Rush is considered a gifted musician and performer whose shows offer a musical celebration. His distinctive guitar style, wry humor and warm, expressive voice have made him both a legend and a lure to audiences around the world. His shows are filled with the rib-aching laughter of terrific story-telling, the sweet melancholy of ballads and the passion of gritty blues.
Rush's impact on the American music scene has been profound. He helped shape the folk revival in the '60s and the renaissance of the '80s and '90s, his music having left its stamp on generations of artists. James Taylor told Rolling Stone, "Tom was not only one of my early heroes, but also one of my main influences." Country music star Garth Brooks has credited Rush with being one of his top five musical influences. Rush has long championed emerging artists. His early recordings introduced the world to the work of Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and James Taylor, and in more recent years his Club 47 concerts have brought artists such as Nanci Griffith and Shawn Colvin to wider audiences when they were just beginning to build their own reputations.
Rush began his musical career in the early '60s playing the Boston-area clubs while a Harvard student. The Club 47 was the flagship of the coffee house fleet, and he was soon holding down a weekly spot there, learning from the legendary artists who came to play, honing his skills and growing into his talent. He had released two albums by the time he graduated.
Rush displayed then, as he does today, an uncanny knack for finding wonderful songs, and writing his own - many of which have become classics re-interpreted by new generations. (It is testimony to the universality of his appeal that his songs have been folk hits, country hits, heavy metal and rap hits.) Signed by Elektra in 1965, Rush made three albums for them, culminating in The Circle Game, which, according to Rolling Stone, ushered in the singer/songwriter era.
In the early '70s, folk turned to folk-rock, and Rush, ever adaptable, saw more room to stretch out. Recording now for Columbia, he toured tirelessly with a five man band, playing concerts across the country. Endless promotional tours, interviews, television appearances, and recording sessions added up to five very successful but exhausting years, after which Tom decided to take a break and "recharge" his creative side at his New Hampshire farm.
Rush returned with a splash in 1981, selling out Boston's prestigious Symphony Hall in advance. Time off had not only rekindled Rush's love of music, it had re-ignited music audiences' love of Rush's music.
He instinctively knew that his listeners were interested in both the old and the new, and set out to create a musical forum - like the Club 47 of the early '60s - to allow established artists and newcomers to share the same stage. In 1982, he tried it out at Symphony Hall. The show was such a hit it became an annual event, growing to fill two, then three nights, and the Club 47 series was born. Crafting concerts that combined well known artists such as Bonnie Raitt or Emmylou Harris with (then) unknowns like Alison Krauss or Mark O' Connor, Rush took the show on the road. From the '80s to the present day, Club 47 events have filled the nation's finest halls to rave reviews, and have been broadcast as national specials on PBS and NPR.
In 1999, Columbia/Legacy released a Tom Rush retrospective album that covered his recorded musical history from 1962 to the present, including tracks recorded for Columbia, Elektra, Prestige and his independent years. Entitled "The Very Best of Tom Rush: No Regrets", the 17-track compilation includes as a bonus a brand new Tom Rush composition, "River Song," which features vocal contributions from Grammy winners Shawn Colvin and Marc Cohn.
A live CD, "Trolling for Owls" released in 2003 and published by Tom's NIGHTLIGHT RECORDINGS, captures a complete performance and includes, for the first time, some of the spoken stories that have endeared him to audiences.
In 2018, at age 79, he released the album "Voices".
The Dreamer
Tom Rush Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
On a ragged gypsy journey
The snow lies on the mountain
Like a cloak upon a king
My dreams go tumbling with the dust
Out across the valley
Blow above the river
And life's a sparrow lost at sea
In dark of night with far to go
Dreams are ships that sailed away
We are only cargo
Only cargo
Now the sea has always sung to me
But I have never never headed
I am born a farmer raised the same
Married to the land
But sometimes I will lie at night
While she is softly sleeping
An' far away I hear the song
The sea sings to the sand
For life's a sparrow lost at sea
In dark of night with far to go
Dreams are ships that sailed away
We are only cargo
Only cargo
Only cargo
Adam's prize was open eyes
His sentence was to see
So day by day he's worn awake
Against reality
So gypsies dream of being king
Kings of being free
A sailor longs to till the land
The farmer sets to sea
And the sea will love the land all night
Like a woman loves her lover
The wind will race along the beach
And make the sea cliffs ring
And I will start to wake and dream again
The dream I dreamed forever
The ships I'll never sail
The songs I'll never sing
Sweet life's a sparrow lost at sea
In dark of night with far to go
Dreams are ships that sailed away
The dreamer's only cargo
Only cargo
Only cargo
Tom Rush's song "The Dreamer" speaks of the restlessness in a person's soul which forces them to venture beyond their familiar surroundings in pursuit of their dreams. The moon, a symbol of journeying, is likened to a gypsy in the first verse, as it sails across a stormy sky. The snow on the mountain is compared to the cloak of a king. The dreams of the singer in the song are said to be blowing across the valley over the river and the sea, conveying the restlessness that fills the singer.
