ADD: So Much For Dreaming (Ian and Sylvia)

Subject: Lyr Req: So Much For Dreaming (Ian and Sylvia)
From: GUEST,Bruce MacNeill
Date: 01 Oct 08 - 07:46 PM

I was surprised to find so many threads on Ian and Sylvia here. I guess I'm not alone in remembering them. I still have some vinyl of theirs' as well as CD and tapes. Anyway, as much as I like the songs, some of the lyrics are hard to catch. Does anyone have the lyrics to "So Much for Dreaming" from the album of the same name? It was one of the last things I received from an ex-girlfriend prior to the "Dear John". I've been humming it for 40 years (seriously, I'm happily married for the past 38 of those years so it's not a big problem or anything) I just wish I knew the words. I can't find them on the internet anywhere.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Much For Dreaming (Ian and Sylvia)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Oct 08 - 01:37 AM

Hi, Bruce - It's on the Vanguard Ian & Sylvia box set. I'm on the road right now, on the other side of the country from my Cd collection. If nobody posts lyrics by next week Wed (Oct 8), send me a reminder by e-mail and I'll do a transcription for you.
It's on the So Much for Dreaming album, which is available as a Vanguard reissue.
-Joe Offer-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Much For Dreaming (Ian and Sylvia)
From: GUEST,Bruce MacNeill
Date: 04 Oct 08 - 07:50 AM

Thanks Joe. It looks like you're my best hope. I will send you a reminder.

Incidentally, I found Mudcat while searching for these lyrics and could spend the rest of my life here absorbing the knowledge. It's a great site for those of us still stuck in the early 60's and I hope it sticks around until the music comes back into style, as everything does eventually. When young folkies take their guitars to the street corners again it will be invaluable.

Great work.
Bruce

Subject: ADD: So Much For Dreaming (Ian and Sylvia)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Oct 08 - 08:02 PM

Well, here's my attempt at a transcription, by ear from the Ian & Sylvia The Complete Vanguard Studio Recordings, Disc 3. I have to say that there's a lot I don't understand. Can't say I like the song very much.
Anybody want to offer suggestions?
-Joe-

SO MUCH FOR DREAMING
(Ian Tyson)

Little girls dream of castles in the sky,
A penthouse here, and one in London by and by;
So much for dreaming, so much for dreaming.

It's all very sad, but you're wiser by now;
What words she's speaking, you gave her everything (What was she seeking?)
And when was the time you lost her and how,
Did all the giving start going unreturned?
Now you've learned.
You'll never buy her now,
You've lost her.
Ah, you'll never buy her now,
You've lost her.

Little girls dream of castles in the sky,
A penthouse here, and one in London by and by;
So much for dreaming, so much for dreaming.

What can you do? All your credit's run dry.
No time to bewitch her, you're poor with all your things. (You bore her with all your things?)
And she knows by now, you continually try
Paying the piper to make dreams come true.
It was left to you;
You'll never buy her now,
You've lost her.
Ah, you'll never buy her now,
You've lost her.

So much for dreaming, so much for dreaming.

---

Corrections from Bruce MacNeill's message below have been added in italics. I think I agree with Bruce's interpretation.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Much For Dreaming (Ian and Sylvia)
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 09 Oct 08 - 11:56 PM

Hi Joe,

I think that the best cuts I heard from Ian and Sylvia in those years, not necessarily that album were, "Wild Geese" "The French Girl""Four Strong Winds" "Short Grasses" and "Changes". Maybe "Four Rode By".

So Much For Dreaming was OK but not my favorite.

Hi Bruce welcome in, Hang around. Have fun.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Much For Dreaming (Ian and Sylvia)
From: GUEST,Bruce MacNeill
Date: 10 Oct 08 - 01:47 PM

I thought I posted this but it's not here so...

I think the second line of the first verse is:
"What was she seeking? You gave her everything."

I think the second line of the second verse is"
"No time to Bewitch her. You bore her with all your things."

I'm not sure of the third and forth lines of the second verse.

Thanks for the try Joe. And, thanks for the welcome, Don

I guess it's nobody's favorite song, not even mine, just one that's been stuck in my head since a "Dear John" in Vietnam so I was looking for the words. I even bought the CD but couldn't figure some of them out either.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Much For Dreaming (Ian and Sylvia)
From: GUEST,Jim Parker
Date: 08 Mar 13 - 01:25 PM

Little girls dream of castles in the sky.
(Little girls dream of castles in the sky.)
A penthouse here
and one in London, bye and bye.
(A penthouse here)
So much for dreaming.
So much for dreaming.

It's all very sad,
but you're wiser by now.
What was she seeking?
You gave her everything.

And when was the time
you lost her and how?
Did all the giving start going unreturned?
Now you've learned.

You'll never buy her now.
(Never buy her now)
You've lost her.
Ah, you'll never buy her now.
(Never buy her now)
You've lost her.
(You've lost her.)

Little girls dream of castles in the sky.
A penthouse here
and one in London, bye and bye.
(A penthouse here)
So much for dreaming.
So much for dreaming.

What can you do?
All your credit's run dry.
No time to bewitch her.
You're poor with all your things.
And she knows by now
(She knows by now)
You continually try
(You continually try)
Paying the piper
to make dreams come true.
It was left to you.

You'll never buy her now.
(Never buy her now)
You've lost her.
(You've lost her.)
Ah, you'll never buy her now.
(Never buy her now)
You've lost her.
(You've lost her.)

So much for dreaming.
So much for dreaming.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Much For Dreaming (Ian and Sylvia)
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Nov 13 - 08:37 PM

Maybe not my FAVORITE Ian Tyson song but a really good song, nonetheless. Hard to be favorite when it's competing with the likes of Someday Soon, Stories He'd Tell, Four Strong Winds, Calgary, Summer Wages, Alberta's Child, Adelita Rose, Mr. Spoons, Big Horns, M.C. Horses, Yellowhead to Yellowstone, Love without End, Estrangement .... The list goes on and on. Ian is one of the greatest songwriters of my generation. It's hard to argue that he is not the greatest cowboy songwriter of our time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Much For Dreaming (Ian and Sylvia)
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Sep 20 - 09:50 PM

I found my peeps here. I'm a little younger than you guys, born in 1958, but continue to return to Ian and Sylvia's songs on my iPod. My mother had several of their albums. Glen Campbell does a pretty good cover of Someday Soon.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Much For Dreaming (Ian and Sylvia)
From: GUEST,Goldie
Date: 01 Jan 23 - 04:38 AM

I can't help with 'So Much for Dreaming', but am struck by the simplicity and effectiveness of Sylvia's song 'Joshua' - however I can't make out all the lyrics, despite having listened to my LP over and over and also the one youtube clip that I've found. Does anyone happen to have all the words of this song, please?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Much For Dreaming (Ian and Sylvia)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Jan 23 - 12:54 AM

joe- update