The eleventh and penultimate track of Dan Bern/Bernstein's 2001 album, New American Language. It's one of the more up-tempo tunes and perhaps the most produced and orchestrated song on an otherwise relatively spare album, so it stands out like an aural sore thumb --- in particular the wailing strings in the background. On the other hand, they managed to stick in some digiridoo, which is always cool. However, that's neither here nor there, since I can only node the lyrics and my commentary.
The song is about its narrator's response to an encounter with two very inspiring people, and I've taken it upon myself to make this writeup a shameless shout-out to some of my very favorite noders, as follows: every time the chorus reads "great teacher", it'll be pipelinked to a noder whom I consider such, for E2 or other reasons. As an added bonus, every time the chorus reads "sweet dreams", it'll be pipelinked to a node I find particularly inspiring. I only wish there were more room in its lyrics to hide more of my favorites (and I may not have been able to resist linking a few other things here and there). Enjoy.
Lyrics (reproduced here by permission):
He had just returned from Monte Carlo
He was on his way to Japan
And everything they did made me want to emulate them
Made me want to be just like them
And his wife, looking very Japanese,
Had never been to Japan
She sang Japanese songs
I tried my best to sing along
And the sky was gray and it looked like it might rain
And I decided that I was only eating rice from then on
And he spoke of places and of people that I knew very well
And I asked about them, it seemed painful for him to speak
She said maybe later, if we go to the movies you can speak
He was reading heavy books
and seemed burdened by his knowledge
she wore a thin Japanese robe
And the sky was gray
and it looked like it might rain
And I decided that
I was only eating rice from then on
Hey, sweet dreams, great teacher
Hey, great teacher, sweet dreams
Hey, sweet dreams, great teacher
Hey, great teacher, sweet dreams
I will meditate each morning at the sunrise
I will write down all of my dreams
I will travel on the backroads, I will
Keep myself open to whatever.
Every day I will learn a secret language
I will make my living in the casino
With 11 or less against a bust card
I will double down
And the sky is gray
and it looks like it might rain
And I've decided that
I'm only eating rice from now on
The sky is gray and it looks like it might rain
And I've decided that I'm only eating rice from now on.
Hey, sweet dreams, great teacher
Hey, great teacher, sweet dreams
Hey, sweet dreams, great teacher
Hey, great teacher, sweet dreams
---Dan Bern/Bernstein