Live 01 Nov 2016 version
[Spoken intro:] Three guys are going skiing. They forget to make the reservation. They get up to the ski lodge, the person behind the desk says, "Look, all we've got is a small room with a single bed." "No problem, we'll take it, we'll take it." They throw their bags in, they— one single bed, they all hop in, one two three. They sleep, next morning, wake up. Guy on one side goes, "Wow, I had a dream last night I was getting a hand job." The other on the other side goes, "You're kidding me. I had a dream last night I was getting a hand job." Looked the guy in the middle, goes, "I had a dream last night I was skiing." (Simulates the act of skiing while pushing the ski poles with his hands.)
I get up in the evening and I ain't got nothing to say
Come home in the morning, go to bed feeling the same way
I ain't nothing but tired, man I'm just tired and bored with myself
Hey there baby, I could use just a little help
You can't start a fire, you can't start a fire without a spark
This gun's for hire even if we're just dancing in the dark
Messages just keep getting clearer, radio's on and I'm moving 'round the place
Check my look in the mirror, wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face
And I ain't getting nowhere, just living in a dump like this
Something happening somewhere, baby I just know that there is
You can't start a fire, you can't start a fire without a spark
This gun's for hire even if we're just dancing in the dark
Sitting around getting older, there's a joke here somewhere and it's on me
I'll shake this world off my shoulders, come on baby have a laugh on me
Stay on the streets of this town and they'll be carving you up alright
They say you gotta stay hungry, hey baby I'm just about starving tonight
Dying for some action, I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book
I need a love reaction, come on now baby gimme just one look
You can't start a fire sitting 'round crying over a broken heart
This gun's for hire even if we're just dancing in the dark
You can't start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart
This gun's for hire even if we're just dancing in the dark
Dancing in the dark
Hey baby
The above lyrics are for the live 01 Nov 2007 performance of DANCING IN THE DARK at The Theater At Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY, during the tenth (2016) annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit. The song was played in a solo acoustic guitar arrangement.
Bruce Springsteen played a four-song acoustic set during the benefit concert: WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY, I'LL WORK FOR YOUR LOVE, LONG WALK HOME, DANCING IN THE DARK. Given that the event was part of the New York Comedy Festival, Springsteen told a dirty joke between each two songs. After his set, a signed replica of Springsteen's famous Born To Run Fender Esquire guitar was auctioned and realized $280,000 for the Bob Woodruff Foundation. Springsteen had upped the prize by offering to take the winner and three friends on a two-hour trip in his 1967 Cadillac from his house to the Jersey Freeze restaurant in Freehold, NJ, for a dinner of hot dogs and hamburgers. He also threw in his mother's lasagna.
Stand Up For Heroes is an annual benefit organized by the Bob Woodruff Foundation to raise money for injured U.S. servicemen, veterans, and their families. Robert "Bob" Warren Woodruff is an American television journalist. He was the newly appointed co-anchor of ABC World News Tonight when on 29 Jan 2006, while reporting on U.S. and Iraqi security forces in Iraq, he was critically injured by a roadside bomb that struck his vehicle. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and spent 36 days in a medically induced coma. He was not expected to survive, but he recovered and started the Bob Woodruff Foundation, a non-profit helping other Americans who were similarly wounded in war.
Bruce Springsteen has been appearing on almost all of the annual benefits since they started in 2007, playing a handful of songs each time and offering for auction one of his guitars or motorcycles to benefit the foundation.
List of available versions of DANCING IN THE DARK on this website:
DANCING IN THE DARK [Album version]