How much should we care about the plight of a man too afraid to change his life, one who knows it, and yet can’t stop bitching about it, whether they are dancing alone or jerking off?
Read literally, “Dancing in the Dark,” one of Bruce Springsteen’s biggest hits and the source for perhaps his most memorable music video moment, one that lives on to this day when he brings fans up on stage in concert, tells the story of a sad and lonely little man, stuck in a boring routine, but unable or incapable of doing anything about it. The speaker describes the drudgery of his daily existence in the opening lines, lamenting that he does the same thing, day in and day out, suffering in silence. He gets up “in the evening” and he “ain’t got nothing to say.” He comes “home in the mornin’” and goes to bed, “feelin’ the same way.” While the speaker doesn’t say for sure what he does with these hours, we can imagine that he’s a night watchman, security guard, or warehouse worker rather than a rockstar given this is a Springsteen song and Springsteen himself would be aware that his work featured an archetypal character more than ten years into his career. At least, we know he’s not doing anything fun when he continues to complain, “I ain’t nothing but tired, Man, I’m just tired and bored with myself.” Later, he will reveal that this has been going on for years, and yet he remains powerless to change his life on his own. Instead, in an inversion of the “ladder of love” that was taught in schools at the time, he’s hoping there’s a woman out there somewhere that can come and save him. Thus, he declares, “Hey there, baby, I could use just a little help,” before launching into the chorus:
You can’t start a fire
You can’t start a fire without a spark
This gun’s for hire
Even if we’re just dancin’ in the dark
This might well be true in principle, conjuring up an image of a man desperate for something, anything, relegated to a life of lonely darkness, unable to see his nose despite his face to use the old expression, but in practice, it hasn’t helped the speaker, not at all. He’s still alone in his apartment, listening to the radio and “movin’” around by himself. When he checks his “look in the mirror,” he’s so unhappy with what he sees, he wants to change everything. His clothes, his hair, his face. He is no happier with his apartment, which he describes as a dump from which he seeks an escape. In his mind, outside is better than inside because “There’s somethin’ happenin’ somewhere, Baby, I just know that there is.” The chorus repeats itself at that point, but still, there is no spark and he hasn’t been hired even as he’s just sitting “around gettin’ older,” the punchline of his own joke, “There’s a joke here somewhere and it’s on me.” He’s so desperate, however, that he’s more than willing to be the punchline, practically begging, “Come on, baby, the laugh’s on me.” By now, we have the sneaking suspicion that there is no actual woman beyond one he might know as a casual acquaintance or even not know at all. In the context of the song, the woman never actually appears, speaks, responds, much less acknowledges his existence. In the context of Springsteen’s overall song catalog, a speaker lusting after a woman he’s never met is a common trope, a man who’s down on his luck, idolizing someone from a distance. He doesn’t say for sure, but he’s certainly down on his luck in the next verse:
Stay on the streets of this town
And they’ll be carvin’ you up alright
They say you gotta stay hungry
Hey baby, I’m just about starvin’ tonight
Once again, only this potentially non-existent woman can save him, even as he reveals for the first time that she might actually be non-existent, having not given him so much as a look. He’s “dyin’ for some action,” “sick of sittin’ ‘round here tryin’ to write this book,” and needs “a love reaction, Come on now, baby, gimme just one look.” Ultimately, the song ends where it began with some slight yet meaningful differences in the lyrics suggestive of past heartbreak as a possible cause for his malaise. Rather than not being able to start a fire without a spark, you can’t start one “Sittin’ ‘round cryin’ over a broken heart” or “Worryin’ about your little world fallin’ apart.” We do not know if this is really the case. Is he talking about himself or the woman who hasn’t so much as looked at him? At the same time, it doesn’t matter on the literal reading. We have no reason to believe the speaker actually breaks out of his rut and escapes the drudgery of his existence, or that he ever even approaches the woman he pines for, assuming she really exists in the first place. The overall tone is one of slightly sarcastic detachment, featuring a lighter, keyboard heavy riff than most of Springsteen’s usual bombastic fare, backed by a disco inspired beat and a relatively smooth vocal, making it hard to take the outcome very seriously even assuming we know what “Dancing in the Dark” is in the first place beyond the idea of loneliness. If all he wants to do is dance in the dark, why does he need anyone there anyway? For the record, my father used to insist he was talking about masturbating, which I am not sure I agree with, but it makes the same point. How much should we care about the plight of a man too afraid to change his life, one who knows it, and yet can’t stop bitching about it, whether dancing alone or jerking off?
