Dance, Goddammit!
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Spotted a woman dancing in place at a bus-stop today. She looked to be in her early 30s. She was dressed office-casual, and had iPod ear-buds in her ears. As I walked past, I caught her eye, pointed at my own ear, and raised my eyebrows. She actually smiled, and said in a surprisingly loud voice (I think it was the ear-buds), “Moby!” She added that the track was “We Are All Stars,” and went back to bopping away.Last night, I was at a preview screening of “Freedom Writers,” the earnest, based-on-a-true-story high-school drama starring Hilary Swank as a white-bread teacher who inspires a classroom full of sullen teenage gang-members to become good students. During one montage, the soundtrack was playing Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It,” and a row of kids in the theater – seven of ‘em - stood up, began clapping, danced at their seats until the needle-drop faded, then sat down.Yep. There are songs that just drive us to dance. For me, the triggers include Chic’s “Good Times,” Funkadelic’s “One Nation Under a Groove,” any rap or hip-hop song that samples either of those numbers (“The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel,” for instance), “Damaged Goods” by the Gang of Four, “Second Line” by Stop, Inc., and “What Have I Done To Deserve This?” by the Pet Shop Boys.I will NOT admit to undulating like a raver in a car commercial when I hear “Days Go By” by Dirty Vegas. (All right. All right. It’s my secret shame.)Like it or not, what song(s) make you dance like a monkey on a string, a spinning top, a drunken Sufi, Isadora Duncan, or a “Soul Train” regular?Good times, y'all!
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