It was familiar to me
The smoke too thick to breathe
The tile floors glistened
I slowly stirred my drink

And when you started to sing
You spoke with broken speech
That I could not understand
And then you grabbed me tightly:

"I won't let go, I won't let go
Even if you say so, oh no
I've tried and tried with no results
I won't let go, I won't let go"

He then played every song from 1993
The crowd applauded as
He curtsied bashfully

Your eyelashes tickled my neck
With every nervous blink
And it was perfect
Until the telephone started ringing, ringing, ringing
Ringing, ringing off . . .



Lyrics submitted by jt

Track duration: 05:45


(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan song meanings
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84 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:this song is so amazing.
    Flag cassiemariemmmon February 06, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this song is my ringtone
    Flag drdoeon June 28, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:It's amazing how a song can be so simple and yet, so beautiful
    btw, I was born in 1993 :)

    "I won't let go, I won't let go..."
    Flag PsychedelicSexFunkon March 02, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song really is amazing of course its about love but to me it seems more like the dream of losing someone you really love like a break up and hopefully it will all end up ok... but really the dream of evan and chan is a great song and a really cool mysteriousname it has its on little persona in it...^_^
    Flag Lunoraon August 08, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I have a remix of this. Some woman did it and sings in it. The music sounds a bit darker. It's a nice change, I think she did a great job with it.
    Flag adultdiscoon June 13, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The song could be about a dream that starts from something that happened in realty or maybe it was a recorring dream (It was familiar to me) and than develops in this dream that ends with the telephone ringing. Maybe in the oneiric level can happen things that can't happen in real life or the narrator only wishes that could happen..the "won't let go" part. The dreams I can remember and that I've been told are most of all symbolic.
    Flag birba.mozzon April 01, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Pretty historic song. This was the first song Ben and Jimmy worked on together. This song would help them create The Postal Service - the name of the band names after how they created this song, buy sending mix copies of the song to Ben to add lyrics and send back in the mail.
    Flag andrewisokon October 13, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:my interpretation of the song is as follows:

    it is a dream primarily from the perspective of Evan, who is in a smokey karaoke bar, and he is watching Chan - who is is singing english songs in broken english. Chan then pulls him up, on stage to sing instead (because Evan is fluent in english).

    Even obviously is infatuated with Chan, based on his staring at her singing earlier (i have not decided if the two were aquainted or not, but i guess it doesn't really matter).

    the 'i won't let go' part is a slow-motion concentration on his thoughts/emotions as Chan unexpectedly makes contact with him, pulling him on-stage, and then standing with him while he sings.

    the next part is saying that he sang a lot of songs, and everyone applauded.

    and then it switches to later, with the two of them alone, spooning and cuddling. in the middle of which the dreamer is awakened by the telephone.

    i don't think the dreamer necessarily has to be Evan either, he just has to be dreaming he is Evan. and the part where it is third person, rather than first person, i put down to the peculiar fashion of dream narritives. it doesn't seem to be a conflict to me, because often in my dreams, it switches from being in first person to third-person and back again. it just sort of depends on where the dream-camera is.

    and that's how i see it. i love this song, because it feels beautiful to listen to! :)
    Flag robotfoodon September 01, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The acoustic version is amazing. I could listen to it on repeat forever. :)
    Flag serendipityliveson July 26, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Try2Imagine,

    It's just a coincidence. Even though the game did come out before the song, the band has already explained that it's about a dream that one of them had about two other artists.
    Flag BigAl5on April 12, 2007   Link

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