All You Wanna Do Is Dance
Song: All You Wanna Do Is Dance
Album: Turnstiles (1976)
There are two distinctly different but equally important things going on with this song. First there is the reggae musical arrangement and then the lyrics. I find them both interesting but for completely different reasons so I’m going to address them individually starting with the music.
Six weeks ago, maybe even six days ago I would have listened to this song and laughed because I would have thought it was funny that Billy Joel was dabbling in Caribbean rhythms. Just the typical: “Ha, ha! That guy’s stupid for trying new things” stuff you usually get on the Internet.
Of course things have changed; I have more respect for Billy Joel now. That isn’t to say that listening to this song doesn’t present some problems.
Here’s the problem with the musical arrangement for this song:
I’m listening to it in 2012 - In the 36 years since this song was recorded this song’s light reggae grove has become cliche. But this wasn’t the case in 1976. This song was recorded years before the first frat boys “discovered” Bob Marley, back when not everyone did this sort of thing. I’m guessing that this would have sounded more exciting in 1976 than it does today.
Now here is what’s good about the musical arrangement for this song:
Like he always does, Billy Joel gives it his all. It’s becoming difficult for me to dislike Billy because I know he’s going for it on every track. I’m always going to give someone the benefit of the doubt when I can tell they are trying hard to pull something off. He decided to go tropical with this song and he went all the way with it, all the way down to his vocal delivery.
What does this mean?
This is not a great song but it’s not embarrassing at least not in terms of sound.
The lyrics are a beast unto themselves that cover that well worn rock trope that goes: “Wasn’t the the music, and by extension the world, better when we were younger before these crazy kids ruined everything with their crazy music and their anal sex*?” Personally I just don’t subscribe to this theory so I have to admit that the lyrics make it hard for me to buy into this song.
*I think that last part is actually pretty rare in songs, especially Billy Joel Songs unless I’ve misunderstood what Pressure is about.
Of course it always feels like things were better in the past,** because history filters out the garbage like all of the monsters we elected to office and the crappy music we bought. More importantly we survived the past and can choose to remember the good stuff. On the other hand the future holds certain death. So when we say: “I liked things better when I was a kid” we’re really just saying: “I don’t want to die.”
**Update: I should clarify that it is the person Billy is singing about who feels this way. This gets Billy Joel off the hook but the sentiment still takes me out of the song. This is likely a me problem.
I think I just went a little off track. Let me pull this over and regroup….
Okay, I’m back. I took a deep breath and got a glass of water.
Maybe you like songs like this, that is fine. I don’t. Maybe you disagree with me about the past, that’s okay too. I will give Billy Joel credit for this, while he’s talking about the past on this song he isn’t living in the past. I understand that there is a big difference between the two.
There’s one more thing about the lyrics to this song and it is not Billy Joel’s fault at all. Eight years after Billy Joel released “A You Wanna Do Is Dance” Don Henley released the awful “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” which I could not help but think of as I listened to Billy’s song. I don’t want to hold Don Henley’s crimes against Billy Joel but I will admit that it affected my enjoyment of the song. I’m sorry that I don’t live in a Henley vacuum.
All in all I just can’t make the buy on this song. I realize that it’s a fun listen and there are probably a lot of people who love it, but it’s not for me. I might have liked it had I listened to it years ago but I didn’t have the sense to do that. In 2012 this is not the song for me.
