Dream Weaver

In this very spiritual song, the Dream Weaver gives the singer strength and connects him to a higher consciousness. On Gary Wright's official site, he explained: "In 1972, my friend George Harrison invited me to accompany him on a trip to India. A few days before we left, he gave me a copy of the book Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. Needless to say the book inspired me deeply, and I became totally fascinated with Indian culture and philosophy. My trip was an experience I will never forget. During the early '70s while reading more of the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda, I came across a poem called God! God! God!. One of the lines in the poem referred to the idea of the mind weaving dreams and the thought immediately occurred to me, weaver of dreams... Dream Weaver. I wrote it down in my journal of song titles and forgot about it. Several months passed, and one weekend, while in the English countryside, I picked up my journal and came across the title 'Dream Weaver.' Feeling inspired, I picked up my acoustic guitar and began writing. The song was finished in an hour. The lyrics and music seemed to have flowed out of me as if written by an unseen source. After the record was released and became successful many people asked me what the song meant. I really wasn't sure myself and would answer 'it was about a kind of fantasy experience... a Dream Weaver train taking you through the cosmos.' But I was never satisfied with that explanation, and as years went by I began to reflect on what the song actually meant and then it came to me: 'Dream Weaver, I believe you can get me through the night...' was a song about someone with infinite compassion and love carrying us through the night of our trials and suffering. None other than God Himself."

This song is done completely with keyboards and synthesizer with drums in background - a pop rarity in 1970s. When we he started recording The Dream Weaver album, Wright realized that the songs sounded fine without guitars, so he didn't use them. The novelty of a keyboard-driven rock record got him a lot of publicity in the music press.

This was popularized in both the skit and movie versions of the Saturday Night Live sketch Wayne's World. It's also featured in the end credits of the 1996 biographical film The People Vs. Larry Flynt.