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"Only a Dream" tells the story of someone who is having trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality. Worse, he seems unsure which of these realms he'd rather inhabit. Struggling with relationship problems apparently of his own doing, he at first seems relieved to discover that a series of unfortunate events – such as being swallowed by a spiral staircase and being spit out in the woods – is only a dream. Our narrator attempts to repent for trading his lover's trust for lust, but is ultimately left alone. This would seem to be a bad thing, but instead it just "confirms his fears" that "it's only a dream." So we're left at the end of this Mobius strip of a song not really knowing what's real and what isn't and why he's so disappointed to find out that his being left alone was only a dream. In other words, just another journey into the mind of Mike Gordon.

"Only a Dream" appears on the Party Time bonus CD that came with the Joy box set, though Phish has yet to perform the song live. "Only a Dream" is however a fixture in the repertoire of Mike's “other” band; check out 9/30/09 Pittsburgh (where the song was interrupted by set break and resumed in the second set), 12/11/11 Albany (released officially as The Egg), or 3/29/14 Plymouth, NH (“you will stay in your seats, or else!”) for representative examples.

Watch Only a Dream on YouTube Mike Gordon, “Only a Dream” – 3/6/14, Asheville, NC

(Gordon)
© Who Is She? Music, Inc. (BMI_

Last night laying in bed
I woke up from something you said
You spoke to me in a foreign tongue
It wasn't your voice so I started to run

A spiral staircase swallowed me
And spit me out in the woods by a tree
I felt the bark for a passage out
I froze in panic 'til I figured it out

It's only a dream
It's only a dream
It's not what it seems
It's only a dream

You faded up from black and pushed me aside
I was blocking your view of a circular sky
I could tell by your hand shaking in fear
That my worries were real; the devil was near

Back in real life I had shaken your trust
The devil enticed me to trade it for lust
You walked the high wire on the light of a beam
You screamed and I realized the devil was me

It's only a dream
It's only a dream
And I can change the scene
It's only a dream

It's only a dream
And it's lucid

It's only a dream
It's a lucid dream

Up the beam I follow your shout
An egg cracked open and the sun came out
I spoke my remorse for all I had done
You aimed at my eyes and shot me the sun
You faded out and I was all alone
In a train station laying on a bench of stone
I heard the train coming but it never appeared
'Til it fell from the sky, confirming my fear

That it's only a dream
It's only a dream
It's not what it seems
It's only a dream
It's only a dream
It's only a dream
In orange and green
It's only a dream