The Wallflowers – Sleepwalker

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  General Comment:I am still in love with this song to this day. Even though The Wallflowers' albums are few and far between, I believe it's about quality, not quantity. I hold Jakob Dylan as one of the greatest songwriters, I daresay, of all time.

  Flag PookieEatWorldon July 19, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:This is what I think:
  
  He’s in a relationship, and he's in a dreamy mood about it - thinking that everything is going well and that everything in the relationship is wonderful. The ‘sleepwalker’ part of him is the part that's aware (while he's dead asleep dreaming) that love is not always good, and maybe a little part of him is even suspicious of this particular relationship. Sam Cooke is now thought to have been murdered as someone already said... So the song is saying that Sam Cooke didn't know that love can be dangerous, love can hurt you, people can fake loving you, people can fake being interested in you, or that love can be bad in general.
  
  "Maybe I could be the one they adore
  That could be my reputation
  It's where I'm from that lets them think I'm a whore
  I'm an educated virgin"
  
  Maybe it's his reaction to people wanting him (or famous people in general) for shallow reasons such as his fame, money, and/or sex. He's possibly saying that some people assume all famous people are into having a lot of meaningless sex, but he wants more in a relationship than that, so he's likely to get hurt. He can be a bit of a romantic, so he needs the aware part of him to protect him from getting too caught up in the relationship and getting hurt.

  Flag dodgethebulleton October 20, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:i think that this is about someone who is asleep or dead inside and the sleepwalker is their body just walking around living while the real him is dead.he uses the numb feeling as protection from being hurt again. his life feels like hes in some hollywood movie but it all looks sad to him because he knows that its fake. and he doesnt feel love or doesnt know how to love and is asking cupid not to make him fall in love cuz he doesnt want to feel the pain when he actually wakes up.
  
  its like some mix up of wishing for a famous life and being numb and not wanting to wake up because then the reality will shatter everything.
  
  thats all i have for now

  Flag eatPainon November 05, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:jebso, it's possible that the sleepwalker is a part of the narrator's personality, that's very true.

  Flag DJacques75on June 15, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:I've always felt that this song is about how he (or other stars) seemed to sleepwalk into their stardom. The music video sort of gave me that impression, though I haven't seen it in a while.
  
  And I doubt that any of this is about his upbringing or his father. He's denied that anything on this album is about that, and that he had a fairly normal childhood.

  Flag Bohmon May 15, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:The Sam Cook line is a reference to his song "Cupid" and I guess is meaning what everybody had previously said.
  All I could really make much sense of was:
  
  "Maybe I could be the one they adore
  That could be my reputation
  It's where I'm from that lets them think I'm a whore
  I'm an educated virgin"
  
  which is a reference to his father and upbrining. He says maybe he could be the one people adored, like his fater and not just been known as Bob Dylan's son. He's says it's where he's from and his background that gives people the wrong idea about him- "It's where I'm from that lets them think I'm a whore
  I'm an educated virgin"

  Flag Emmy43on January 27, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:The Sam Cooke lines is a brilliant bit of referential lyricism. He's actually making three references to Cook in those two short lines.
  
  The first, to Cooke's song "Cupid," was already explained by DJacques.
  
  Dylan also plays on Cooke's famous song "Wonderful World (Don't Know Much)" in which Cooke sings, "I don't know much about history ... geography ... [etc.] but I know that I love you and I know that if you love me too, what a wonderful world it would be." Dylan's effectively reverses the meaning of this song, just as he reversed "Cupid," when he sings, "Sam Cooke didn't know what I know" (I.E., that love isn't the wonderful thing Cooke claimed it was).
  
  The final, more subtle reference is to Cooke's tragic death. Cooke was shot and killed in a seedy hotel under mysterious conditions. The woman who he slept with prior to his death claimed that he tried to rape or attack her and that he was shot in self-defence, but the common belief now is that he was seduced, robbed and murdered. Dylan is probably playing on Cooke's death ("Sam Cooke didn't know what I know") in the song to imply, basically, that love kills.
  
  The rest of the song is more mysterious to me. I'll have to give it a closer look and try to disect it.

  Flag Nuganon May 13, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:Thanks for posting that DJacques. I never understood the Sam Cooke line.
  
  I think though, that the singer himself is the sleepwalker. And by calling himself a sleepwalker he means he's incapable of love. Dreaming is like reaching out with your feelings. But he feels sort of dead on the inside so instead of reaching out... it's like he's sleepwalking.
  
  "I'll never be your valentine
  The sleepwalker in me
  And God only knows that I tried."
  
  But then he thinks, 'Someday, I'll learn how to love.'
  
  "It's only a matter of time
  Util I learn to open up my eyes
  When I'm dead asleep dreamin'"

  Flag jebsoon February 26, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:i heard this song on my playlist and all of a sudden, i feel a rush of emotions. the lyrics are excellent and so true for someone who is afraid of committing into a r/s again..
  i think DJacques75's interpretation makes sense and upon reading the lyrics in it, i realise just how much emotions and feelings dylan put into this song..
  
  my fave line has got to be
  "Now, sleepwalker, what's my line
  It's only a matter of time
  Until I learn to open up my eyes
  When I'm dead asleep dreamin' .."

  Flag zestzon February 08, 2005   Link

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  General Comment:The Sam Cooke reference, which I didn't get at first either, actually ties the song together. Sam Cooke wrote and sang "Cupid" ("Cupid, draw back your bow...") Dylan's reversal of this line combined with the rest of the song's lyrics amount to a recoil from, and fear of, falling in love. He is asking the sleepwalker, whoever that is, to protect him from falling in love, or falling in lust, or both.

  Flag DJacques75on May 24, 2004   Link

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