DREAMWEAVERS - “It’s Almost Tomorrow”
The Dreamweavers knew - absolutely knew - their song was a hit, but nobody wanted to record it. At this distance we can only guess as to why - too sad, perhaps? Too defeatist? Too old-fashioned? So the group did something remarkable: they recorded it themselves. Their arrangement was primitive - just a piano and crooning voices - and their singer wasn’t the finest, with a wimpy voice and an audible lisp. But their instincts were right - “It’s Almost Tomorrow” was a smash. Self-written, self-produced, a portrait of male weakness and romantic defeat - The Dreamweavers had made the first ever indie record, and had taken it to the top of the charts.
In all seriousness, this is a lovely single (the jarring ending flourish aside). The singer is doomed and knows he is doomed - in the morning he will meet his lover, and it is certain that she will leave him. So sure is he of this that his best hope lies not in her relenting, but in tomorrow somehow not arriving. The tune is terribly pretty and vulnerable, a lullaby of abjection, and the delivery is almost comically pathetic - imagine Droopy the cartoon dog writing a 50s pop ballad. Except British. I don’t actually know for sure that the Dreamweavers were British but my goodness this record sounds it: its buttoned-down misery and polite hopelessness strikes a national chord which has kept on resonating down to this day. “The saddest songs are the lonely songs, so easily outgrown” - British pop hasn’t outgrown this yet. 7
Site powered by
tim davidge on March 4th, 2008
Though it sounds and feels British, this song, for all its old-school diction, is American. And while it’s true that it has “indy” origins and was given regional airplay as originally recorded, it soon excited the interest of a big-company record exec, and was duly redone before going on to greater things. In this way, of course, it avoided the poor recording quality that afflicted one of the other great records of the time, namely the Penguins’ “Earth Angel” (not featured here), which became world famous complete with poor balance, bad level and even some distortion! Whatever the circumstances surrounding its origins, “It’s Almost Tomorrow” is a lovely record-at least an eight from me. Finally, I think that the strange dissonance at the end is effective and poignant, signifying that something sweet and wonderful has come to an end.
Keith W on March 21st, 2008
Is it me, or does Puff the Magic Dragon borrow heavily from this melody?
wichita lineman on June 13th, 2008
Great piece on a properly obscure no.1. While having a memory of hearing it on Jimmy Savile’s Old Record Club in 1978, I knew the song better from Mark Wynter’s 1963 version which entirely lacks the pathos of this wimpy rendition - proto-indie in more than one way.
I may have missed a crucial line but it sounds to me as if the couple are together as the sun is due to rise, and the girl is unaware that the singer has sussed out her infidelity. Which would make it a very adventurous lyric for 1955, and plenty more sad.
The lyrics were written by one Wade Buff, which sounds quite rude as well.
Mark G on June 13th, 2008
Never heard this!
OK, you lot with yr “Never heard Baby Jump”, this is mine.
wichita lineman on June 13th, 2008
That grub-rock cause celebre, Baby Jump, is the whole reason I discovered this blog. I was googling one day, wondering whether I was on my own in having no recollection of a 1971 chart topper… and of course I wasn’t! I may have talked about this at length before…
But I do love the idea of someone discovering Popular because they were curious about the Dreamweavers.
wichita lineman on June 13th, 2008
And checking the lyrics on a dubious website, I think there’s no doubt it’s an all-nite last date. The emotional fatigue of the weakling singer becomes doubly poignant, the poor proto-indie sap.
mike on July 18th, 2008
Well, well - it turns out that the late Jo Stafford took this to #14 on the Billboard chart in November 1955. Having listened to both, I prefer the tenderly lilting understatement of this, the original version.
(Some interesting comments re. its origins on YouTube, by the way.)