![]() ![]() As soon as that moment passes – that moment when they were walking on air through the thick, black promise of the night – as soon as the sun starts to come up on the rest of their lives, they are destined to spend forever stewing on what has ended, or simply pretending it hasn't. Sadly, for all their wisdom, the truth is they don't understand the confidence, the place, many people find when they go out – and just how out of place they can feel once those halcyon days are over. People who find a home away from home in the shimmering reaches of nightclubs.Ī lot of cynics would have you believe that nightclubs are only good for trying to get off with people, or that those who purport to love them are merely extending some juvenile urge to deny "the real world". ![]() There are, however, a large percentage of people who only make sense when they are young. ![]() For many, youth is an uncomfortable project, full of Muse albums and matted pubes, and as such something they are glad to watch turn to ash over their shoulder. Of course, that's not to say that the slide into adulthood can't be a rich and bountiful experience. You are young once, it happens, and then the rest is a slow slide towards something both inevitable and unknown. Fuck your inner child, fuck "you're only as young as the woman you feel". That the second after the greatest moment of your life, it is as far behind you as it will be forever. It is a song that respects the truth that the passing of time only moves in one direction. Or at least, edging ever closer towards it. "Dancing Queen" is a song about this end. She was once 17, and as such was totally oblivious that the moment would ever end. Now, instead, she watches from the bar the dancefloor a maelstrom of lost faith, memories and missed opportunities. She is no longer young, no longer sweet, no longer 17. Our narrator has realised that she is no longer the Dancing Queen. This song is about the dancing queen, but it is most definitely not sung by her. See that girl, watch that scene, digging the Dancing Queen You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeenĭancing Queen, feel the beat from the tambourine Yet, have you ever thought about the song's vantage point? The basic point – the important point – here is this: you have spent your entire life believing "Dancing Queen" is a song about a 17-year-old girl, dancing. The tepid beat – barely faster than your heartbeat – the choral whirls and clambering strings. That initial glissando, the endless, breathless, pirouettes in your ears. It's a song of such high-quality, a song so beloved, it's been nearly entirely ruined by the weight of it legacy. In a conversation with THUMP that we stupidly didn't record, the ever-enlightened DJ Harvey once told us he believes "Dancing Queen" is the greatest disco record ever made, and it's hard to disagree. ![]()
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