The Safety Dance (1982) – Men Without Hats

I’ve been looking forward to writing about today’s featured track from the Canadian group Men Without Hats for a long time – it’s easily one of my favourite synth-pop songs, although I’m not a huge fan of the genre. But this song has always intrigued me. It leaps out at you from the very first note with those pounding synths – there’s no escape! I also adore the quirky, sassy vibe of the English Folk revival imagery in the video; it never fails to raise a smile. Honestly, there are few songs I find as irresistibly catchy and flat-out fun as The Safety Dance. I must’ve heard it over a hundred times by now, and it still gives me just as much of a kick as the first listen. Like another synth-pop gem I treasure – Only You by Alison Moyet – my love for The Safety Dance has never faded.

Most of the following information is condensed from the Wikipedia reference below:

The Safety Dance was released as the second single from the Men Without Hats second album. The song was written by the American-born Canadian musician lead singer Ivan Doroschuk after he had been ejected from a club for pogo dancing. In case you were wondering like I was, pogo dancing is where dancers jump up and down, while either remaining on the spot or moving around resembling a pogo stick. It is most associated with punk rock and is a precursor to moshing. Apart from today’s track, Ivan Doroschuk is also known for Pop Goes the World.

Ivan Doroschuk explained that The Safety Dance is a protest against bouncers prohibiting dancers from pogoing to 1980s new wave music in clubs when disco was declining and new wave was beginning its popularity. Clubgoers doing the newer pogo dance were perceived as posing a danger to disco dancers on the dance floor, and so club bouncers would tell pogoers to stop or be kicked out of the club. Thus, the song is a protest and a call for freedom of expression.

The Safety Dance became a bigger hit for the Canadian group in the US than at home reaching No. 3 on the US Billboard and peaking at No. 11 in Canada. The Safety Dance found similar success in other parts of the world, reaching No. 6 in the UK and No. 5 in Australia. The song has been inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The music video for the song is notable for its British folk revival imagery, featuring Morris dancers, Mummers, Punch and Judy and a maypole. It was filmed in the village of West Kington in Wiltshire, England. Ivan Doroschuk is the only member of the band actually to perform in the video. Doroschuk, and others in the video, can be seen repeatedly forming an “S” sign by jerking both arms into a stiff pose, one arm in an upward curve and the other in a downward curve, apparently referring to the first letter in “safety”. The Morris dancers seen in the video were the Chippenham Town Morris Men. The little person actor is Mike Edmonds whose T-shirt in the video shows the Rhythm of Youth album cover. The identity of the blonde-haired woman by the name of Jenny seen dancing in the video remained unknown until 2013 when she was identified as Louise Court a journalist who was editor-in-chief at Cosmopolitan and became a director at Hearst Magazines UK in 2015.

[Verse 1]
We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
‘Cause your friends don’t dance
And if they don’t dance
Well they’re no friends of mine
I say, we can go where we want to
A place where they’ll never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind
We can dance (Danser)

[Verse 2]
We can go where we want to
The night is young and so am I
And we can dress real neat
From our hats to our feet
And surprise ’em with a victory cry
I say, we can act if we want to
If we don’t, nobody will
And you can act real rude
And totally removed
And I can act like an imbecile

[Chorus]
I say, we can dance, we can dance
Everything is out of control
We can dance, we can dance
We’re doing it from pole to pole
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody look at your hands
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody’s taking the chance

[Post-Chorus]
Safe to dance, well, it’s safe to dance
Yes, it’s safe to dance

[Verse 3]
We can dance if we want to
We’ve got all your life and mine
As long as we abuse it, never gonna lose it
Everything will work out right
I say, We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
‘Cause your friends don’t dance
And if they don’t dance
Well they’re no friends of mine

[Chorus]

References:
1. The Safety Dance – Wikipedia