“Life In Song” #20: Born To Dance is a lot of firsts. It’s the first significant love song I wrote. It’s also the first song that really opened up what I could do on the guitar accompaniment. This guitar part is light years beyond anything I’d done before. I was smitten with a young lady named Jackie Lieberman who was also being pursued by a couple of other guys. Hence the idea that I had to wait my turn to dance. I think ultimately the girl was less important at that time than the idea of being in love. I was lonely and socially awkward. I was constantly put into the “friend zone” by the girls I wanted to date. In other words the same story as a gazillion other guys in high school (and life) who weren’t “naturals” with women. Anyway, I sang this song for my girlfriend the other day and all these years later it still conveyed exactly the right kind of emotion. Hope you enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed playing it.
PLEASE NOTE: There is a BONUS early studio version of this song in the Back Stage Pass members area so join it if you haven’t already.
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Video:
Audio:
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Lyrics:
Born To Dance | May 1978 | Song #20
I am a part of the darkness
Of the dust and of the ice
I travel to you from that great unknown
They call poetic device
I’ve walked the tightrope of social acceptance
And I found that it wasn’t for me
So I learned to journey into myself
And my choreography
I was born to be a dancer
I do it all the time
I dance in the upstairs room
Where my words don’t have to rhyme
I see by the way that you move
That you are a dancer too
Perhaps we can share a few of our steps
And the joys of risking anew
And although I want to be near you
I don’t want to step on your toes
So it would help if you’d softly tell me
When I’m getting to close
Your were born to be a dancer
I see it all the time
You dance in the open air
Where your words just naturally rhyme
I feel like I’m drowning in contradictions
‘Cause I sometimes can’t dance without you
But I know that if I ever held you too tight
Our love would not be as true
And I want to be able to give to you
Without asking a thing in return
So if someone else asks you to dance
I’ll try to, try to, try to, wait my turn…
We were born to dance
Come on let’s do it one more time
Let’s dance inside and out
With or without the rhyme
Tuning: EADGGD
“Born To Dance” by Mark Shepard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
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