For today’s Song Lyric Sunday Jim is inviting us to play songs based on true events, as suggested by Nancy, aka The Sicilian Storyteller – the first of a complete March takeover by her, but all good suggestions though. Nancy’s blog, The Elephant’s Trunk, is fantastic and highly recommended, by the way. Jim’s post Specific Moments In History gives the background to the theme. I considered some of the ‘big event’ type songs, like R.E.M.’s Man On the Moon, or CSN&Y’s Ohio, but have gone for a song which is based on real life with a tragic background, but on a much smaller scale. This is my choice for today:
And here are the lyrics:
They put a parking lot on a piece of landWhere the supermarket used to standBefore that they put up a bowling alleyOn the site that used to be the local palaisThat’s where the big bands used to come and playMy sister went there on a Saturday
Come dancingAll her boyfriends used to come and callWhy not come dancing?It’s only natural
Another Saturday, another dateShe would be ready but she’s always make them waitIn the hallway, in anticipationHe didn’t know the night would end up in frustrationHe’d end up blowing all his wages for the weekAll for a cuddle and a peck on the cheek
Come dancingThat’s how they did it when I was just a kidAnd when they said “come dancing”My sister always did
My sister should have come in at midnightAnd my mum would always sit up and waitIt always ended up in a big rowWhen my sister used to get home late
Out of my window, I could see them in the moonlightTwo silhouettes saying goodnight by the garden gate
The day they knocked down the palaisMy sister stood and criedThe day they knocked down the palaisPart of my childhood died, just died
Now I’m grown up and playing in a bandAnd there’s a car park where the palais used to standMy sister’s married and she lives on an estateHer daughters go out, now it’s her turn to waitShe knows they get away with things she never couldBut if I asked her, I wonder if she would
Come dancingCome on, sister, have yourself a ballDon’t be afraid to come dancingIt’s only natural
Come dancingJust like the palais on a SaturdayAnd all her friends would come dancingWhile the big bands used to play
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Ray Davies
Come Dancing lyrics © BMG Rights Management
As I said, there is a tragic background to this song. It was written by Ray Davies in memory of his older sister, Rene, who was married and living in Canada with a husband who was purported to be abusive. Rene, who was 31, was visiting her childhood home in Fortis Green in London at the time of Ray’s 13th birthday – 21 June 1957 – and she surprised him with a birthday present of a Spanish guitar he had tried to persuade his parents to buy him. That evening, Rene, who had a weak heart as a result of a childhood bout of rheumatic fever, suffered a fatal heart attack while dancing at the Lyceum ballroom in Central London. The song is very much in the vein of Ray’s style of Englishness, and takes his sister as the inspiration for a piece about how changes are made to our towns and cities, not necessarily for the best, and how these can invoke feelings of nostalgia and loss. You’ll see that the lyrics refer to his sister waiting up for her daughters to come home from their nights out dancing – sadly, Rene never got to do this, but Ray’s poetic licence displays how much he misses her. The jaunty feel of the song belies what is hidden in the lyrics, beneath the surface.
When first released as a UK single in November 1982, Come Dancing didn’t make the chart. Their record company had reservations about releasing it as a single in the United States due to the English subject matter of dance halls, but it was released there in April 1983, peaking at #6. As a result of its American success, it was then re-released in the UK and second time round it got to #12. It was included on the band’s album State Of Confusion, which was released in May 1983 in the US and June in the UK. The album didn’t make the UK charts but reached #12 in the US.
For me, this song packs in so much. It has elements of nostalgia, of love and loss – every subsequent birthday will be a reminder of his sister’s passing – and social history and conscience, all packed into four minutes of song. It doesn’t need to be about a big newsworthy event to be meaningful.
That’s me done for today. See you again for Tuesday Tunes 😊🎶
