Album: The Lost Weekend
Year: 1985
You know that picture of Mick & Keith singing from Exile on Main St? The one where Keith is holding a beer and Mick is holding a Jack Daniels while they’re both singing into the same mic?
I imagine that Steve Wynn and Dan Stuart had that picture in their head as they were singing “Song For The Dreamers,” probably the most optimistic track on The Lost Weekend.
Starting off with Stuart’s Green on Red keyboardist Chris Cacavas picking out on notes on the piano, “Song For The Dreamers” almost instantly an amiable groove enhanced by Long Ryder Stephen McCarthy’s guitar hook as Stuart sings:
Took a ride on the 505
Woke up in Fresno at Sarah’s dive
She’s got one eye and a way of talkin’ dirty that’s nice
Hey, Fresno shout-out!! Especially in 1985, a song that mentioned Fresno in a positive light was weird and welcome. Like Green on Red would have been if they’d ever played there. Anyways, almost instantly, Steve Wynn (who did play Fresno, twice!) counters with:
Old Bill lives on the hill
He’s got 25 wives and a Coupe De Ville
Likes to hang out way by the still at night
Then, together, they put together an indelible chorus:
Sing me a song for the dreamers
Sing me a song for Bobby Chacon and Al Capone
And the boyyyyyyyys
Sing me a song for the dreamers
And so it goes, as Danny & Dusty list dreamer after dreamer: Pearl S. Buck, Fidel Castro, Fred Gwynn & Jackie O. Ryan Sandberg. And the boys who includes Steve Wynn’s brother Rod as well as Dan Stuart himself.
Now one last verse about my friend Dan
He lucked in to one hundred grand
Blew it all at the MGM Grand in three hours
Now that right there is some shitty luck, but even Danny is laughing about it as they sing that chorus, and in the end Chris Cacavas is moved to play “Heart & Soul” as the song fades out.
Fan-made video for “Song For The Dreamers”