Dave Matthews Band – Dancing Nancies

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  General Comment:Dave was inspired during a trip to Zimbabwe, Dave found himself in the middle of nowhere and devised the song. A Dancing Nancie (or more accurately Nancy) is a slang term for a transvite prostitute in parts of France, Belgium, and Spain.

  Flag SolSedanoon February 22, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:This is a great song! Always picks me up when I listen to it. I think it's about how people look back on their lives and always wonder and regret what they could have been if they're life turned out differently. But what we have to realize is they're is no point to this regret and just accept our lives for what they are and learn to see the beauty in them.
  
  In the beginning he is just wondering "could i have been anyone different?"
  
  In the next few lines:
  "He stands touch his hair his shoes untied
  Tongue gaping stare
  Could I have been a magnet for money?
  Could have been anyone other than me?"
  
  He is talking about someone who is not in acceptance of the reality of his life and just blankly looks at how it is now (he doesnt notice his shoes, he's just staring) and only thinks about all the other possibilities and not what has actually happened.
  
  Then he goes on to say:
  "Twenty three and so tired of life
  Such a shame to throw it all away
  The images grow darker still"
  
  Now he tells us this person has entered his full adulthood life (23, fresh out of college) , but he isn't happy with his life. Then Dave comments that its a shame that he only regrets what could have been instead of grabbing his life by the horns (overused analogy but it fits) and making the best of it because this should be a great time in his life when he is 'in his prime'. And so because of this the images of his life (in his mind and reality) grow darker and he puts himself farther away from being happy.
  
  Then his perspective changes:
  "Then I look up at the sky
  My mouth is open wide lick and taste
  What's the use in worrying, what's the use in hurrying
  Turn turn we almost become dizzy"
  
  But then he just looks around at the world that he is fully engrossed in and realizes the beauty and that he is lucky to be alive and his life is good at is it now. He just wants to experience this beauty (lick and taste), and doesn't want to worry about what might have been, or rush his life.
  Then he mentions the up and down cycles of how we think and feel. One day we regret our lives and think back on our choices, and the next we don't think about it and live happily in the present.
  
  "I am who I am who I am well who am I
  Requesting some enlightenment
  Could I have been anyone other than me"
  Then he talks about just how lost he is and how he would really like to figure out what his path through life will be, and what he will become. Then he looks back and wonders again.
  
  "And then I'll
  
  Sing and dance
  I'll play for you tonight
  The thrill of it all
  Dark clouds may hang on me sometimes
  But I'll work it out"
  
  But then he fully submerses himself in the moment and realizes just how great his life is and how much he loves it (in this part I believe Dave is talking directly about himself and how he found his way through this 'looking back mentality' through his music).
  And he lets us know that even if these things cross his mind and occasionally bother him he always finds a way through it and finds the happiness in his life.
  
  Then there is the chorus again (same interpretation but it also connects nicely in that he works through dark times by looking around and seeing the beauty and happiness in the present.)
  
  Then he ends it with:
  "Falling out of a world of lies
  Could I have been a dancing Nancy a dancing Nancy
  Could I have been anyone other than me?"
  
  He has come out of this mentality and realizes that it is all lies (or think of it like it is all false hopes and pointless thinking) and he could never know what might have been. He tells us that the lies are these questions by asking them again.

  Flag lookupattheskyon July 24, 2009   Link

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    A college degree is not the pinnacle of success. I'm older, and believe me, regret plays into you. An internal life, like the dancing, is paramount to success, not anything the world can offer. Good to have goals, just don't hang your hat on em.

    Flag Hesse55on April 09, 2013  
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  General Comment:This song really helps me out when i need it. Dave Mathews band's music has gotten me through some of the hardests times. What i get from this song is that all people wonderabout the past and spiritual connections, and that we should focus on what we are and the beauty around us instead of dwelling on what was/could have been. "Dark clouds may hang on me sometimes But I'll work it out" says to me that your life is not what comes at you but rather what you do with it and how you look at it. it says i could work it out and it is up to me to make my look at things different.
  - Live and Learn
  

  Flag LIVEandLEARNon March 25, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I love this song!! It is probably my second favorite song( my favorite being if i had it all) Definitely about those times you wish you were someone else. Anyone else. Then it talks about simply working through it all. Basically its about changing that mindset.

