Bruce Springsteen – Dancing In The Dark

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  General Comment:my take on this classic tune is pretty much what everyone has been posting. A tired, restless, depressed man who yearns for a lover. His life isn't glamourous ("This gun's for hire") but much like in earlier songs (Candy's Room) he feels as though love could find him.

  Flag ryfall101on August 10, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:Not a big synth-rock fan, but the version they did during the last few tours... like on the Barcelona DVD... was fuckin good rock and roll.

  Flagged Tig45on January 31, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:Yeah, I think I buy all the comments saying this is about Bruce's writers block / his label telling him he needs to write a hit. For the rest of us, it can be about working a job you don't care about that just wears you out.
  
  By the way, the line 'This gun's for hire' is from a old phrase: gun for hire - a professional killer who uses a gun. Bruce feels like a gun for hire - being hired out by the record company to grind out hits.

  Flag Nikko86on January 02, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I agree with most of the comments, regarding him being tired and stuck in a creative block, being in a dangerous area, body-clock screwed up with misery from day to night... etc..... As for "this guns for hire, even if we're just dancing in the dark" can be interpreted as follows.. Dancing in the dark as many have suggested can signify sex... However the song is very personal and this man seems alone, his life is a mess, and he may not be desirable in many ways: modd, finance, looks even... And by saying this guns for hire he says he is dangerous, risky... not desirable, and to dance in the dark is to have fun and be his lover, but to trealise they are dancing in the dark, that is dancing blind, or having blind fun... blind to the pain and reality of his life. The song to me seems to be a desperate plee for loving regardless of circumstances, even though his life is counterproductive in actually attracting love. In other parts of the song he says the laugh is on him, as if to emphasize that his problems are his own, and not anyone elses, and that he is suitable for loving as his problems he does not want to affect anyone he is with. The whole song sounds like a call for help.

  Flagged claddson October 04, 2011   Link

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    or perhaps a reach out. A plea to his lady, a plea for intimacy..... but surely "dancing in the dark" is a reference to fumbling around, which would imply the record company was more than willing to accept, what the writer believed as inferior work, as an artist of his stature. on both levels, a fantastic song in my book
    

    Flag davidm691on August 17, 2012  
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  General Comment:
  
  
  im in the exact situation with nothing to do and the days drifting away so fast and you can feel your life sliping away and you want to do something and make your mark and star your life before you die. you wanna feel something and you wanna live.

  Flag DarknessOnTheEdgeOfTown8on September 23, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:im in the same situation with nothing to do and the days drifting away so fast and you can feel your life sliping away and you want to do something and make your mark before you die. you wanna feel something. and you feel like your missing out on life

  Flag DarknessOnTheEdgeOfTown8on September 23, 2011   Link

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  My Interpretation:Its about a guy who works the midnight shift. He is afraid of getting older, and having only worked a J.O.B. There is this big world out there and he doesn't feel like he is a part of it. He isn't sure what he really wants to do to change it. The monotonous shift work is making one day blur into the next, and the narrator fells like he is wasting his life. Even if he had a definite answer for what he wants, and how do get it, he is afraid to make the spark, that starts the fire to change his situation. Because it might tear his little routine world apart.

  Flagged WildNWonderfulon August 13, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:It sounds quite cleary a song about a young geezer being stuck in a dead end job on the night shift and being depressed and tired all the time, if you've done long hours night shift in the post office like i have you will understand about being tired all the time and waking up when its dark at 5pm in the winter. Bruce is a working class leftie fella he knows how shit life can be. Its about being frustrated with the way his lifes going.

  Flagged dirtboxlickerson July 15, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:"It's about the writer Charles Bukowski"
  
  Sweet baby jeasus, whoever pointed this out is nothing short of genius.

  Flag elwoood13on July 03, 2011   Link

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  My Interpretation:do you get the feeling on anxiety and anticipation? from the song? from the character singing? the pace of the song adds to that, he could have sang it slow and on a piano but he didnt want that.he made it quick and upbeat, like when you get anxiety about something you sort of panic and your heart beats. he makes a reference to baby every verse, the last line of every verse, and i think thats because he waited until the last moment to reach out, to god especially. in the last verse couple things stick out. he mentions baby twice, hes really asking for help now, he really needs it he wants it. "I need a love reaction come on now baby give me just one look". you get excited, you get nervous, you get giddy, you anticipate, you have things to look forward to and just one look, from baby or god, would be the kick start he needs to get the love reaction. And with it comes all the other emotions and feelings, which would essentially get him going you know, get the ball rolling.
  "I'm dying for some action I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book" the book of life, his own life, his memoirs kind of. like hes trying to create his own path; he cant do it by himself, its not working out obviously.hes trying to write it by himself, but he needs a co author in god.

  Flagged jespiritu1on March 24, 2011   Link

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