I don't think you understand how awesome Bruce is.

Favorite Springsteen song #97

Dancing in the Dark

The song starts like most songs do. An invitation for awkward drunken hate sex with a stranger. And while this mating ritual has long been popular in post agrarian societies, Springsteen finds himself peculiarly transformed by the emptiness and gnawing loneliness he now feels. He poses the question, are we truly all alone in a cold and indifferent universe? or am I just being a wuss…

He undergoes further alchemy during a banal chorus that seems to give birth to the dream that, Hey! While we’re stuck in this lonely, dead embrace, maybe, just maybe we should take a chance on love. And by love he means; lets gas up the car and drive around the countryside eating bad food and listening to the radio. Sure, we’ll both be devoured by the darkness in the end, but if you just sit next to me in this unsafe street rod for a little while at the very least we’ll always have the memory of this one moment of love and freedom to guide us, so we can truly feel the depth and scope of God’s betrayal while we spend the rest of our lives punching a clock in a bottomless cave of ignorance, IE. Freehold, New Jersey. 4 stars

No wonder that Rolling Stone readers voted it the ‘song of the year’ in 1985.