If we were to take the song at face value, the meaning would end there, but there is another far more universal message, which is not surprising for Springsteen. After all, who hasn’t looked in the mirror at points in their lives and wanted to change something about themselves? Who hasn’t felt they were stuck in their apartment, out of the loop, while something was happening somewhere, even as they put on a good show singing to themselves in their underwear like Tom Cruise in Risky Business? Who hasn’t been dying for some action, a break from their routine, something new and exciting? Who hasn’t experienced themselves getting older and wondering if life, or at least certain aspects of it, had passed them by in some kind of cruel joke? Finally, who hasn’t seen someone, a colleague, an acquaintance, someone that frequents your favorite bar or coffee shop, and struggled to get up the nerve to approach them? Even “The Queen of the Supermarket” as Spingsteen sang years later, somewhat parodying his own work? As Springsteen himself has said, “In my songs, the spiritual part, the hope part, is in the choruses. The blues and your daily realities are in the details of the verses.” At the time, he was talking about whether “Born in the USA,” from the same album as Dancing in the Dark,” was a misunderstood song, but the same insight applies here. From this perspective, the speaker is laying out the lonely tragedy of his life in the verses while Springsteen subtly inserts himself in the chorus, providing something of a self-help lesson for anyone that has been down in the dumps. This lesson takes four forms. First, it’s a process: There is no fire without a spark, or as he has put it in other lyrics, big things come from small things. If you want to change your life, you have to start somewhere and that somewhere doesn’t require you to change everything about yourself at once. Second, dreams should be tempered by reality. Springsteen himself might have achieved everything he’s ever wanted in life, though even he told Howard Stern a few years ago that he’s underrated as a guitar player, suggesting even music legends have regrets, but wishes like that rarely come true. Sometimes, you have to accept that you’ll be dancing in the dark, and that can be enough, or as I have put it elsewhere, the promise of a more limited redemption. Third, neither of these can be achieved if you can’t get over the past, crying about a long lost love. Fourth, there is no gain without risk, worrying about your world falling apart.
As life lessons go, it is perhaps not the most complicated, but songs are more than simply their lyrics. The real genius here is that Springsteen has gotten millions of people to sing along, having performed the track 1,170 times since it first came out in 1984, perhaps helping themselves without even realizing it.
DANCING IN THE DARK
I get up in the evenin’
And I ain’t got nothin’ to say
I come home in the mornin’
I go to bed feelin’ the same way
I ain’t nothin’ but tired
Man, I’m just tired and bored with myself
Hey there, baby, I could use just a little help
You can’t start a fire
You can’t start a fire without a spark
This gun’s for hire
Even if we’re just dancin’ in the dark
Messages keeps gettin’ clearer
Radio’s on and I’m movin’ ’round my place
I check my look in the mirror
Wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face
Man, I ain’t gettin’ nowhere
I’m just livin’ in a dump like this
There’s somethin’ happenin’ somewhere
Baby, I just know that there is
You can’t start a fire
You can’t start a fire without a spark
This gun’s for hire
Even if we’re just dancin’ in the dark
You sit around gettin’ older
There’s a joke here somewhere and it’s on me
I’ll shake this world off my shoulders
Come on, baby, the laugh’s on me
Stay on the streets of this town
And they’ll be carvin’ you up alright
They say you gotta stay hungry
Hey baby, I’m just about starvin’ tonight
I’m dyin’ for some action
I’m sick of sittin’ ’round here tryin’ to write this book
I need a love reaction
Come on now, baby, gimme just one look
You can’t start a fire
Sittin’ ’round cryin’ over a broken heart
This gun’s for hire
Even if we’re just dancin’ in the dark
You can’t start a fire
Worryin’ about your little world fallin’ apart
This gun’s for hire
Even if we’re just dancin’ in the dark
Even if we’re just dancin’ in the dark
Even if we’re just dancin’ in the dark
Even if we’re just dancin’ in the dark
Hey baby
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 