The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Curiosity
The young and the free
There for all to see
Entranced
Burned by the flame
Have your senses taken leave
Into the fire of true belief
It's the orgy of the free
It was at first as
If they were shadows
Shimmering visions
By the light of the dancing flame
Bodies in motion
The sound of the ocean
Came into vision
On the night of the dancing flame
What of your own free will
Bodies are writhing still
There in the moonlight
With my head up help high
Wish I could keep on walking by
But I
Find myself drawn to you
I let you do what you want to do
You had your wicked way
There on the site of the dancing flame
It was at first as
If they were shadows
Shimmering visions
By the light of the dancing flame
Bodies in motion
The sound of the ocean
Came into vision
On the night of the dancing flame
To dance around the fire
On the night of the dancing flame
To make the flame grow higher
In the light of the dancing flame
To dance around the fire
On the night of the dancing flame
To make the flame grow higher
In the light of the dancing flame
On that starry night
Lost my sense of time
I don't know how I
Got my fingers burned
Maybe I got too close
To the light of the
(To the)
To the light of the
(To the)
To the light of the light of the dancing flame
(To the)
To the light of the
(To the)
To the light of the
(To the)
To the light of the dancing flame
(To the)
The young and the free
There for all to see
Entranced
Burned by the flame
Have your senses taken leave
Into the fire of true belief
It's the orgy of the free
It was at first as
If they were shadows
Shimmering visions
By the light of the dancing flame
Bodies in motion
The sound of the ocean
Came into vision
On the night of the dancing flame
What of your own free will
Bodies are writhing still
There in the moonlight
With my head up help high
Wish I could keep on walking by
But I
Find myself drawn to you
I let you do what you want to do
You had your wicked way
There on the site of the dancing flame
It was at first as
If they were shadows
Shimmering visions
By the light of the dancing flame
Bodies in motion
The sound of the ocean
Came into vision
On the night of the dancing flame
To dance around the fire
On the night of the dancing flame
To make the flame grow higher
In the light of the dancing flame
To dance around the fire
On the night of the dancing flame
To make the flame grow higher
In the light of the dancing flame
On that starry night
Lost my sense of time
I don't know how I
Got my fingers burned
Maybe I got too close
To the light of the
(To the)
To the light of the
(To the)
To the light of the light of the dancing flame
(To the)
To the light of the
(To the)
To the light of the
(To the)
To the light of the dancing flame
(To the)
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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this song is cool i love it i first heard it on SYTYCD and its amazing everytime i hear it dance to the beat and.... did i say it was amazing???:)
absolutely wonderful
To me, it means a lot like the dance Wade Robson created for So You Think You Can Dance. It's about a good girl and a bad boy.
She knows that he's bad and she's try to ignore him and just keep on walking away but she's drawn to him. So she gets herself tangled up in him and all she wants to do once she realizes what she's done is get away from him.
The title, "Night of the Dancing Flame", in my opinion, represents that is nighttime and so it's like any ordinary girl walking by herself at night in a dark place. The "Flame" could represent the bad boy that she couldn't help but get involved with. Last, but not last, "Dancing" represents how she was drawn to him, maybe?
Whatever the song means doesn't take away from how amazing it is; how amazing Roisin Murphy is; and how amazing Wade Robson is.
Maybe I'm taking the lyrics too literally, but it sounds like a sexual experience she had in a public place. I think it DOES have to do with her being seduced, but I think the chorus makes it seems like others are involved. If they were involved in the act itself ("orgy")or just unaware people passing by I'm not sure. I just feel really strongly by the opening verse and other parts of the song that it's about public displays...
I LOVE the music and I too saw the Wade Robson choreographed performance on so you think you can dance. It was AMAZING! So I totally agree with letsliveforever. Whatever it's about, it's still great!
It almost seems like the girl in the song ended up involved in some sort of sexual cult ritual. It seemed like these people live wildly and outside the traditional. I take it that their worship involved sexual acts to stimulate the fire. Perhaps an actual fire or maybe their god and his wrath. I don't know that could be too literal. I love this song so much!
The song is literally about what the lyrics say. An orgy at the beach. From a magazine interview:
Roisin wrote ‘Night Of The Dancing Flame’ after a trip to Ibiza, “I shouldn’t mention Ibiza again but will do!” she laughs off, almost ashamedly. “We were on a beach in Northern Ibiza, the name escapes me right now, but there’s this hippee festival every full moon in the summer. It was quite sleazy actually.” “There were all these vaseline-clad girls dancing round a fire and these sleazy guru-like older men playing bongos and watching on. Which is where the line, The orgy of the free, comes from. It’s suppose to be ironic because the observation was that the girls were danc- ing through this idea of freedom, but they weren’t really free at all. It was an amazing thing to see, though - the image of heavily vaselined-skin against the firelight. And then they put a circular lamp/sheet thing around the girls and the fire so you could only see the shadows dancing. Visually, it was an incredible feast but still a bit distressing.”