3 Classic Songs From the 1970s That Were Inspired by a Dream or Vision

Sometimes songwriters don’t take inspiration from real life in their songs. Here are three classic songs from the 70s that were actually inspired by a dream or vision.

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“Let It Be” by The Beatles

“Let It Be” has become one of The Beatles’ most referenced songs over time, and a positive anthem of letting go and moving on for many. In 2018, Paul McCartney, who wrote the song, revealed to James Corden that the song was actually inspired by his mother, Mary, who died when McCartney was just 14. About a decade or so later, McCartney was feeling anxious, and had a dream where his mother appeared to him.

He told Corden, “I had a dream in the Sixties where my mum who died came to me in a dream and was reassuring me, saying: ‘It’s gonna be OK. Just let it be…’”

And so, the idea for “Let It Be” was born.

“Delta Dawn” by Tanya Tucker

This Tanya Tucker hit came about when songwriter Alex Harvey had a vision in which his mother appeared to him, just like McCartney. Harvey wrote this song with Larry Collins, and it ended up becoming Tucker’s biggest hit.

“I looked up, and I felt as if my mother was in the room. I saw her very clearly. She was in a rocking chair, and she was laughing,” Harvey once shared of the dream. “My mother had come from the Mississippi Delta, and she always lived her life as if she had a suitcase in her hand but nowhere to put it down.”

Harvey went on to explain that he believed the song was a gift from his mother, her way of helping him make peace with how her life had gone.

“The Prophet’s Song” by Queen

One of the longer songs in Queen’s catalog, “The Prophet’s Song” was inspired by a dream guitarist Brian May had about The Great Flood, an event that appears in a story in The Bible. May wrote this song inspired by the idea that people don’t connect as much as they should.

Oh, oh, people of the earth

Listen to the warning the seer he said

“Beware the storm that gathers here”

Listen to the wise man.

“In the dream, people were walking on the streets trying to touch each other’s hands, desperate to try and make some sign that they were caring about other people,” May explained in 1975. “I felt that the trouble must be – and this is one of my obsessions anyway – that people don’t make enough contact with each other. A feeling that runs through a lot of the songs I write is that if there is a direction to mankind, it ought to be a coming together, and at the moment, it doesn’t seem to be happening very well.”

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