The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of

© 1998 Stephen Savitzky. CC-by-nc-sa.

In memory of Abraham Savitzky, 1919-1999; Shirley Weinland Hentzell, 1931-1999.

I wrote this for my father a few months before he died; he went to grad school with Isaac Asimov, and introduced me to folk music, computers and science fiction.

Lyrics [pdf]

	C	F	C
	Once my friends and I read sc	ience fiction t	ales

	Am	G
We dreamed of space, and r	ockets to the m	oon.

	C	Csus	F
Some d	ay we'd live to walk up	on the pl	anets;

	G	C	G	C
The f	uture, oh it c	ouldn't come t	oo s	oon.

	F*	C*	C	F
N	ow it's long past the t	ime we c	alled the f	uture

	C*	C	G
And st	ill we carry	on from day to d	ay

	C	Csus	F
The w	onders of tomorrow st	ill el	ude us;

	G	C
Re	ality keeps g	etting in the way.

C F C

And the starlit crystal spires al ong the Grand Can al,

C Am G

The cloudlight on the w arm Venusian s ea,

C Am Asus C F

Have v anished, like the st uff that dr eams are m ade of;

G C G C

The f uture isn't l ike it used t o b e.

We watched as gallant men rode thunder to the sky

Our probes brought distant planets into view:

The dry and cratered plains of Mars and Venus--

Some dreams were dead before they could come true.

The Saturn Five once carried spacemen moonward

We've lost the plans to build her kind again

Bureaucracy and budgets dragged her under

Her launching pad stands rusting in the rain.

chorus

The century's last year was safely far away

We'd have machines that talked with us, and more.

We never knew the challenge we'd be facing

Was code we keypunched forty years before.

Atomic powered rockets were a pipe-dream;

Most cities still burn coal to chase the dark.

The monorail that once ran to the spaceport

Takes children to an outing in the park.

chorus

But the future that we lost is still someplace out there

Orion still rides hellfire toward the blue,

And rockets proudly land upon their tailfins,

As God and Robert Heinlein meant them to.

Yes, someplace there are old fans who remember

The way the future was when we were young,

And when the chains of space and time slip from me

I'll be part of the song that once was sung.

C F C

And I'll share a song with Rhysling, bes ide the Grand Can al,

C* G G7

Ride l ightsails on the endless starry s ea

F* C C F

When I've become the st uff that dreams are made of

G C G C

In the f uture of my ch ildrens' mem or y.