Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Dancing Barefoot - U2

Dancing Barefoot - U2
4:45
single, 1989
Written by Patti Smith and Ivan Král, 1979

I didn't know until I wrote this up that this was a Patti Smith song.  The Edge's driving guitar riff on this track is a great complement to Bono's hissing, murmuring, crooning vocals.  The lyrics are impressionistic, depicting a state of confusion, falling, wholly subsumed in some mysterious woman who has the singer in thrall. The homophone at the end of the chorus — "I'm dancing barefoot / Heading for a spin / Some strange music drives me on / Makes me come up like some heroine" leaves the interpretation open that the narrator may be talking about a very real addiction to a drug.

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Radar Gun - The Bottle Rockets

Radar Gun - The Bottle Rockets 3:16 The Brooklyn Side , 1994 Written by Brian Henneman This roots rocker, built around a steady, pounding b...