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Dancing Barefoot Lyrics

She is benediction
She is addicted to thee
She is the root connection
She is connecting with he

Here I go and I don't know why
I feel so ceaselessly
Could it be he's taken over me

I'm dancing barefoot
Headin' for a spin
Some strange music draws me in
It makes me come on like some heroine

She is sublimation
She is the essence of thee
She is concentrating on
He, the chosen of she

Here I go, and I don't know why
I spin so ceaselessly
Could it be he's taken over me

I'm dancing barefoot
Headin' for a spin
Some strange music draws me in
Makes me come on like some heroine

She is recreation
She intoxicated by thee
She has the slow sensation that
He is levitating with she

Here I go, and I don't know why
I spin so ceaselessly
'Til I lose my sense of gravity

I'm dancing barefoot
In mid-air I spin
Some strange music draws me in
Makes me come on like some heroine

Oh, God, I fell for you
Oh, God, I fell for you (continues under spoken text)

Spoken text:
The plot of our life sweats in the dark like a face,
The mystery of childbirth, of childhood itself;
Grave visitations...
What is it that calls to us?
Why must we pray screaming?
Why must not death be redefined?
We shut our eyes we stretch out our arms
And whirl on a pane of glass
An afixation, a fix on anything, the line of life, the limb of a tree
The hands of he and the promise that she is blessed among women
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11 Meanings

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Cover art for Dancing Barefoot lyrics by Patti Smith

Patti dedicated this song to women such as Jeanne Hébuterne, mistress of the artist Amedeo Modigliani. She commited suicide when he died, so the idea of being completely taken over by love for one person would make sense.

Cover art for Dancing Barefoot lyrics by Patti Smith

i think it's about being so taken by someone that you let yourself go all out

Cover art for Dancing Barefoot lyrics by Patti Smith

I think this song is all about how the slow realisation that she has fallen in love, elevates her to a place that maybe only taking drugs could possibly come close to.

Maybe even a play on the words "Heroin/e" and "re-creation"(as in recreational drugs)??

Beautiful Song

Cover art for Dancing Barefoot lyrics by Patti Smith

Jeanne Hebuterne was married to a famous artist in the early 1900s. They had a child together, and she was pregnant with another. In 1920, her husband died, from either drug addiction, illness (or both). 2 days later, Jeanne threw herself off a building, killing herself and her unborn child, leaving their first child orphaned.

Patti looks at this shocking story of love, loss and grief, probably through the lens of her own relationships. She grabs the cliche "Oh God, I fell for you" with both hands, and twists it into a grotesque meditation on love and death. That last line is repeated over & over while Smith recites some cryptic poetry (not included here), probably representing the last thoughts in Jeanne's mind before she died.

@bingoboy excellent interpretation. It's truly about the emotion and power of love, followed by tragedy of the overwhelming sense of loss. The ending poetry truly cements this anguish - "why must death be redefined".

I heard the song the other night in the Jen Silverman play "Roommates" that prompted me to locate and read the FULL lyrics - even without knowing anything about Jeanne Hebuterne.

God, anyone that can't distinguish heroin from heroine should perhaps go buy a dictionary ...pity the fool.

Cover art for Dancing Barefoot lyrics by Patti Smith

I really LOVE U2's cover of this song...it's amazing

Cover art for Dancing Barefoot lyrics by Patti Smith

Used to think this was a U2 original until I discovered Patti's. Both are amazing. Used to think Bono was saying heroin, until I heard the original, heroine makes more sense. Definitely not about heroin, "makes me come on like some heroine". Thanks, Prisoner for clearing that up. Still, I can see how some would make the connection, it was recorded close to the same period as Bad, and Running to Stand Still which are about heroin and hopelessness

Cover art for Dancing Barefoot lyrics by Patti Smith

Seems to me the lyric is not "heroin/e" but "heroine," as in "a female hero."

Does anyone here know how Patti actually wrote that line?

Cover art for Dancing Barefoot lyrics by Patti Smith

My favorite version will always be the Simple Minds cover from 2001. Very catchy in all forms, though.

Cover art for Dancing Barefoot lyrics by Patti Smith

To me the song expresses the divinity in all of us. It\'s a spiritual song.\nShe is connected to God/divine energy and she becomes god herself: she gives births, she expresses him, she is connected with him.\nWhen she is connected with her true nature, when she it taken over by Him she becomes heroine/God/divine.

Cover art for Dancing Barefoot lyrics by Patti Smith

Great song. Great lyrics. I think it is about heroin too.

Lovely lovely song - I think it's about the exhilaration and intoxication of love, but "like some heroin(e)" could well be paralleling a drug high, as with any good poetry you are free to interpret this.

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