‘Savior Complex’: the song Phoebe Bridgers wrote in a dream
While it sounds borderline farcical for an artist to write a song in a dream, it’s a far more common occurrence than many would suspect. Phoebe Bridgers herself was a sceptic before it happened to her when she wrote ‘Savior Complex’.
The most famous example of this phenomenon arrived when Paul McCartney wrote The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ in his sleep, a track that ultimately paid tribute to his late mother. The song became the title of the band’s final album, and one of their most beloved creations. Speaking with Barry Miles for his authorised biography, Many Years From Now, McCartney recalled: “One night during this tense time I had a dream I saw my mum, who’d been dead ten years or so”.
He added: “And it was so great to see her because that’s a wonderful thing about dreams: you actually are reunited with that person for a second; there they are and you appear to both be physically together again. It was so wonderful for me and she was very reassuring.”
In the case of Bridgers, however, there wasn’t a heartbreaking backstory attached to her dream; instead, it was a sudden realisation about her relationship. Bridgers explained to Stereogum: “‘Savior Complex’ is you get there, you’re with the person, and you realise that every other person they’ve been with before has gone through the exact same thing of trying to break down walls. Being with somebody who hates themselves is hard.”
During the same interview, Bridgers explained how at the time of writing the song, she immediately knew ‘Savior Complex’ was the sequel to ‘Moon Song’ from her debut album. While it was never a conscious decision to write a second chapter to the Strangers in the Alps track, it happened naturally in her dreams. Bridgers explained: “I wrote the melody in a dream, and it sounds so romantic but in reality the voice memo is like [makes ghostly wheezing sound]. Like the most disturbing deep-sleep-rollover-turn-on-your-phone voice. It’s so creepy.”
She added: “It had never happened to me before. I’m so jealous. One of my favourite Bright Eyes songs of all time is ‘Lime Tree’. I guess Conor, in his dream, heard Nick White – my keyboardist who used to be in Bright Eyes – sing, which he doesn’t do, the first verse and chorus of that song in an angelic voice. I was so jealous. I guess Townes Van Zandt wrote “If I Needed You” in his sleep. I’m like, how? I keep having recurring dreams about having all my guitar strings being broken.”
Unlike when Paul McCartney devised ‘Let It Be’ in a dream, Bridgers was fortunate enough to have her iPhone beside her. The device allowed the singer-songwriter to quickly record her melody before returning to sleep and finishing the song later. Who knows how many great pieces were forged in dreams and lost before the advent of technology? Thankfully, ‘Saviour Complex’ is not one of them.
