I talk to friends of mine about dreams that they have and most of them say that they either don't dream (which is almost certainly not true) or they say that they have a tough time remembering much of what their dreams were about even though they are aware that they did have a dream.
I dream almost every night. I look forward to it because I never know what is going to be the feature presentation when I close my eyes at night. Last night I had a very memorable and strange dream that had me a bit anxious by the time I woke up. At certain points during the dream I came very close to being aware that it was a dream and this happens to me quite a lot. When I start to realize that I am dreaming, I can normally stay in the dream for a bit longer and this is fun because I get to do whatever I want without consequences.
The dream I had last night didn't involve any magical powers or the ability to fly, but instead being involved in a massive concert by a band that I admire.
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In my dream I got a call from my friend James Hetfield of Metallica telling me to come to his show and get an all access pass. When I arrived at the show I was shown to the backstage area and then ushered onto the stage and told to perform. The thing was they didn't give me an instrument to even pretend with. They gave me a coffee cup plate and a guitar pick.
I wandered around the enormous stage with a massive crowd in front of me, just moving in between the members of Metallica pretending to play my coffee cup plate with the guitar pick. It didn't take long for me, even in my dreamlike state to realize how ridiculous it is for me to be playing a coffee cup plate with a guitar pick and I started to wander further back stage. The amount of accompanying musicians they had with them was crazy including a full chorus or whatever it is called when 30 some odd people are singing back up vocals. There were also several people playing guitars behind the stage and in the dream I figured that these people might be the ones that are actually playing the songs and James, Kirk, and whatever the new bass player's name is are just faking it.
After one song James came back stage to talk to me.
He wasn't upset with my performance with the coffee cup plate (what are those things called anyway?) but he did give me a very terrifying order. He said "you have 30 minutes to get ready, where is your bass?" Not wanting to disappoint him I told him that it was stolen and he said to not worry and that I could borrow any of Jason's basses that I wanted. Jason is no longer in Metallica and hasn't been for many years so yeah, I guess this made sense.
What was terrifying about this was that I don't actually know how to play any of Metallica's songs and I haven't even heard any of the ones on the last, I dunno, 5 albums or so. Even if I was a really good bass player, and I am not, Metallica has 20 albums or so and there is no way that anyone in the world could be capable of playing all of the songs on even one album with only 30 minutes to prepare.
In the dream I just shrugged it off because I didn't want to disappoint James. I never mentioned that this might be a bit of a problem.
Fortunately, I woke up before I ever took the stage and that is a good thing. I have been in similar situations in dreams in the past though and it doesn't work out as badly as you might be thinking. I have been playing music in the past and I guess it is because my mind can't focus on the correct and incorrect version of a song at the same time because no matter where I put my hands the songs would always come out right.
I'm not sure about how this ended up in my mind but it may have had something to do with the fact that I was in fact sitting with a friend yesterday evening who told me that Metallica has a new album and that it is pretty good. It's funny to me that this one small statement would result in such a grand presentation in my dreams.
I also woke up with the "Cottony soft Cottonelle" song stuck in my head and I have no idea how that got there.
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Dreams are weird huh?