The Dreamers of Rock
“In the dreamscapes of rock, some artists didn’t just play music — they built worlds.”
Rock has always been the language of rebellion, emotion, and release — but for a few, it became something even greater. It became a portal. A place where myth met melody, and imagination blurred into reality. These were the dreamers — artists who didn’t just want to play on Earth, but to rewrite its skies.
Marc Bolan – The Cosmic Poet
Marc Bolan didn’t walk this world like the rest of us.
He glimmered through it — a stardust troubadour spinning tales of wizards, elves, and electric warriors.
He once said he was from another star, and when you listen to T. Rex’s “Jewel” (B-side to Ride a White Swan), you believe him.
The song drips with mystery — a hazy shimmer of glam and cosmic poetry, like he’s channeling messages from a world only he could see.
Bolan wasn’t escaping reality; he was re-enchanting it. His music turned the mundane into the mythical — and made glitter a form of rebellion.
David Bowie – The Starman Who Fell to Earth
No dreamer ever soared as far, or as fearlessly, as David Bowie.
Through Ziggy, Aladdin Sane, and the Thin White Duke, Bowie reinvented the self like it was a cosmic experiment.
His B-side, “Conversation Piece” (flip to The Prettiest Star), reveals the tender, lonely dreamer behind the personas.
It’s a song about isolation, the kind only a man lost between worlds could feel.
Bowie’s genius was that his fantasies felt human. Even when he came from Mars, he was really just holding up a mirror to our longing — for connection, for meaning, for something more than this world could offer.
Freddie Mercury – The Myth Made Flesh
If Bolan dreamed it and Bowie lived it, Freddie Mercury embodied it.
Every performance was a fable — a grand act of theatre where reality bent to his will.
Mercury’s voice could move from tenderness to triumph, tragedy to euphoria, in a single breath.
He gave us heroes (“Princes of the Universe”), mythic anthems (“The Prophet’s Song”), and love stories that felt like they were sung from Olympus itself.
Freddie proved that fantasy wasn’t a mask — it was a form of truth. He didn’t hide behind it; he became it.
Rush – The Philosophers of the Fantastic
Rush didn’t just dream — they designed their dream worlds with logic, structure, and soul.
From the elven calm of “Rivendell” to the eternal search in “Xanadu,” their music blended fantasy with philosophy.
“Different Strings” (from Permanent Waves) captures their introspective side — less myth, more mirror.
It’s about individuality, perception, and the tension between fantasy and reality.
Where Bolan and Bowie soared into the stars, Rush looked inward, exploring the galaxies of the mind.
The Power of Escapism
Fantasy in rock was never just about dragons or starmen.
It was about freedom — from expectation, from conformity, from gravity itself.
These dreamers didn’t avoid reality; they reshaped it.
They taught us that sometimes, to understand ourselves, we must first leave ourselves behind.
🎧 B-Side Dreamscapes Playlist
T. Rex – “Jewel” (B-side to Ride a White Swan)
David Bowie – “Conversation Piece” (B-side to The Prettiest Star)
Rush – “Different Strings” (Permanent Waves deep cut)
Queen – “Lily of the Valley” (B-side to Now I’m Here) — a quiet fantasy whispered between worlds
In Wednesdays "Tripping the Lights Fantastique" — we dive into the real-life myths behind the music — the places where spellbooks met soundboards, and riffs resonated with something far deeper than the charts.
Turn on, tune in, and let’s drift further into the strange.
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