Dion McGregor (1922–1994) was a New York City born songwriter, whose main claim to fame is that he was a voluble dreamer, or somniloquist. McGregor talked in his sleep. Not in quiet, barely-comprehensible mumbles; while he slept, McGregor would essentially narrate his dreams at conversational volume. A startled Michael Barr initially thought McGregor was faking, but eventually he began tape recording McGregor's reports from the unconscious (his 'somniloquies') between the years 1960 and 1967.
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Dion McGregor (1922–1994) was a New York City born songwriter, whose main claim to fame is that he was a voluble dreamer, or somniloquist. McGregor talked in his sleep. Not in quiet, barely-comprehensible mumbles; while he slept, McGregor would essentially narrate his dreams at conversational volume. A startled Michael Barr initially thought McGregor was faking, but eventually he began tape recording McGregor's reports from the unconscious (his 'somniloquies') between the years 1960 and 1967. As a narrator of his (often terrifying) 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 Phil Milstein notes, the Tzadik LP could just as well be called Dion McGregor Screams Again, as most of McGregor's dream narratives end with him shrieking in terror. An LP of his dream diatribes – The Dream World Of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep) – was even released to minor acclaim by Decca Records in 1964. McGregor died in 1994, but researcher Phil Milstein gathered recordings of McGregor's dream-speech considered too risque to be released in the 1960s and assembled them for the 1999 album, Dion McGregor Dreams Again, released on Tzadik Records. A third album, The Further Somniloquies of Dion McGregor: More Outrageous Recordings of the World’s Most Renowned Sleeptalker was released in August 2004.
