I Dreamed a Dream: The Rant
Here’s my newest annoyance: I just realized that in Neil Diamond’s version of “I Dreamed a Dream”* he changed the last line from “Now life has killed the dream I dreamed” to “But life can’t kill the dream I dreamed.” Which is NOT the same thing.
The original version is from the musical Les Mis** and written for a woman (Fantine) that’s had to give her child away to a greedy innkeeper who uses Fantine’s daughter as a slave, and has had to be a prostitute on the streets of 19th century Paris to pay for her daughter, all because a man screwed her over. That’s the short version. This song is about some serious, agonizing, end-of-your-life pain. There’s not any hope left in this woman’s life.
Not only is there not any hope in the song, there’s hardly any hope in the musical. There’s an uprising by the people, but it fails. Everyone dies except one guy, who is carried though the sewers to safety. The musical leaves a little bit of hope, as he then recovers and marries the love of his life. In the book,*** however, he recovers, marries the love of his life, and then takes her away because her adopted father isn’t a nobleman and only allows her to see him in the last minutes of his life. There is no hope in this story. Neil Diamond fucked it all up.
For the record, Susan Boyle’s version got it right.
*“Hot August Night” 1972
**Schonburg, 1980, Winner of countless Tonys and the 3rd longest running Broadway musical ever …You know what, if you don’t know what Les Mis is, you need to get your shit together.
***Les Miserables-Victor Hugo 1862
The original version is from the musical Les Mis** and written for a woman (Fantine) that’s had to give her child away to a greedy innkeeper who uses Fantine’s daughter as a slave, and has had to be a prostitute on the streets of 19th century Paris to pay for her daughter, all because a man screwed her over. That’s the short version. This song is about some serious, agonizing, end-of-your-life pain. There’s not any hope left in this woman’s life.
Not only is there not any hope in the song, there’s hardly any hope in the musical. There’s an uprising by the people, but it fails. Everyone dies except one guy, who is carried though the sewers to safety. The musical leaves a little bit of hope, as he then recovers and marries the love of his life. In the book,*** however, he recovers, marries the love of his life, and then takes her away because her adopted father isn’t a nobleman and only allows her to see him in the last minutes of his life. There is no hope in this story. Neil Diamond fucked it all up.
For the record, Susan Boyle’s version got it right.
*“Hot August Night” 1972
**Schonburg, 1980, Winner of countless Tonys and the 3rd longest running Broadway musical ever …You know what, if you don’t know what Les Mis is, you need to get your shit together.
***Les Miserables-Victor Hugo 1862