Earlier entries of this series can be found here: http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/forums/vi ... ive#p45337
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Fly me away to the bright side of the moon/ And meet me on the other side”
81. Gary Wright – Dream Weaver
The facts:
Year: 1975.
Genre: Electronic pop.
Country: United States of America.
Album: The Dream Weaver.
Acclaimed Music ranking: #5568.
Song ranking on Acclaimed Music in the artist’s discography: 1st, the only one.
Ranks higher than Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man by The Bob Seger System, but lower than I Can’t Wait by Nu Shooz.
Place in the Acclaimed Music Song Poll 2015: Unranked.
The people:
Lyrics by Gary Wright.
Produced by Gary Wright.
Vocals by Gary Wright.
Keyboards by Gary Wright.
Drums by Jim Keltner.
The opinion:
Enter synthesizers! No, Dream Weaver is not the first song ever with synths. Far from it. Gary Wright himself, though, once claimed that parent album The Dream Weaver was the first album to be fully recorded with just synths (ignoring the contribution of the two drummers during the whole record and the appearance of a guitar on the track Power of Love). This observation is so completely off the mark that naming the title of every synths-only album that came out before The Dream Weaver would probably take up more words than this article has.
Wright did nuance his words a bit years later, claiming that it was probably the first commercially successful album to be made entirely of synths. I’m still not quite convinced, but I will go along with saying as much that The Dream Weaver must have felt as something really new back in 1975 (or 1976, when it finally became a hit). It has lost some of that power. In a cruel twist of fate, Dream Weaver sounds rather stereotypically of its time. Or, to be fair, the time a few years later.
I think it hasn’t aged particularly well, even if it isn’t really a bad album. The problem isn’t that the synths sound primitive for modern ears, but more that the way they are used are very seventies/ early eighties. The Dream Weaver song is something of a spiritual ode to the powers of dreams and this is emoted in such a way that sounds to me as overdone. Like someone is trying a little too hard to convince you that you listen to something deep and moving. It has as much to do with the lyrics and especially the singing as with the music itself. The voice Wright uses, though technically impeccable and passionate, screams “seventies melodrama” to me. How much that bothers you is probably dependent on how much tolerance you have for such a style; a style that has fallen somewhat out of favour.
Still, there is no doubt in my mind that Wright made the album he wanted to make and it’s hard to begrudge him for following his heart. It took him a long while to get there. He had been working in music since he was a kid, performing on Broadway in the musical Fanny. When he was sixteen years old he was shortly in a duo named Gary & Billy and they released a single named Working After School, a terrible piece of Everly Brothers-wannabe. A bit like Simon & Garfunkel’s early teaming as Tom & Jerry this short phase is mostly a humorous bit of trivia for Gary Wright fans.
After Gary & Billy he thought that music might not be the best career choice and focussed on school and college, but eventually returned to recording, mostly as a keyboardist. In the late sixties he became part of a band named Spooky Tooth and slowly took over the role of de facto leader of the group. Spooky Tooth became rather popular in Germany, but nowhere else, yet Wright could show off his keyboard skills that would provide him with many gigs for the coming years. Wright’s considerable talent on the instrument drew interest of many contemporary’s. He can be heard as a session musician on such songs like It Don’t Come Easy by Ringo Starr, Try Some, Buy Some by Ronnie Spector and the classic Without You by Harry Nilsson.
The most important supporting work he did however, especially when looking forward to The Dream Weaver, was with George Harrison. Wright appears as a keyboard player on every Harrison album of the seventies and quite a few of the records of subsequent decades. Wright and Harrison became close friends and the ex-Beatle introduced Wright to Buddhism. Because of this, Wright now refers to Harrison as his spiritual mentor. The two took a trip together to India and there Wright wrote the song Dream Weaver, based on what he was experiencing there.
Interesting detail: Wright wrote it initially as a guitar song. In the time that passed until the recording of the track he must have changed his mind, obviously. The song as it is has a soothing, clear sound that fits it’s dream theme. In an interview in 2015 Wright claimed that he intended for his music to have a healing power and that’s obviously what the sound is going for, even if I personally prefer my healing songs to be a bit more subtle.
There’s no denying however that it worked for many people. Dream Weaver became a hit - at least in the United States - and subsequently the album did very well too. I suspect that the novelty of its spiritual context in combination with the refreshing use of synths might have helped a lot. I’m not sure how well-known the song is nowadays, but it had some staying power, appearing in a lot films. Gary Wright recorded it for Wayne’s World in fact. The newer version sounds just a little more modern and fuller, without changing too much about what made the original a success.
Wright never really had all that much success anymore after The Dream Weaver, but that also has to do with him abandoning straight pop music. He chose a path that in hindsight seems obvious: he became a new age musician. He also played with Ringo Starr’s All Star Band and he has a touching dedication to his early band Spooky Tooth, which he revives every once in a while. I think I like him more as one of the great session musicians of the seventies than as a solo artist. What I’ve heard of Spooky Tooth is also more up my alley than The Dream Weaver (check out their awesome Better By You, Better Than Me in the playlist below). Still, we need dreamers and although Wright’s dreams don’t sound like mine I’m fine with the idea of him holding something of a torch for all the those people who know that sometimes dreams are the place where stuff really happens.
6/10
Other versions:
This is the second week in a row I write about a song that has the same title as a lot – a lot! – of new age, massaging songs. Curiously, this is a rare song that has no piano-for-baby version, even though I’d say is an obvious fit.
Most of the covers are in the new age vein, surprising absolutely no one. Most of these are dull and make you long for Wright’s vocal strengths and passion. Crowbar gave us a rather bad metal cover though and JES did an unexpectedly solid dance version. The most faithful cover is by Spitfire, but is done with terrible vocals. Avoid that one at all cost.
The playlist: