Joe's Dream (song)

"Sunday Love"
"****Joe's Dream****"
"If I Knew"

"**Joe's Dream**" (originally called as "**Don’t Say Goodbye**") is a song performed by Bat For Lashes. It serves as the second track on Bat For Lashes' fourth album, *The Bride*. The song was released on June 7, 2016 as the third official single from the album.

## Background

Khan wrote the song titles first, decided what order they would run on the album and then created the words and music. This song was supposed to be called “Don’t Say Goodbye”.

On June 9, 2016, Natasha shared a snippet of the song in an Instagram post. On June 7, 2016, Bat For Lashes shared the official audio on her YouTube account, later saving it as unlisted. On June 25 of the same year Natasha presented the track at her show in Glastonbury prior to the album's release

On September 1, 2016, she surprisingly published the music video for the song on YouTube.

## Music and composition

The song is preceded by “I Do”, where the bride accepts the proposal of marriage. “Joe’s Dream” changes the album’s mood and adds a chapter in its narrative about a bride whose fiancé-to-be dies on his way to the church.

Natasha revealed to *BBC Radio 4* that the song is about Joe, the groom, telling the bride about a foreboding dream he had the night before their marriage. He feared that something bad was going to happen.

> “It’s where her lover comes to her the night before they were to be married. He explains that he had this terrible foreboding dream or message that something bad was gonna happen.”
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## Critical reception

The Rolling Stones opined:

> “Joe’s Dream” appears on Bat for Lashes’ upcoming concept album, *The Bride*, which tells the story of a woman whose fiancé is killed in a car accident en route to their wedding. In “Joe’s Dream,” singer Natasha Khan, as the bride-to-be, recounts her fiancé’s eerie premonition over a brooding guitar and steady kick drum.
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> The production incorporates haunting, reverb-soaked choral voices and percussion shuffles. Kahn’s vocal captures calm in the face of fear: “There was lightning in his black leather,” she sings. “And it struck out his name/ No more tears, baby, please don’t cry/ I tried to tell him everything is fine.”
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DIY Mag opined:

> “The song finds Khan trying to bury horrors through love. “He saw angels at his bedroom door / And a body on a checkered floor,” she sings, on top of Twin Peaks-ready basslines and sweeping choral coos. Every declaration of love is mirrored with fear, the “don’t say goodbye” line repeated until any remaining hope is shattered into pieces. It’s another gloomy chapter in Khan’s deep-rooted new story.”
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## Lyrics

There's a tear in my lover's eyes

He's at my window, it's a gloomy night

Said he dreamt of God's search light

It remembered his name

Lifts his hand gently to my face

Through the promise of wedding lace

And I feel his dark embrace

As my baby, he cries

I'm falling in love

(Don't say goodbye)

I'm falling like a star from above

(Don't say goodbye)

And I finally found my pot of gold

(Don't say goodbye)

And now I can see just what my heart can hold

But what does it mean?

The bad things that I've seen

He saw angels at his bedroom door

And a body on a chequered floor

There was lightning in his black leather

And it struck out his name

No more tears, baby, please don't cry

I tried to tell him everything is fine

Cross my heart and hope to die

I won't say goodbye

Cause I'm falling in love

(Don't say goodbye)

I'm falling like a star from above

(Don't say goodbye)

And I finally found my pot of gold

(Don't say goodbye)

And now I can see just what my heart can hold

But what does it mean?

The bad things that I've seen

Oh, what does it mean?

The bad things that I've seen

What does it mean?

The bad things that I've seen

## Official versions

* Album version — 05:25
* Livestream at Home. Los Angeles, 2021 (album) — 04:46

## Credits

**Personnel**

* Natasha Khan — songwriting, production, vocals, rhodes, electric guitar, tambourine, drum programming
* Jacknife Lee — production, synths, samples, programming
* David Baron — synths, programming
* Alex Reeves — timpani

**Technical**

* Recorded at Ohayo Mountain, Woodstock, NYC & Tapanga Canyon, Los Angeles

## References

1. ↑ INTERVIEW: Bat For Lsahes on the art of storytelling
2. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BGcGHxpxP2N/
3. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BHJigELjrxT/
4. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BHJj9N5DCV1/
5. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BHLJPbMDaiL/
6. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ0UaD-gzJG/
7. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ0VvMYARYE/
8. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p040m8f6
9. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07hwmc7
10. ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/hear-bat-for-lashes-foreboding-ballad-joes-dream-39264/
11. ↑ https://diymag.com/2016/06/08/bat-for-lashes-joes-dream-track-review