# In "River of Dreams", by Billy Joel, is the artis searching for God? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 15, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-river-of-dreams-by-billy-joel-is-the-artis-searching-for-god/290186 "2005-02-15T13:57:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-river-of-dreams-by-billy-joel-is-the-artis-searching-for-god/290186/1 "2005-02-15T13:57:48Z")
I assume he is, but it could be faith or spirituality, too. Or perhaps he’s afraid to cross the barrier of death. Here are some of the lyrics: In the middle of the night I go walking in my sleep From the mountains of faith To the river so deep I must be lookin’ for something Something sacred I lost But the river is wide And it’s too hard to cross even though I know the river is wide I walk down every evening and stand on the shore I try to cross to the opposite side So I can finally find what I’ve been looking for And a [link](http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/River-of-Dreams-lyrics-Billy-Joel/D2D17626A86F10B348256CBC0005D0D0). What is he searching for? (I always wake up with a song running through my head, and this was the song this morning). ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-river-of-dreams-by-billy-joel-is-the-artis-searching-for-god/290186/2 "2005-02-15T14:27:55Z")
He is searching for something. By calling it ‘something’ he allows you to fill in the blank and then the song can have meaning to you. If you are looking for God, then the song can be about that. If you are looking for your soul, then the song can be about that. If you are looking for your ham sammich, then the song can be about that. I think that entire album is about the impending breakup of his marriage. Most of the songs are looking back and reassing things and seeing how they aren’t all that great. With that idea, this song could be about ‘love’ that has gone missing. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-river-of-dreams-by-billy-joel-is-the-artis-searching-for-god/290186/3 "2005-02-15T15:17:32Z")
**Zebra** wrote: > [@](#): > > If you are looking for your ham sammich, then the song can be about that. I suppose. But the further you get from a Christian reading, the more resonance you’re sacrificing. The song is shot through with Christian motifs and echoes. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-river-of-dreams-by-billy-joel-is-the-artis-searching-for-god/290186/4 "2005-02-15T18:05:37Z")
I can’t think of any particular Christian images. Water and rivers are symbolic in many religions. He mentions of “mountains of faith” but mountains are in many religions. But I do agree that it is really a spiritual renewal that he is looking for in his sleep. The song have a gospel spiritual feeling adn the video features the chior and I think baptism in a river, which is of course, very Christian. Oh and the album I was thinking of as the album of regret was Storm Front, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-river-of-dreams-by-billy-joel-is-the-artis-searching-for-god/290186/5 "2005-02-15T18:32:54Z")
With the [Greatest Hits](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005NNM8/qid=1108492386/sr=8-5/ref=pd_csp_5/102-5576628-9071315?v=glance&s=music&n=507846) box set, there’s a bonus fourth disc: a Q&A session with some music, and Lullabye/River of Dreams is discussed. In short on Lullabye (since you didn’t ask). It was conceived as an instrumental piano introduction to River of Dreams, then as an intro that was considered to be sung in Latin (Joel realized the pretention in trying such a thing), then hit upon it being a great lullabye when putting his daughter to bed one night, to segue into dreams. For your actual question, pretty closely paraphrased, from Billy’s mouth: “I don’t even know why I wrote it. River of Dreams is a play on stream of consciousness. I’m using these biblical images. Valley of fear = may I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. There was no jungle of doubt in the Psalms, probably a desert of doubt somewhere… But a river is a religious icon, you have baptizing in the river, you have to cross the river, there’s the Jordan and people are getting dunked in the river, armies on either side of rivers, and rivers of blood, and Joan Rivers [laugh]… I woke up and I could not get rid of this song, something had gotten to me during the night… You can create whatever you want in that unconscious state… I made the mistake of getting in the shower with a song in my head, and I couldn’t shake this thing. I got all…I got religion in the shower! We don’t know when we’re tuning in until we’re there.” So is the song about searching for God? It’s certainly about communing with God, but the song just sort of dropped into his lap, as did the journey for the song’s narrator. It’s religion, not death. And with the preceding Lullabye, it’s a hopeful sort of thing. (There’s a great slow blues shuffle version of the first verse that he launches into at one point in the explanation, very soulful.) ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-river-of-dreams-by-billy-joel-is-the-artis-searching-for-god/290186/6 "2005-02-16T01:31:00Z")
I choose to think that he meant it in a spiritual way, but others are free to think that it means whatever resonates with them. That is the beauty of symbols, IMO. They are open to interpretation. One of his best songs, although I find the album rather dark.