Brainsong

I woke up this morning with a song in my head. I wrote it in my sleep. I’m not even a songwriter.

I was dreaming about the last episode of “Frasier,” which is odd, because I don’t even watch “Frasier.” I’ve seen it maybe five times in my life. But the show is ending this spring, and I was dreaming about the final episode. Ted Danson, Sam of “Cheers,” was the special guest star. Frasier and Sam were walking up a stairwell wearing beige trenchcoats. At the top of the stairwell, they opened a door and entered a corridor. They walked along the corridor, opened a door and walked into a room. Then they disappeared from the dream and the room became the main focus.

A group of college-age students was in the room singing a song. The final episode of “Frasier” was supposed to be a musical episode or something. I don’t think the song had words; I heard three distinct vocal parts complementing each other, as in an a cappella group. After a while, the song ended, and people clapped and wanted another song. I eagerly wanted to hear another song, but I must have been so excited that I woke up.

It was only 6:30, about an hour before I usually wake up, and I just lay there with this random song in my head. It was really just a few measures vamping over and over, and I liked it so much — it was poppish and upbeat, some combination of “Rent” and the New Radicals and Christian rock. (I’m Jewish, but I’ll sheepishly admit to liking the treacly, sugary, optimistic melodies of Christian rock songs.) I was afraid I’d forget it, so I hopped up out of bed and pulled out a sheet of paper and a pencil. I don’t have any staff paper, so I just used a regular sheet of paper and some approximation of musical notation to get the three parts down.

My brain wrote me a song in my sleep. How cool and creepy and wondrous.

Thanks, brain!

One thought on “Brainsong

  1. OK, this is getting a little freakish…we’ve got so much in common, — “it’s a phenomenon.” I NEVER admit it to many people but I really like Christian rock. I used to hid my Amy Grant (then) tapes. I still buy every one of her CDs but love those old Christian pop ones. The other day I saw a commercial for Time Life Christian pop collection and wanted to buy it so much. But I restrained myself. Looking at the enraptured audience made me a little nauseous.

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