Since writing songs is something that I'm involved with in my waking hours, I guess it's not surprising to me that ideas wouldn't also arrive via dream states. I was surprised the first time that something like this happened to me.

Many years ago, I was dreaming that was playing and singing one of James Taylor's songs. I can't recall which one just now. The thing is, though I was familiar with his songs at that time, just as I am now, I had never tried to play any of his material before. Nor have I tried to play any of his music since. I awoke from the dream, remembering what it was about and was curious as to whether playing the song in my dream meant that I might also be able to do the same while awake. In a matter of moments, I was playing the song. Spooky!

Now, I don't mean to say that I could play it precisely as James does, with his characteristic finger style pickin' and vocals. I just mean that I could play the song's basic chord structure. Still, I was mystified that such a thing could happen.

Since that time, I've often heard music playing in the background of my dreams, sometimes almost like a soundtrack in a movie. Maybe this is a byproduct of watching movies while awake. Though I can sometimes remember that there was music in the background of some of my dreams, once awake, it's a challenge to recall the exact melody.

Most of the time, it's as though my brain turns off the part of my memory that works while I'm sleeping. While sleeping, I've even had dreams where I can recall that I've dreamed a similar or the exact dream before. For some reason, I seem to revisit the same dream again. So, it does seem that memory is playing a role in my dreams but maybe that dream memory is somewhat limited, perhaps purposely so, to my dream state.

Yet, I can recall certain dreams vividly after waking. Upon waking and remembering them, I've written down those at length. It makes me wonder if some dreams have a prophetic quality. That we are meant to recall them and perhaps learn something from them. I suppose that might be the subject of another thread. Sorry for the drift.

I have one song that came to me via such a vague remembrance of a melody that was playing in my dream and the accompanying lyrics. It was difficult to recall once awake but what I did remember, became the basis of a song that I wrote immediately after waking and later called, "Dream Come True", a sweet love song.