Behind the Wall of Sleep by The Smithereens

Album: Especially For You (1986)

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Songfacts®:

In this song, the singer has very strong feelings for a girl that he can't attain. All he can do is think about her in his dreams.
There are some references to real people in this song: Jean Shrimpton was a model in the '60s, and Bill Wyman was the bass player in The Rolling Stones. >>
Suggestion credit:
John - Los Angeles, CA

Comments: 7

AnonymousIt's about Kim Ernst of the Bristols
Not Alwayspc from Simi Valley, CaPat gave interview to Forbes Magazine: We’d done a gig with The Bristols, four fabulous women who looked, sounded and dressed like Roger McGuinn’s The Byrds. Kim had black hair, really long: “She looked like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965, she had legs that never ended, I was halfway paralyzed. She was tall and cool and pretty, and she dressed as black as coal. If she asked me to I’d murder, I would gladly lose my soul.” Our first two hits were Blood And Roses, about suicide, and this one, "if you’d ask me to I’d murder" - very dark material [laughs].
Ken from Philadelphia, PaVery bummed to hear about the death of Pat Dinizio today (12/13/2017). The Smithereens were went from a local phenomena in Central New Jersey to a national act while I was in college just up the road from Carteret, New Jersey. I saw them play several times before... and as... they broke nationally (in the mid 80s) and saw them once more in the mid 90s. "Especially for You" was one of the last vinyl albums I ever bought and I wore that f--ker out, especially this song. People like to boil down 80s music into an amalgam of "new wave", early rap and MTV-driven dance pop. This band... and especially this song... proves that to be, at best, an oversimplification and, at worst, an outright lie.
George from UsaThe song was written by Pat Dinuzio for a bass player of an all girls group called the Bristols out of Boston whom he met while making an album there.
Annabella from Middle Of NowhereThe model mentioned, Jean Shrimpton, one of her nicknames was "The Shrimp".
John from Beltsville, MdSome of the coolest lyrics from one of the best songs of the 80s!
Jim from Long Beach, CaThis song is very powerful and It reminds me of college about this goth chick I was in love with at the time. I still dream of her behind the wall of sleep...

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