I know this has been discussed before, but I cannot find the link, and cannot find an answer to this question that always bugs me when I play Jerry Goldsmith's magnificent score to "The Omen". What inspired Carol Heather Goldsmith's lyrics for 'The Piper Dreams,' and what relevance does the song have in relation to the love theme of the film?
And the piper dreams, In rings of misty white. Knowing in his sleep Dreams only keep through the night.
As the piper dreams, Pretending to perceive, Lending dreams to those Who dare suppose They believe.
Believe in gentle ways, And silver days, And love that fills the air. A world where dreams come true, The way they do, In memories.
Lovely make-believe, That reappears somehow, When every now and then, The piper dreams again.
I truly believe this song is part-mocking, part-illusion. It gives the illusion of being a gentle love song, yet the lyrics are of the Piper.....the Devil. The song is mocking love, genuine love. Not only romantic love, but that as well.....but love itself. Dreams also, which are *anchors* for humans. What are we, if not our dreams & what we care about. The song tells us how the Devil tries to interfere with this, while we slumber...& while we are awake. And the more Christian the person, the harder he will try.
Yeah, I also don't think it's tied to anything particular in the film's plot. I always got a "nepo vibe" from the song, i.e. a chance to have Goldsmith's wife involved in the production, even if the relevance of the lyrics was low. But that's just speculation on my part.
By the way, funny you linked to Zooba's wacky video in that first post, dogplant.
Always sounded a bit free-associating to me, finding rhymes without making much sense.
For example a piper dreaming just doesn't connect to anything - he's not piping in the dream (though, maybe he's a plumber not a musician - but still not piping in that sense either).
And this one always struck me as false:
A world where dreams come true, The way they do, In memories.
Umm, in my experience of memories and memoirs, dreams don't come true in memories.
It's just a bunch of words that rhyme and scan with the notes of the song.
That said, I've always found it a pleasant listen. But then I came upon it when I was fifteen, and was more tolerant of lazy writing. Still, I can be found singing with the lyrics from time to time.
I truly believe this song is part-mocking, part-illusion. It gives the illusion of being a gentle love song, yet the lyrics are of the Piper.....the Devil. The song is mocking love, genuine love. Not only romantic love, but that as well.....but love itself. Dreams also, which are *anchors* for humans. What are we, if not our dreams & what we care about. The song tells us how the Devil tries to interfere with this, while we slumber...& while we are awake. And the more Christian the person, the harder he will try.
Interesting interpretation, Fiat. Thanks for logging in to offer your poetic ideas. I tend to agree with you, the sweet nonsense of the lyrics and the gorgeous romantic melody have a vaguely sinister feel due to their context. My guess is that the Piper is Old Scratch. And I believe mythology has used the piper as a symbolic figure of Death – a common medieval trope, it says here, including the Dance of Death, Totentanz, Danse Macabre, and the Pied Piper of Hamelin:
I was also interested to see the video you posted, Michael, about how improvisational the approach was to capturing the song. From Jerry's interview, it sounds like he let Carol have free reign to be creative in her lyrics, and thus as others mentioned here the meaning is a bit nebulous. Maybe it became a private joke between them, as we can see from Jerry's Oscar acceptance speech? It will be interesting to see what Jeff digs up about this in his upcoming book.
