I feel like, generally speaking, Dance Music is easy to follow. At least the beginning is.

Third verse in, when our protagonist (John?) is seventeen, who is the person he refers to as "the last best thing I've got going?" My original interpretation was that it's a girl, but the more I think, the more I realize that tMG songs are rarely about girls. Still, the reference to not wanting to die alone could mean it's a romantic relationship (or at least as romantic as he could muster at that stage in his life) It wouldn't be his stepfather. Perhaps it's a friend?

Also, why do the police come to get him?
Ok, yeah. I know all the druggie stuff. I don't need that explanation. But why did he put that line in the song where it doesn't have any context at all?

Maybe the police coming felt like being back in his stepfather's house.

I'd love other interpretations

To me, the verse about the friend or girlfriend is showing that the protagonist has a dangerous/rebellious/poor example of a friend but it's all he has. "But then the special secret sickness starts to eat through you" seems to mean something along the lines of committing crimes, drug addiction, insanity etc. "what am i supposed to do? no way of knowing so i follow you down your twisting alleyways find a few cul-de-sacs of my own" appears to be saying that he has no real guidance in his life (i.e. a father figure) so he blindly follows this friend into "cul-de-sacs (dead ends) and back alleys" (the age-old road metaphor, "don't go down that road" ). "There's only one place this road ever ends up and i don't wanna die alone" indicates that the protagonist knows that he's making these bad decisions and shouldn't be friends with this person because it will land him in trouble but it's all he has (i.e. if I lose this friend by not making bad decisions along with him/her, I'll have no one left).

"let me down, let me down, let me down gently when the police come to get me" could either refer to being arrested for doing something dumb with the friend (more likely since it's in the verse about the friend) or being taken into police protection from an abusive parent.

Of course, it could all be way less literal than the way I see it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2012 01:20PM by butter.

i thought it was just supposed to be cool.

chew on that for a little while

I took it that the police came to get him for striking back against the abusive father — but then, I don't expect songs to have rigorous linear coherence or continuity.

I took the police coming to get him as them responding to the disturbance in the house (that drove him upstairs) and asking him what happened/getting the kids out of there for the moment.

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We are the ones who don't slow down at all...

butter, it's funny that you saw cul-de-sacs as dead ends, because I saw them as little safe havens along the road.

save me a seat hit the nail on the head.

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SaveMeASeat
I took the police coming to get him as them responding to the disturbance in the house (that drove him upstairs) and asking him what happened/getting the kids out of there for the moment.

i have always listened to this song as about 2 stories from the narrator's life, the 1st, in the 1st verse, when he was 5 or 6, maybe, and the 2nd, in the second verse, when he was 17. he is listening to dance music up in his room trying to ignore the fighting downstairs when he is 5 or 6; and then again when he is 17, waiting for the cops to come get him. the music is a solace he returns to throughout his life, both as an adolescent and as a young adult. if that's accurate, it doesn't make sense for the cops, in the 2nd verse, coming to get him for a disturbance that happened in the 1st verse, as that was 11 or 12 years earlier.

i always read the police visit as coming to get him after he did something stupid to either himself or the person he is referencing in the 2nd verse. alternatively, the "person" he is referencing in verse 2 could be drugs, and then when he talks about secret sickness, he is talking in the second person about himself. anyways, those are just my thoughts, could be wrong.

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The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone. - Martin Amis

Wild Creature hit the nail on the head

he's listening to dance music, leaping about the cul-de-sac with his pants around his ankles grabbing himself michael jackson style (this is the special secret sickness), and the police charge him with public masturbation. it's all there in the song. no need to read too far into it.

I got special shoes on...

You stole those from Billy the Kid you bastard.

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[hackberrygarage.tumblr.com]
[eavesdroppingvulpine.tumblr.com]

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racheytonk
but the more I think, the more I realize that tMG songs are rarely about girls.

excuse me what?

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mike10k
he's listening to dance music, leaping about the cul-de-sac with his pants around his ankles grabbing himself michael jackson style (this is the special secret sickness), and the police charge him with public masturbation. it's all there in the song. no need to read too far into it.

Epic Win!