For the longest time (9 years, to be exact), I had a song running through my head that I wasn’t sure even existed. I knew that the band was called “Forest For The Trees,” I knew that the song featured bagpipes, and I knew that the chorus included the lines “when I am dreaming, I don’t know if I’m asleep or if I’m awake; when I wake up, I don’t know if I’m truly awake, or if I’m still dreaming.” Other than that, I had no idea. I would often sing the chorus to friends or new acquaintances, in hopes that someone else would have ever heard the song and confirm for me its existence.
In time, I came to suspect that the song was merely something I had invented in my childhood dreams and it was a mistake for me to assume that anyone else had ever heard it. Just when I was ready to give up all hope of ever hearing the song again, save for in my head, another lyric came to me. “I’m the first person, you’re the second person, earlier today I was in the third person.” That’s when it hit me: I never would have written that. I would have written about “he” or “she” being in the third person.
Adding to the terrible confusion, Youtube searches of the words “forest for the trees” yielded no results. A Google search of the same words provided a few answers. I learned that the band Forest For The Trees did exist. I learned that in 1997, they had a song that made it to number 18 on the modern rock charts and got played on MTV. It was called “Dream.”
I became obsessed. Like Ponce De Leon searching out the Fountain of Youth, I searched out this song. I frequently looked through the local record stores, even asking the clerk at one to order the CD for me. He gave me the most incredulous look, assuring me that either the CD didn’t exist or that it wasn’t available from their supplier. After about a year on a feverish hunt, I decided that it just wasn’t to be. I had confirmation that I wasn’t crazy, but I would never hear that sweet, sweet bagpipe solo ever again.
On a whim (drunk), I searched Youtube again six months ago, and what should I find but the Dream music video. Hoorah! It was as good as I remembered, but hearing it again raised a lot of questions in my head. First, why did this song only make it to #18? In 1997, Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise’s “California” made it to number 1 on the same chart. What the fuck was that song? Does anyone remember that one? Second, why did Forest For The Trees only have one hit? Their sound was so original, so unlike the Third Eye Blind, Wallflowers, Sublime bullshit that was dominating the airwaves back then. So, what the fuck happened?
I hope Forest For The Trees is doing well today, but I fear for the worst. I fear that the drummer has locked himself in his library where he bottles his urine and watches films of airplanes on a 35 millimeter projector. I fear that the bagpipe player (the bagpipist? Bagpiper?) was killed by his girlfriend, whom he frequently emotionally abandoned, by suffocating him with a massive potato. I fear that the lead singer snuck backstage after a magic show and fell into the magician’s hat, which transported him to a magical land inhabited by walking, talking hats who are very, very fond of puns. Oh, lord, I hope they’re doing better than that.
I miss you, Forest For The Trees. Write another hit.
