t know if she’s gone forever, but since she
is gone, for him, reality is a series of daily longing,
yearning, and emotional heart-breaking pain.
Yet, despite the truth of reality, he chooses the
falsehood of illusion. At least, illusion gives me him
the happiness that the truth doesn’t.
Wait, are you asking me if I really believe that
making love is the only way to prove one’s love?
Come on, guys, give me a break, I’m just writing a
song here. Don’t be a bad trip, okay?
Extro Stanzas
Conceptually, the song has ended in the previous
stanza. From here on, are the exit stanzas.
The extro verses carry a tune that could actually be
a nice rock anthem of its own.
So it was quite a big decision for me: Should I
carve out the tune of the extro into a separate rock
anthem of its own, or should I embed and retain it in
Dreamcatcher?
This decision has major consequences to the
eventual musical shape of Dreamcatcher.
And I would like to share with you my state of
mind as I made the decision, something which you
cannot gather from just reading the lyrics of the song.
Ever since, I have always been criticized that I
don’t know how to end a song, among others. This is
true, and since I am an amateur songwriter, I’m not
quite bothered by it. It’s just one of those skills which
I don’t have yet, and since my life doesn’t depend on
it, I just have to live with what I’ve got.
And so, I strummed four bars from the same key
of A minor, as fade away, ending extro verses of the
song.
To achieve a sense of ending, I added held chords
at the end of Chorus 11 which are allowed to decay
over three bars. This decay to silence creates a sense of
closure.
Now, I’ve always like false endings ever since I
heard the Beatles’ Strawberry Fields.
So, I decided to create a false ending for this song.
Why do I like false endings? It’s primarily because
I want to tease the listener. A false ending also
becomes a conversation piece about that song, which
enhances its status as a rock anthem.
A false ending also exemplifies the musical
equivalent of the metaphysical aspirations of hope,
redemption, and resurrection.
Anyway, going back, to the song, to resurrect the
song that has just ended in Chorus 11, at this
juncture, I introduce the four bars of my extro verse,
which I originally intended as a single extro verse of
eight bars.
In effect, this created a false ending, and at the
same time allowed an extro verse to help emphasize
that the song is about to end.
Then, something totally unexpected happened: I
actually liked the tune of the extro verse.
As I was playing it over and over again, I realized
this tune, which I created for the extro verse, could be
developed into a completely new song, with a new
lyric concept – it has the potential of being a new
good rock anthem.
I mentioned earlier, that I had to come to point
which was quite a big decision for me: Should I carve
out the tune of the extro into a separate rock anthem
of its own, or should I embed and retain it in
Dreamcatcher?
To arrive at my decision, which obviously took me
some time of contemplation, I tried to recall instances
in rock music history when such instances occurred.
After much searching in my memory, I could recall
three songs that became my guidelines on whether I
had to carved out my extro or retain it.
The first is John Mellencamp’s I Need A Lover.
The second is Jimmy Webb’s MacArthur Park. And
the third is Eric Clapton’s original version of Layla.
xxx
So I decided on a full-length extro. This meant the
extro is a long as a song itself.
Now that I have copied the false ending in
Strawberry Fields, I decided to one up the Beatles,
such that Dreamcatcher has not one, not two, but four
false endings.
Inspired by MacArthur Park and Layla, instead of
concluding the song at end of the fourth false ending,
I created a 16-bar piano and organ solo.
xxxx
xxxx
The extro verses, being extros, have to be
repetitive.
Extro Verse 1
If you hear me singing this song
Rescue me, I’m out of tune
If you hear me singing this song
Let’s make wild love, under the moon
Extro Verse 2
If you hear me singing tonight
Girl, make this song, come true tonight
 If you hear me singing tonight
Let’s make wild love, in the moonlight

Extro Verse 3
If you hear me tonight singing
Rescue me, from the using and the faking
If you hear me tonight singing
Rescue me, from the lying and the cheating

Extro Verse 4
If you hear me singing this song
Let’s make wild love, under the moon
If you hear me singing tonight
Let’s make wild love, in the moonlight

