The Dancer
Billy J. Williams Lyrics

The lyrics to Billy J. Williams's song "The Dancer" paint a vivid picture of the many social and political issues that plague our society today. The first few lines describe a man who is running from his boss who holds a gun that fires "cost". This could be interpreted as a criticism of the capitalist system, where profit is valued over human life. The following lines mention how people die from being cold or are left alone because they are old, touching on issues of poverty and neglect of the elderly.

The lyrics then move on to describe how bombs are dropped on fighting cats and children's dreams are run with rats, which could be a metaphor for the violence and destruction that occurs in war-torn areas. The lines "If you complain you disappear, just like the lesbians and queers" speaks to the way in which marginalized groups are silenced or erased. The next line speaks to the idea that love is only possible with some unseen and distant face, perhaps an allusion to the way in which technology and social media have changed the way we connect with each other.

The lines "And you get beaten up by blacks, who though they worked still got the sack" address issues of racism and workplace discrimination. The lines "And when your soul tells you to hide, your very right to die denied / And in the battle on the streets, you fight computers and receipts" describe a society that is becoming more and more disconnected from human emotion and empathy, and the struggle to maintain a sense of humanity in a world dominated by technology and bureaucracy. The final lines "And when a man is trying to change, but only causes further pain / You realize that all along, something in us was going wrong" suggest that there are deep-rooted societal issues that cannot be easily solved.