Song Meaning: Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen

ARTIST: Bruce Springsteen and the e street band | ALBUM: born in the u.s.a. | RELEASED: 1984

Basis/themes for most of Bruce Springsteen's songs are centered around the concept of the American dream, that is, if you work hard you can achieve your goals. Springsteen quite frequently likes to explore the way in which working class folks attempt to realize their own American dream. In that regard, "Dancing the Dark" is no exception.

It's well among the Springsteen fans that the lyrics of the song came to be as consequence of his struggles with the record producer. So the lyrics were written from the point of a frustrated Bruce Springsteen, however what's not to be overlook is the fact that Springsteen brilliantly changed the frame of view such that, upon completion, the song was sung from the perspective of a working-class man.

Analysis of lyrics: 

Song is about a working-class folk, as it's often the case with many of Springsteen's songs. For the ease of analysis, I'll call this person Joe Biden. The song depicts Joe's day-to-day struggles with making a living.  First verse tells us the hardship of Joe's job. He works overnight shifts. This means his a probably a blue-collar worker, because white-collar workers like lawyers and doctors don't work at night.  So Joe probably doesn't also have much post secondary education. One thing to note about such workers is that they do the same job over the course of their entire career, there are no promotions. In other words, if Joe happens to be a mechanic at car company, he'd remain in that job until he retires. This is quite boring, of course, as stated in "I ain't nothing but tired."

I exactly don't know the interpretation of the second verse or the third one. Those two are probably written as fillers, expressing further dissatisfaction of Joe's life. If you know more about the lyrics, please let me know in the comments below.

As for the title of the song, Dancing in the Dark, it means living a dangerous, adventurous life as if tomorrow doesn't exit; it's like living on the edge.

1. I get up in the evening
2. and I ain't got nothing to say
3. I come home in the morning
4. I go to bed feeling the same way
5. I ain't nothing but tired
6. Man I'm just tired and bored with myself
7. Hey there baby, I could use just a little help
8. 
   
9. You can't start a fire
10. You can't start a fire without a spark
11. This gun's for hire
12. even if we're just dancing in the dark
13. 
    
14. Message keeps getting clearer
15. radio's on and I'm moving 'round the place
16. I check my look in the mirror
17. I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face
18. Man I ain't getting nowhere
19. I'm just living in a dump like this
20. There's something happening somewhere
21. baby I just know that there is
22. 
    
23. You can't start a fire
24. you can't start a fire without a spark
25. This gun's for hire
26. even if we're just dancing in the dark
27. 
    
28. You sit around getting older
29. there's a joke here somewhere and it's on me
30. I'll shake this world off my shoulders
31. come on baby this laugh's on me
32. 
    
33. Stay on the streets of this town
34. and they'll be carving you up alright
35. They say you gotta stay hungry
36. hey baby I'm just about starving tonight
37. I'm dying for some action
38. I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book
39. I need a love reaction
40. come on now baby gimme just one look
41. 
    
42. You can't start a fire sitting 'round crying over a broken heart
43. This gun's for hire
44. Even if we're just dancing in the dark
45. You can't start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart
46. This gun's for hire
47. Even if we're just dancing in the dark
48. Even if we're just dancing in the dark
49. Even if we're just dancing in the dark
50. Even if we're just dancing in the dark
51. Hey baby

Lyrics from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/brucespringsteen/dancinginthedark.html