anonymous October 3rd, 2006 05:15AM  
This song has a special inspiration behind it. My name is chase, and I attend the university of alabama. Walking home one day I passed an older black man with cerebal palsy(sp?) in a motorized wheel chair and became good friends with him. His name is nathan, and a book is written about his amazing story. Suffice it all to say that he was physically and mentally abused growing up, until his uncle took him to a cherry tree as a child to learn how to read, write, and grow. Condemned to a wheel chair all his life, despite all of his problems, he has spent all his life trying to help others, even to send me free tickets to dave's final show of his 2006 tour in charlottesville, va. The song "dreaming tree" is about the cherry tree in tuscaloosa, al and nathan's impact on dave matthews life as he played several shows in tuscaloosa during his earlier years.

jmorrowdmb June 11th, 2008 12:34AM  
No y'all are wrong Dave and Stefan wrote this together about Stefan's daughter that died when she was a child.

akasik23 September 25th, 2008 11:02PM  
First off I would like to say that everybody has their own opinions on what the song means and it's their own opinion and interpretation of the song so let them have that. I believe this song is to be about youthfulness, innocence, and exactly what the song is called: about your dreams. The song about how when you are young and in your youth years you have no troubles no real world to deal with. And then when you are older you just wish you could go back to those times where there were no worries and you can dream about innocence and no worries...that's my interpretation and I may be wrong but that's what I truely believe it means.

anonymous February 24th, 2009 10:10AM  
Dave says himself that the meanings of his songs change over time. So all of you could be right. I personally think the dreaming tree is like a comfort blanket when you are growing up. When you realize you are in the real world now and that this is real life. Just growing up in general and how hard it is. Thats just my opinion

Baldenthin November 26th, 2009 07:57PM  
Dave Matthews tells his stories through his music. Listening to The Dreaming Tree is exactly that. A dreaming tree that has weathered many years and comforted many souls from the young to the old. As everything in life fades, so does the life of a tree. A beautiful tree. It is just a story.