Post #707: Wang Chung - "Dance Hall Days" - Points on the Curve

I know... I know... I've been just awful about updating this here blog lately, but honestly, I've been laying pretty low and not doing a whole, whole lot... all the while keeping my eye on my year-end goal of completely eliminating all debt.  I'm still on track to make that a reality!!!  Yay!!!  However, to make up for my long absence, I am going to give you three (3) posts right in a row today!

One extremely awesome event that I attended on August 24th was the Lost 80's Live Concert:

The line-up was as follows:

Christopher Anton of Information Society --- Doing... you guessed it... InSoc Tunes!!

Nu Shooz

When In Rome

Boys Don't Cry --- Anyone else remember that ridiculous tune, "I Wanna Be a Cowboy"???

Gene Loves Jezebel

Animotion

Book of Love

Missing Persons

Naked Eyes

Wang Chung

A Flock of Seagulls

For the most part, I have seen many of these bands over the years, but one that I had never caught was Wang Chung.  I can't say that they were my favorite performers of the evening... I think that award would go to Gene Loves Jezebel... but it was a treat to see them play "Dance Hall Days" live!!  And if you are not familiar with the above-listed bands... please check 'em out from previous posts on my blog or find their videos on YouTube!!!

And here are a few juicy details about today's song:

"Apparently, part of the song is based on the novel called 'Lolita', by Vladimir Nabokov. Written in 1955, the novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a 37-to-38-year-old literature professor called Humbert Humbert, who is obsessed with the 12-year-old Dolores Haze, with whom he becomes sexually involved after he becomes her stepfather. If you notice, 'Dolores Haze' rhymes with 'Dance Hall Days'. From Jack Hues the co-founder of Wang Chung,

“I wrote the music and lyrics to 'Dance Hall Days'. The song was influenced by the Burundi drums that were played everywhere on the radio and used on Adam & The Ants' 'Ant Music'. African drumming first hit me through the playing of Ginger Baker and I naturally feel rhythms from that perspective. The way the melody moves and the looseness of the rhythms were influenced a lot by Lowell George and Little Feet. Lowell George was, and still is, a hero of mine. I love his singing, slide playing and timeless songs like 'Long Distance Love' and 'Willing'. I had also been reading Nabokov’s Lolita around that time and Dolores Haze (the object of desire in the novel) shares some common thread with 'Dance Hall Days' in my head" ~ Flashbacks to Happiness: Eighties Music Revisited by Randolph Michaels, pg 208"

Until next time...

XOXOXO

Anastasia

Take your baby by the hand
And make her do a high handstand
And take your baby by the heel
And do the next thing that you feel

We were so in vies
In our dance hall days
We were cool on cries
When all you and everyone we knew
Could believe, do, and share in what was true

Dance hall days love

Take your baby by the hair
And pull her close and there, there, there
And take your baby by the ears
And play upon her darkest fears

We were so in vies
In our dance hall days
We were cool on cries
When all you and everyone we knew
Could believe, do, and share in what was true

Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love

Take your baby by the wrist
And in her mouth an amethyst
And in her eyes two sapphires blue
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you

We were so in vies
In our dance hall days
We were cool on cries
When all you and everyone we knew
Could believe, do, and share in what was true

Dance hall days love
Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love