"Come Dancing" is the name of an English TV show featuring a Ballroom Dancing competition. And it is the impetus for Ray Davie's 1982 masterpiece. A huge hit, it is a perfect blend of sound and story. It has the ring of truth (it feels biographical) and the ring of Davies: a man who suffers from nostalgia for a UK he would have barely glimpsed.
When not extolling the Victorian Age of English supremacy, he was decrying the advent of nuclear power and the commercialization and cheapening of people's life.
There has always been a deep anger to Davie's nostalgia and on "Come Dancing" , it simmers to a furious break.
The song rides a glorious keyboard change all the way to the last chorus, where horns play it and Davies remembers "The Palais" -a dancing ballroom where the Big Bands played. A young Davies big sister would go out dancing with dates every Saturday night and Davies would watch the interaction between the sister and the boy friend (chaste, very chaste). When the song opens, Davies describes (in wonderful effective language) the devolution of "The Palais" to its current state as a parking lot.
It leads him to discuss his sisters love of dancing. It is a beautiful, touching dance melody and kissed with innocence and naivety. Till the first break where his sister gets home late and has "a row" with his Mum. The word "row" isn't "fight" and though it is the first time the song moves from the 1950s to current rock .it is a set up for the day they pull down "The Palais": "my sister stood and cried, a part of my childhood died, just died". Dave Davies plays a hard, metally doomsday riff right after the line and the world has turned on its head..
Ray brings us back to the present, "now I'm grown up and playing with a band" he notes before inviting his sister, now married with kids of her own and not going out on dates anymore "If I asked her, I wonder of she would? Come dancing, come on sister have yourself a ball".
For the coda, horns take over from the keyboards and the big band era lives again.
The story is just wonderful, almost Chekovian in its precise evocation. And the video lends itself just about perfectly to the story. First the lyric: and then the video (ps note that first verse: all movement backwards thru time. Genus)
They put a parking lot on a piece of land
Where the supermarket used to stand.
Before that they put up a bowling alley
On the site that used to be the local Palais.
That's where the big bands used to come and play.
My sister went there on a Saturday.
Come dancing,
All her boyfriends used to come and call.
Why not come dancing, it's only natural?
Another Saturday, another date.
She would be ready but she'd always make him wait.
In the hallway, in anticipation,
He didn't know the night would end up in frustration.
He'd end up blowing all his wages for the week
All for a cuddle and a peck on the cheek.
Come dancing,
That's how they did it when I was just a kid,
And when they said come dancing,
My sister always did.
My sister should have come in at midnight,
And my mum would always sit up and wait.
It always ended up in a big row
When my sister used to get home late.
Out of my window I can see them in the moonlight,
Two silhouettes saying goodnight by the garden gate.
The day they knocked down the Palais
My sister stood and cried.
The day they knocked down the Palais.
Part of her childhood died, just died.
Now I'm grown up and playing in a band,
And there's a car park where the Palais used to stand.
My sister's married and she lives on an estate.
Her daughters go out, now it's her turn to wait.
She lets them get away with things she never could,
But if I asked her I wonder if she would,
Come dancing,
Come on sister, have yourself a ball.
Don't be afraid to come dancing,
It's only natural.
Come dancing,
Just like the Palais on a Saturday.
And all her friends would come dancing
Where the big bands used to play.
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