"Series Of Dreams" is a song written and composed by American singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

. Originally recorded for his 26th album Oh Mercy

Oh Mercy

Oh Mercy is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 26th studio album, released by Columbia Records in September 1989.Produced by Daniel Lanois, it was hailed by critics as a triumph for Dylan, after a string of weaker-reviewed albums...

and produced by Daniel Lanois

Daniel Lanois

Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...

, this song was never used in the album but was later remixed and included in Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 and Bootleg Series Volume 8. A 1993 live version of the song is included in one of Dylan's "unofficial" bootleg albums The Genuine Bootleg Series Take 2. According to the booklet in Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 it was recorded on March 23, 1989. It is one of Dylan's major work in 80s and has a surrealistic lyrics which differs from Dylan's earlier surrealistic songs such as "Desolation Row

Desolation Row

"Desolation Row" is a 1965 song written and sung by Bob Dylan. It was recorded on August 4, 1965, and was released as the closing track of Dylan's sixth studio album, Highway 61 Revisited...

" and "Visions of Johanna

Visions of Johanna

"Visions of Johanna" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan on his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde. Dylan first recorded the song in New York City in November 1965, under the working title of "Freeze Out", but was dissatisfied with the results...

".

Lyrical structure

One of Dylan's most ambitious compositions, "Series of Dreams" is given a tumultuous production from Lanois. The lyrics are fairly straightforward, giving a literal description of the turmoil encountered by the narrator during a "series of dreams." However, the descriptions quickly unfold into a set of highly evocative verses.

Recording

In his autobiography Chronicles, Vol. 1, Dylan wrote about the song's recording,

"although Lanois liked the song, he liked the bridge better, wanted the whole song to be like that. I knew what he meant, but it just couldn't be done. Though I thought about it for a second, thinking that I could probably start with the bridge as the main part and use the main part as the bridge...the idea didn't amount to much and thinking about the song this way wasn't healthy. I felt like it was fine the way it was — didn't want to lose myself in thinking too much about changing it."

During a Sound Opinions interview broadcast on Chicago FM radio, Lanois told Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot that "Series of Dreams" was his pick for the opening track, but ultimately, the final decision was Dylan's. NPR's Tim Riley would echo these sentiments, writing that "'Series of Dreams' should have been the working title song to Oh Mercy, not a leftover pendant."