"You Can Leave When You Want To"

At Northwestern, I joined a dream club, in which we all wrote down our dreams and then shared them in the group. At least that was that theory. I only attended a couple of meetings. But I’d been logging my dreams even before that, beginning with one in which I turned into Agnetha Fältskog from Abba. I still do it, when I remember them. A few times, I have turned dreams into songs, and this is one of them.

You Can Leave When You Want To

© 1984 Brian Hutzell

Gonna be late, hurry up

You can drink your coffee on the train

The boss can't wait, so pour another cup

For this job you've got to be awake

But sleep, sleep

You can leave the world when you want to

Just sleep, sleep

You can go wherever you want to

In a dream, dream

Aaah, dream, dream

Sitting on the porch in a lawn chair

When the chair lifted up to the sky

And I let it go and floated on because I'd died

And it felt so easy not to live anymore

And I could look down on the living till the Earth disappeared

And only the stars surrounded me

No one was there to guide me

All my questions went unanswered

So I went to sleep, sleep, aaah

And when I awoke I was in the bedroom I grew up in

My parents were sitting in the dining room

Calling me to breakfast

Gonna be late, hurry up

You can drink your orange juice on the bus

School can't wait, button up your coat

Test today; you've got to get an "A"

Don't cry, don't die

You can leave the world when you want to

But it won't do you any good

Aaaah

"Octopush 5"

Brian Hutzell