Gone Dancing

Based on my suggestion (so I can take the credit or get the blame), our student Kinks tribute band is performing "Come Dancing" as part of our set at the Whiskey Junction on August 7. I should probably be embarrassed to admit this, but as a preteen of the early 80's, this song from 1982 was my first real introduction to the Kinks, and holds a special nostalgic place in my heart. Not only does it remind me of my preteendom, but my brother had his own version of his song that went "The day they knocked down the Co-Op, my sister stood and cried. The day they knocked down the Co-Op, part of my childhood died, just died."

Despite Chad's often warranted critique that my posts are way too long, I'm now going to dive into a long explanation and exploration of that one simple lyric. There are just too many amazing and enlightening layers to it that I don't want my gentle readers to miss:

Check out the video for this (which I can't link to, sorry!) I'm struck
by how creepy Ray Davies acts as the suitor, and it makes me want
to go ball room dancing!!

• The original lyric is "The day they knocked down the Palais" and refers to a dance hall. (You should all use the Googles to get the full story behind the song, it's quite sweet).
• My brother's lyric does NOT refer to a co-op as we think about it today but was a big store on the current site of the MegaFoods East in Eau Claire where my family went as much as we possibly could. Any excuse would lead us to the Co-Op, and it was the place to get almost anything you wanted in the seventies. We even collected little stamps to put in the little booklets to get discounts. 
• My brother had a version of a song that was NOT dirty, or even off-color! As this is a family-friendly-ish blog, I can't share some of his other works, but ask me in person to share his version of "Strangers in the Night."
• We were NOT mocking my sister with this song, as was our usual younger smartass sibling M.O. 

I don't really remember when they actually knocked down the Co-Op, but my sister and the whole family probably cried a little, at least on our repressed German insides. Now that many parts of my childhood actually have died and many more are on life support and I am officially a sentimental middle-aged lady, listening to this song again to learn to play it actually has made me tear up a little. 

Oh yeah, and I'm attempting to sing this song while playing drums. Which may make my bandmates and the audience cry, too, for entirely different reasons. 

And, to be totally random, another awesome 80's song about ball room dancing with a video that I CAN link to!