32. 10 Dancing Songs

Before I put the list, a quick definition of these dancing songs. It goes without saying that most songs ever are in some way dancing songs, and that huge numbers of them are specifically dancing songs, songs written with the hope that people would dance to. And an awful lot of those will contain the word 'dance' in its title or lyrics. So this wouldn't be a difficult list to put together ...
So, slightly Irishly, I limited it to dancing songs which are really not intended to be danced to, not exhortations to dance, but songs ABOUT dancing. I suspect one or two of them will have been danced to occasionally, but there's no accounting for some people ...

Good Dancers - The Sleepy Jackson
What A Lovely Dance - Hal
Dance Away - Roxy Music
Cosmic Dancer - T. Rex
I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance - Black Kids
Tiny Dancer - Elton John
I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor - Arctic Monkeys
Dance Until Tomorrow - Lavender Diamond
Dancefloors - My Morning Jacket
Touch Me When We're Dancing - The Carpenters

I would have included Dancing in the Dark, but as this extraordinary video proves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAmDmdMKB7g&feature=PlayList&p=C0671D4018B487E8&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2
that is a song which is very much intended to be danced to.
Clearly the Boss was going for a different kind of market in the 80s.
That's the first link I've put on this dense blog, but the plan is to stay dense and light/variation free. Don't take the easy way out!
So, dancing, some people are good dancers, most of us are pretty rubbish, and it takes various amounts of time to chill out and not care. I am still self-conscious enough to only occasionally throw my post-rock/physical comedy/Paul Gascoigne-high elbows-in-the-face shapes on any but the friendliest of floors, but I feel like I'm growing into my dancing prime. When you are an embarrassing uncle, I assume you're applauded for dancing like one.

So, this is about chilling about, not taking oneself so seriously, and not hating dancing. It's actually an extract from something longer. I wrote it ages ago, i'd like to think I've moved even further down the line to not hating everything since then.

Get a grip on the past you dirtied
with limp platitudes on ethical exploits.
All the vain things you clueslessly asserted
are no less or more useful than the next boy's
forays into a simple search for solace;
gaucheness leads where polish follows.

I found a freshness where my former
self would have seen just reckless squalor.
Grand notions and strategies now just bore me;
soul-searching wholeness seems so hollow
I just want to dance and then capture it smartly,
just want to be the sharp heart of the party.

I've spent my time deriding then chasing
CDs and e-mails, iPods and mobiles
and I went for the tune and missed out on the bassline
but it isn't too late to pass over the slow miles
and go miles in seconds with a simpler rhythm -
it's life and it's fast and it's only for living.

I heard you want to get the world dancing
to one of Bob Dylan's livelier numbers.
So find a nice box to put the past in,
then burn it and waltz round the embers.

I thought about rewriting it, cos it's a bit clunky, but i think it's ok.