Steppin Out

I think this song is meant to be taken pretty literally. The imagery is beautiful. You can picture the mist covered window with the neon signs outside shining through. They are in the city. His wife has been crying, they had been fighting. He is reaching out to her, "lets go out." He draws this whole picture in just the first stanza. Powerful use of words.

I don't think they are old, he specifically says that they are young. But dressing in pink and blue is clearly playful, he wants them to go out and have fun. There could be deeper meaning, esp with 'into the night, into the light.' but I don't see it. I like to think that this is a simple yet beautiful snapshot of a poignant moment in this couple's life.

My rather mundane take on the song is that it's about a couple that's been married for a long time, their kids have gone off to college, and the spark in their romance may have waned a bit, and the husband wants to encourage the wife to go out on a date to rev things up again.

"the mist across the window hides the lines" the lines of his wife's face due to her age. he would have similar lines.

"steppin out..." etc. means what it says.

"We - Are young but getting old before our time We'll leave the T.V. and the radio behind Don't you wonder what we'll find"

also means what it says. the married couple is getting on in years but it's not too late to go out on a romantic date. they will leave the tv and the radio behind and have a night out on the time, for a change. maybe they'll find that old spark again.

"You - Can dress in pink and blue just like a child And in a yellow taxi turn to me and smile We'll be there in just a while If you follow me "

here the husband is encouraging his wife to dress young and to feel young.

that's the simplest interpretation I get from the lyrics, anyway. maybe there's a dual-meaning that has to do with the afterlife (hence the "other side" as someone said earlier)

Context, people, context! This is Joe Jackson, one of the post-punk rebels alongside Elvis Costello. So, there's no ethereal life/death themes, instead firmly rooted in working class themes. Yet, while Costello preferred to moreso dwell on the injustices back home, Jackson set sail for New York City and tell more populist tales. A (too?) young couple strained by argument and tears are tired and prematurely aging, so, says hubby, let's just go out, somewhere, whereever, anywhere that isn't the uninspired nightly ritual of the tellie or the radio. Into the city lights, where anything can happen.

This is one of the most hopeful, optimistic songs on record, imho, and helped mark the beginning of the early eighties New Wave ("dress in pink and blue"), Reagan-dominated ("anything's possible") era which was such a marked difference to a near-decade of the grey, despondant, economically-challenged late 70s, which gave birth to disco, the antithesis of the times.

This song 'Steppin Out' is a song about death and the afterlife. The first verse is about the materialistice world that humans have manifested. The mist on the window is the haze that falls over our 'last breath' as we are passing into the threshold of the afterlife. Dry your eyes is referring to the emotional response from our life flashing before our eyes, but if we 'look' and 'dry our eyes,' we'll see the spendor of Heaven. The second verse refers to the perfection and 'light' of Heaven-- that there will be no more fear or wants. 'Get into a car and drive to the other side' is the metaphor of our journey into the afterlife. The chorus refers to the fact that all of us will face our death; that we step into the 'unknown' and 'feared' night (our death), which is really the 'light' of our afterlife. Third verse again refers to our aging process and how quickly our life passes before and the fact of leaving all of our worldly possessions behind. The fourth verse refers to the restoration to our perfect and child-like selves in the afterlife. The taxi is a metaphor for our shared life experiences with other humans and our commonality that we all our on a 'ride' that ends with our deaths. 'We'll be there in just a while if you follow me' either refers to the fact that the speaker is aware and has already come to grips that life is really a 'short ride,' or it could be a metaphor for Jesus 'leading us to the Promised Land.'

A hotel clerk and maid are sad they have to work Friday night, and step out of line by going into a rich couple's room to imagine "the other side', play his piano, and try on her dresses.

This is about a couple who have been together for a long time. They have over a decade together. They love each other, but there are problems just like everyone. They are troubled and that they come from families where there was pain and needs and longing. So they grew up with grief. It didn’t just arrive when somebody died. They walk around side-by-side with grief all the way through life. They feel the pain of that grief and never really leaves them. It is precisely because they have felt the nearness and presence of grief that they turned to the outlet of an evening out in the city and entertainment to provide some sort of balance. This isn’t a new thing either. Back when they were younger night clubbing was a daily or frequent ritual. Dressing up with a big part of going out. It was never a dreary grey effort. There is something about going out which seems to be life affirming. The effort goes into and the love of the surroundings and elevated atmosphere is profoundly therapeutic. Although they used to go out a lot almost like a professional club going couple. They have a sort of understanding that if you go out a lot, it isn’t always something that you enjoy. It can be tinged with sadness. It can be an empty experience. It just depends. But on this occasion it’s a while since they’ve been doing that regularly. And reconnecting with that nightlife is a way for them to connect with this life affirming part of themselves. It’s an affirmation of life. It is an affirmation of their appearance. And of making themselves beautiful. So it goes far beyond a simple night out. It’s about making oneself into the best one can be. Celebrating one’s life. It’s like refusing to be ground down by things. So they decide to step out. The act of Doing so is an act of kindness to each other. the warmth and depth of the experience isn’t lost on his partner who is weeping. they are reconnecting with a more innocent part of themselves.. they are cleansed of some ugliness either in their life or the past when they dress up and fare forth into the night. it is like a reclamation of the soul. The innocence and the beauty of the moment and of what the night out means is what they are feeling as they sit on the cab looking at the lights through the window.

He is basically explaining to us that these seemingly superficial things can be profoundly therapeutic profoundly generous acts of love towards oneself. It is about the depth of choosing glamour and beauty in evening surroundings. That it is not always a shallow thing when one does this. That glamour and beauty can touch the soul and lift the soul sometimes when needed.

People are pretty inventive, even when there's no reason to be. It's a misty night, they're upset about something unspecified, and they're lured out by the shining lights of the city. Specifically the "tired of all the darkness in our lives" and "leave the TV and the radio behind" make me think that he's referring generally to the feeling of being cooped up and blasted with bad news night after night, and needing the feeling of stepping out into the real world. "To the other side" is not a reference to the after life. This song is probably about New York City and "to the other side" could mean to the other side of the river, to the other side of town, etc. Just getting out of the neighborhood where they spend all of their time to go see something new for a change.

I LOVE JOE JACKSON! i've been trying to post the lyrics to Dear Mom and it's not working, it's really making me mad, am i like doing it wrong or something?

I've tried to add some lyrics too. I don't know but It might take a while to go through the system, maybe just wait a couple of days or something and check back.

Not many people post here by the looks of it so I can't see anyone confirming this.