"A Prisoner's Dream" is my favorite song lyrically on this 28 song set. It's songs like this and "Stranger" that really make me sit back in awe and say "Man, can this guy write!". Once again I wonder where the inspiration for this came from. I know more convicts than I care to admit because where I work we bring them in to work in our shop through a work release program. Well, needless to say, I get to know a lot of these guys. A lot of them aren't bad guys and some we hire after they get out because they really need a job and someplace to take a shot at getting their lives headed in a better direction. Anyway Vietnam veteran's talk about a look they get in their eyes called the "1000 Yard Stare" and my feeling from personal experience is that convicts also have a look that they get. Only theirs seems deeply rooted in the loss of hope and degradation suffered at the hands of their jailers. David seems to have the ability to create uncanny portraits of these men (be they Vietnam veterans or convicts) that have lost their way in the world or been swallowed up by it's cruel machinery. A poet for the downtrodden and hopeless I guess you could call him. One last thing about this song I don't like the tepid piano ballad version found on "A Fine Mess". Check out the "Hurly Burly" soundtrack for a better reading of this tune. My guess is the version on "A Fine Mess" is an early one where David was still working out the song in his head. It's slow pace and the way that Dave is hesitant (at least it seems that way to me) with the melody seems to tell me that. Well...it's after 3am and I can't sleep which is why I'm up writing this but now I'm gonna go give it another shot.