Rik Emmett - Rare song 1992 - Between the Dreams of You and I

Описание: One of the greatest songs ever recorded, certainly in my eyes the most underappreciated song in the history of music, is this gem from Rik Emmett. It was released as part of a limited edition cassette for the 1992 Kumbaya Festival in Toronto, Canada, an annual benefit for AIDS/HIV charities put on by Molly Johnston of the Infidels. Rik later briefly released it through his website in the late 1990s as an mp3. He re-recorded it twice (first around 1998 to be part of his Mistress of Mister E album, but it didn't make the final album, and again another version around 2011 as part of his storytelling CD "Marco's Secret Songbook"). However this is the original version of the song from 1992.

Rik Emmett, legendary Canadian guitarist, singer and songwriter is at his best in this tune, which has connected to a lot of Rik's biggest fans in different ways. I include myself in that list, as this song has held a couple of different meanings for me over the last 20 years.

Here is what Rik himself had to say about the song back in 2013, which I think illustrates beautifully the thought process behind the song, but also the importance of his work on a larger scale: "The inspiration for the song was a purely poetic one: I started writing a song based on the notion of our lives ending up, after we're dead and gone, being parts of the clouds in the sky, the waves on the ocean, the sunlight glinting, the wind blowing ... It's not an original idea --- the main inspiration would be the poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye [Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep].

I thought about trying to write a 'hymn' that wasn't about religion, but that could be comforting to a secular, agnostic kind of human being. The human imagination is such a powerful, infinite thing: trapped inside these finite, and very limited, carbon & water bodies. Billions and billions of stars, in an infinite universe: billions and billions of human beings, with their imaginations: ancestors who have come and gone before me. Those who come along after me: what do we have in common?
Our ability to dream ... our ability to love ...

If one was to ask the average person on the street --- what would you say Rik Emmett's best song was? Those that have a passing knowledge of the music business would say, Lay It On The Line. But those people who are true fans, who know ALL of my music, know that a song like Between The Dreams is a much deeper kind of accomplishment. I am a lucky, grateful songwriter, to know that songs like these have connected to some folks, and that they matter to them."