The second verse speaks of how life is like a sparrow lost at sea with far to go. The dreams of a person are likened to ships that have sailed away. The idea that people are only cargo within these ships is emphasized. The singer says that they have always been a farmer who is drawn to the sea at night; they hear the song that the sea sings to the sand. This speaks of the pull that dreams have on a person's heart even when they have a settled life.
In the final verse, the singer acknowledges that people often long for what is beyond their reach. Referencing biblical Adam, who was cursed with open eyes and sentenced to see everything, the singer draws attention to how people often pursue their dreams even when the reality of their lives may not be aligned with those dreams. The song ends with a melancholic tonality, emphasizing the fact that the human spirit never ceases to yearn for adventure.
Line by Line Meaning
The moon she rides the tattered storm
The moon is seen traversing a storm that threatens to break it apart
On a ragged gypsy journey
The journey is taken by the moon like a gypsy who does not have a permanent place to settle
The snow lies on the mountain
The mountain is covered with snow like a blanket
Like a cloak upon a king
The snow looks like a cloak which has been draped upon the mountain like a king in his attire
My dreams go tumbling with the dust
My dreams scatter uncontrollably in the wind like dust
Out across the valley
My dreams spread far and wide across the valley
Blow above the river
My dreams are carried away by the wind, hovering over the river
Blow above the sea
My dreams linger above the sea, driven away by the wind
And life's a sparrow lost at sea
Life is stranded and helpless like a sparrow that has lost its direction at sea
In dark of night with far to go
In darkness, with a long way to go, life moves ahead without truly knowing the destination
Dreams are ships that sailed away
Dreams are like ships that move away from the shore and seem to disappear from sight
We are only cargo
People are nothing but the things that are transported on these ships
Now the sea has always sung to me
The sea has a hypnotic effect on me, and I have always been drawn to it
But I have never never headed
I have never set out to the sea before
I am born a farmer raised the same
I am a farmer by birth and have lived my life as one
Married to the land
My attachment to the land is like a marriage bond
But sometimes I will lie at night
But at times, when I am lying at night
While she is softly sleeping
When my sleeping partner lies calmly next to me
An' far away I hear the song
I seem to hear a melodious song from far away
The sea sings to the sand
The sea croons its song to the shore
Adam's prize was open eyes
Adam was rewarded with knowledge and wisdom for his curiosity
His sentence was to see
His punishment was that he could never unsee or unknow what he had learned and would forever be aware and exposed to reality
So day by day he's worn awake
Adam was compelled to stay awake day by day, missing out on the joy of slumber
Against reality
He had to deal with the starkness and often harshness of the truth
So gypsies dream of being king
In the same way that the moon takes on a gypsy persona in the initial lines, gypsies dream of becoming potentates
Kings of being free
To be free is the most prized possession for the gypsies, even more so than being a king
A sailor longs to till the land
A seafarer often longs to work on the land
The farmer sets to sea
A farmer may have a desire to experience life on the sea
And the sea will love the land all night
The land and sea share a unique and mutual affection in the night
Like a woman loves her lover
Their attachment is passionate and devoted in a manner that mirrors a lover's romantic connection
The wind will race along the beach
The wind will speed past while hugging the shoreline
And make the sea cliffs ring
Its howl will reverberate through the cliffs like an anthem
And I will start to wake and dream again
I will begin to have aspirations and reflect on my dreams once more
The dream I dreamed forever
The aspiration that I have nurtured for so long, and with such determination, is still within my grasp
The ships I'll never sail
The opportunities that have forever sailed away, beyond my reach
The songs I'll never sing
Melodies waiting to be hummed will remain confined in my heart
Sweet life's a sparrow lost at sea
Life is fragile and futile like a bird that has lost its way at the sea
The dreamer's only cargo
The aspirations of the dreamer are the only thing that can be transported just like cargo on a ship
Only cargo
The prospect of fulfilling one's prized dream might be the only thing that one is left with in life
Contributed by Madelyn G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.