The Safety Dance

Men Without Hats

Score: 20
/
Played: 57

Album:

The Safety Dance

Released: 18 Oct 2019

Wiki:

"The Safety Dance" is a song by Canadian new wave/synth-pop band Men Without Hats, released in Canada in 1982 as the second single from Rhythm of Youth. The song was written by lead singer Ivan Doroschuk after he had been kicked out of a club for pogo dancing. The writer/lead singer, Ivan Doroschuk, has explained that "The Safety Dance" is a protest against bouncers prohibiting dancers from pogoing to 1980s new wave music in clubs when disco was dying and new wave was up and coming. New wave dancing, especially pogoing, was different from disco dancing, because it was done individually instead of with partners and involved holding the torso rigid and thrashing about. To uninformed bystanders this could look dangerous, especially if pogoers accidentally bounced into one another (the more deliberately violent evolution of pogoing is slamdancing). The bouncers did not like pogoing so they would tell pogoers to stop or be kicked out of the club. Thus, the song is a protest and a call for freedom of expression. In 2003, on an episode of VH1's True Spin, Doroschuk responded to two common interpretations of the song. Firstly, he explained "The Safety Dance" is not a call for safe sex, and that this interpretation is "people reading into it a bit too much". Secondly, he explained that it is not an anti-nuclear protest song per se despite the nuclear imagery at the end of the video. Doroschuk stated that "it wasn't a question of just being anti-nuclear, it was a question of being anti-establishment."

Lyrics:

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[Verse 1] We can dance if we want to We can leave your friends behind 'Cause your friends don't dance And if they don't dance Well they're no friends of mine [Verse 2] I say, we can go where we want to A place where they'll never find And we can act like we come from out of this world Leave the real one far behind We can dance (Danser!) [Verse 3] We can go where we want to The night is young and so am I And we can dress real neat From our hats to our feet And surprise 'em with a victory cry [Verse 4] I say, we can act if we want to If we don't nobody will And you can act real rude And totally removed And I can act like an imbecile [Chorus] I say, we can dance, we can dance Everything is out of control We can dance, we can dance We're doing it from pole to pole We can dance, we can dance Everybody look at your hands We can dance, we can dance Everybody's taking the chance Safe to dance Well it's safe to dance Yes, it's safe to dance [Verse 5] We can dance if we want to We've got all your life and mine As long as we abuse it Never gonna lose it Everything will work out right [Verse 1] I say, We can dance if we want to We can leave your friends behind 'Cause your friends don't dance And if they don't dance Well they're no friends of mine [Chorus] I say, we can dance, we can dance Everything is out of control We can dance, we can dance We're doing it from pole to pole We can dance, we can dance Everybody look at your hands We can dance, we can dance Everybody's taking the chance [Outro] Well, it's safe to dance Yes, it's safe to dance Well, it's safe to dance Well, it's safe to dance Yes it's safe to dance It's safe to dance Well, it's safe to dance It's a safety dance It's a safety dance It's a safety dance It's a safety dance It's a safety dance