Dion McGregor

Who was Dion McGregor?

Dion McGregor was a New York City-born songwriter who is known for talking in his sleep. An LP of his dream diatribes – The Dream World Of Dion McGregor – was released to minor acclaim by Decca Records in 1964. A book of the same name, containing the transcripts of a wider selection of McGregor's dreams, and with illustrations by Edward Gorey, was also published in 1964.

McGregor would essentially narrate his dreams at conversational volume. As a narrator of his dreams, Dion adopted various personas but frequently established a fey, argumentative, insolent approach to the subject at hand – be it a hot air balloon trip to the moon with a group of multi-ethnic children, a frantic journey around New York, or a tattooing job on a woman's tongue.

As a songwriter, McGregor's biggest success came when his song "Where Is The Wonder" was recorded by Barbra Streisand on her hit album My Name Is Barbra. He was unable to find much success afterwards, however, and by the 1980s had given up on songwriting. Critic Joslyn Layne writes that "Despite his lack of success as a song lyricist, McGregor's narration of his vivid dreamlife provided a more unique artistic contribution than any usually recorded."