Extro Verse 5
I love the illusion, and its falsity
I hate the truth, and its reality
 Conclusion
I am frustrated lyricist and I hate writing it. Why?
Isn’t it obvious by the time?
Take Dreamcatcher as an illustration. For a mere
20 lines of lyrics, I had to spend about xxxxx pages of
trying to tell you the thinking process, the inspiration,
the decisions, and emotions that went behind those
lines.

xxx
xxx
Although there is no direct reference to it in the
lyrics, overall concept of this song is also inspired by
John Mellencamp’s Jack and Diane which is a ditty
about holding on to 16 as long as you can.
Another inspiration is the Springteen song
Backstreets, which is also about friends going away.
xxxxx
xxxx

So, in the end, does the guy get the girl?

You really don’t get it, do you? Remember what
Aeschylus said about the secret of the Greek tragedies:
“It is the desire, not the fulfillment, that creates the
excitement.”
What’s the difference between the song and
reality? I say: “As a songwriter, the song is my reality.”
Is the song truthful to reality? Thads Bentulan, my
most favorite songwriter, once said: “If you have to be
truthful in a song, you would have to lie.”
- the end -
 - xxx
xxx Just like mellencamp’s Jack and Diane which is a
ditty about holding on to 16 as long as you can xxx
xxx
sometimes she cares sometimes she ignores
xxx
the ambivalence of the girl, and the ambiguity of
the resolution xxxx is to to give hope

xx
it is the desire not the fulfillmentxxx

xxx
from the beginning the guy knows he’s being played
with, and the truth of reality; the falsehood of
illussions…

xxxx xxxxx
xxxx Rosalita, Bobby Jean, Backstreets
xxx
the longing is expressed in the last 4 choruses
xxx
sultans of swing we cant have perfection in this world and that
xxx makes life meaningless..xx
I like to tease xxx
xxx evening of new year is most uneventful (xmas eve
yes)
False endings like strawberry fields

xxxx
xxxx
xx
xxx unready, unwilling, and unable to give what I
xxx want….
x Illusions or reality”?
xSo far we have seen to guy to be innocent yet
longing for a wild love xxx

ends in longing, missing, wanting, to experience Song structure

what he was just imaging would happen. The
somehow the girl is fixated somwhere else with
someone, leaving the guy in a state of flux, vortex of xxx
ambiguity, equilibrium of hope and hopelessness, extro verse good repetitive singable tune
Record Production Design
investment in emotion, equity has seen no return or
reward… the brownie points.. etc..
xxxx
Bruce Springsteen singing this xxx

This song was composed with the view that this
will be performed before a live audience. (And there’s
no saxophone so that this song could be played by a
band of basic instruments).
Listening to a CD in your living room will not
capture the intended effect. In your living room this
song, running 8:19 minutes, will feel too long and too
repetitive.
On the other hand, before a live audience, the beat
and the repetition, are intended to encourage people
to jam and shout at the top of their lungs along with
the rock singer.
In addition, the repetitiveness of the chorus (or B
section) will be tolerable because the lyrics are not
repetitive. The story moves along every time the
chorus chords are repeated.
When you sing this song, then it is you who is
telling your version of this story. Whatever ideas the
songwriter had will be irrelevant. Have you heard of
female composers writing for a male singer, or vice-
versa?
At the moment you sing this song, this song
becomes your own.
Which part is true, which part is fiction? Single
person or a composite? Answer: Artistic license.
According to my most favorite songwriter, that’s
myself: If you want to be truthful in a song, you
would have to lie.
come on , make the song come right
make the song right
now, can you see why it’s a pain for me to write
lyrics?
Thads Bentulan, my most favorite songwriter,
once said: “If you have to be truthful in a song, you
would have to lie.”
what’s the difference between song and reality? My
asnwer is: As a songwriter, the song is my reality.
xxx
xxx
benjamin graham investing, emotional investment
Guitar Tab for the Guitar Solo Segments

Guitar Solo From Bar 49 to Bar 56 for the first solo in verse 3

Guitar Tab from Bar 89 to Bar 96 for the second solo in verse 6
Guitar solo for Bar 129 to Bar 152 from Chorus 9 to Chorus 11