Dance Music
Lyrics
Alright I'm on Johnson Avenue
In San Luis Obispo
And I'm five years old or six maybe
And indications that there's something wrong with our new house
Trip down the wire twice daily
I'm in the living room watching the Watergate hearings
While my stepfather yells at my mother
Launches a glass across the room straight at her head
And I dash upstairs to take cover
Lean in close to my little record player on the floor
So this is what the volume knob's for
I listen to dance music
Dance music
Okay so I'm seventeen years old
And you're the last best thing I got going
But then the special secret sickness starts to eat through you
What am I supposed to do? No way of knowing
So I follow you down your twisting alleyways
Find a few cul-de-sacs of my own
There's only one place this road ever ends up
And I don't wanna die alone
Let me down, let me down, let me down gently
When the police come to get me
I'm listening to dance music
Dance music
Banter
- Oddly enough, this is a song from the album we're going to record with Mr. Vanderslice and Mr. Solter next month. I need to hear more of my guitar please, on account of how I play it so well that I must hear my sweet playing of the guitar. (2004-10-15 The Social)
- This song is about how sometimes you sort of have to just cling to the hope that things will get worse as a way of sort of darkly embracing how things are. (2005-04-28)
- Right now, I’m going to play a song that is a true story about when I was five. I had a little thing. It was a Christmas present and it was two flexi discs - one red, one blue - and a little space station. The thing rose but it didn’t take off because it didn’t have the technology back then. But there was a little recording of the moon landing on it. One was the launch, the other was the landing; the one with the incomprehensible, ‘One step for man, one giant leap for mankind’ on it. And I would listen to that thing in times of distress. (2007-01-02)
- Peter: I just thought of the great irony of our song "Dance Music": it's actually kind of hard to dance to.
JD: That's because it's for dancers only. It's not for those dilettante dancers. It's not for half-steppers.
Peter: Fully committed dancers only. (2014-06-17)
- JD: Excuse me. Excuse me, Jon Wurster would like to speak.
Wurster: I was so into it, I didn't want to stop! [re: previous song, Woke Up New]
Crowd: [screaming general appreciation for Wurster being great]
JD: They're getting kinda rowdy! It's those Mountain Goats. (2023-10-06 August Hall)
- (off mic) Yeah! I know that song! (on mic) Peter thought I had thrown this song out but I had not done that. Don't say yay! What if it's one you hate? (2023-10-07 Ace of Spades)
Live Performances
Footnotes