There is only one way to determine what is The Best Song That Talks About Whether The Singer Of The Song Feels Like Dancing Or Not, and that is to play the songs and see whether the song makes ME feel like dancing, or not.
So here's the first nominee in this Showdown: You Make Me Feel Like Dancing by Leo Sayer:
The song comes on, and after the introduction by The Captain and Tennile -- which I took points away for, because it delays the song and I had no way of knowing how to spell "Tennile" before I googled it. (My first guess? Tenneile) the music starts up. Smooth. Silky. That voice -- making me want to sing along with it.
I start to sway a little, awkwardly because I'm sitting in my desk chair. But my head is bobbing. A little, side-to-side. I really want to sing along with it. Really. I used to be able to do that, too. Now I'm old and years of smoking before I quit have robbed me of my ability to Sayercize my way through this song.
When it hits Dancin! Dancin! Whoo! Dance The Night Away! I want to stand up and dance. But I don't.
I continue to bob along and listen and mellow out, through the rest of the song. Eventually, I close my eyes and picture Sweetie and I, circa 1978, decked out in polyester, discoing our way around a dance floor like John Travolta and That One Girl in Saturday Night Fever. I don't know why disco has such a bad rap. Disco is awesome.
But I didn't dance.
Then the next nominee, I Don't Feel Like Dancing by Scissor Sisters. (For some reason, the Scissor Sisters don't want you to watch their video. Why put a video on
Youtube and then not let people copy it to their site? So instead, I'll show you Stephen Colbert not feeling like dancing:)From the minute that kicks in, I'm bouncing a little, and tapping my feet, and nodding my head and then my shoulders get into it -- so I'm swaying them and then I start spinning my chair a little, side to side, and trying to wiggle my hips. I am, in short, dancing, and it gets better/worse as the song goes on.
That beat! It just makes me move! Then, they cap it off with a bit of Sayercism themselves, in that falsetto I don't feel like dancing no sir no dancing today.
Plus, there's the incongruity -- the singer doesn't feel like dancing, but the song does nothing but make me feel like dancing.
Then, they've got that part where all the music peels back and it gets a little quieter and then almost fades and you're just waiting, waiting for the music to kick back up to that Eleven Spot and you can go crazy again, like we used to in high school dances when they'd play "Shout" and everyone would be down on the floor as the singer got quieter and quieter and then woudl stand up as the song got louder and louder.
In the end, I almost get up and close my office door to dance a little. I don't-- but when I get home tonight, I will play this song and I will dance with Sweetie and I'll probably swing the Babies! around, too.
Clear winner: I Don't Feel Like Dancing, The Best Song That Talks About Whether The Singer Of The Song Feels Like Dancing Or Not.
Showdown September is an entire month of categories in which there are only TWO possible nominees! Categories like
theBest of Two Freaky Cults Trying to Sell You Something or
The Best Celebrity Who Remains Unspeakably Cool No Matter What He Does.
Related entries:
I like incongruities -- as I showed when I talked about the Bobby Darin song "Artificial Flowers." Or you can find out what the "Eleven Spot" is by reading this article.
Comma:
My first book of essays is out! Click here to buy Thinking The Lions, And 117* Other Ways To Look At Life (*Give Or Take)
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