  Flag Shikyolordon May 29, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:I think interesting how he say's he's 23 in this song. It's like the age when you start making choices that are important. It;s like your thinking, well, if i went back to grad school, I could be a teacher, or if I rented out a cabin I could be a writer. If I got on with a good company I could make stable income. Or I could move to Vancouver or move to England or Mississipi. So many possibiliites and complexities.

  Flag Soundboyon May 16, 2008   Link

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    listen..i've had as easy of a life as anyone to this point...but picking/choosing what you're going to grad school for is not a tough life. if you're a writer that can afford to rent a cabin, you're probably not writing "walden." you may be able to write the next masterpiece (and i wish you all the luck), but in order to do so, you probably need to recognize that its not going to be walden II.

    Flag coolbeen23on November 13, 2008  
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  General Comment:dave's best song, i love the message and the lyrics, the music, all of it

  Flag swim192on March 21, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:Listening to this song through my mother's ears is interesting, because it really sound like a person who's unsatisfied with his life on the surface.
  
  But in reality, it's a song about a person who's supremely satisfied. Not only that, he's sure there's more in store.
  
  It is about a person who can look at his life and see the greatest parts of it, DESPITE earth-shattering setbacks, all enough to "dance".
  
  It's something incredible.
  
  I put this song as my profile song on MySpace. I've been through a lot of sh*t in my life (someone with above-average prospects in high school, and did something insanely stupid and got a DUI that shattered all of his childhood plans for a time). The disappointment was outrightly tragic.
  
  Of course, my loving mother took it even harder than I did.
  
  It was a rough time, and it shook me to the very core of my being. But with a bit of help (financial and morally), I'm in college again, well on my way to a Master's Degree.
  
  The day after I posted this song, she called me no less than three times, wanting to know "what's up", just to talk.
  
  God, I love my mother, but she got the wrong idea entirely.
  
  I never confronted the issue of this song being a precipitative factor in her sudden intensive desire to ascertain my psychological well-being, but in looking at these lyrics, I can see why she might think that way.
  
  But after a bit of thought, I dare not mention, but she's focusing on the lowest common denominator.
  
  This is a song of triumph over all those ills. It is inspiring to such a degree that those who have never shared such grief directly could never really understand or comprehend.
  
  "Dark clouds may hound me sometimes", truly depressing, is countered with "but I'll work it out" -- a key line that most who are emotionally attached to our well-being seemingly often ignore.
  
  No, mother, I'm not distraught over my current position. I am optimistic. What IS the use in worrying?
  
  Let's take in that tremendous Dave Matthews Band crescendo for what it is... At the most basic level, let's enjoy the "thrill of it all".

  Flag vordaboison March 02, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:Oh and PS, one of the greatest DMB songs. Amazing!

  Flag yoguy2005on January 17, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:I think this song talks about struggling with alcohol because one can't really figure out the meaning of life. The subject (haha, probably Dave at some point) was struggling with life, thinking he could have been anyone, even a gay prostitute in France, or etc. and the questions have no answers so he deals with them using alcohol. "Lick and taste whats the use in worrying" seems to refer to more than merely overcoming tough times, but to turning to alcohol (drugs maybe) to forget them for a while. "Turn turn we almost become dizzy" "My mouth is open wide" etc etc. These phrases seem to me to refer to somebody who is under the influence of something. In the end it would seem that he does actually overcome his dark contemplation, but I would argue that he wonders more about what could have been because he hates what he has become.

  Flag yoguy2005on January 17, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:Twenty three and so tired of life
  
  Yea.

  Flag Soundboyon July 09, 2007   Link

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