PATTI SMITH - DANCING BAREFOOT

Released: May 1979

Not charted

"Dancing Barefoot" is a song written by Patti Smith and Ivan Král, and released as a second single from the Patti Smith Group's 1979 album “Wave”. This is one of Smith's most popular songs, and one of her favorites, performed at most of her concerts. It was never a hit, but neither were any of her songs with the exception of the Bruce Springsteen-written "Because The Night".

Jim Morrison of The Doors was an influence on this song. "I always imagined Jim Morrison singing it, which resulted in me singing and recording it in a lower vocal register," Smith wrote. "I wanted the verse to have a masculine appeal and the chorus to have a feminine one." At the end of the song, Smith recites some of her poetry ("The plot of our life sweats in the dark like a face..."), which is something Morrison innovated on Doors songs like "Peace Frog" and "The WASP (Texas Radio and The Big Beat)."

This being a Patti Smith song, it's filled with symbolism and meaning, looking at the gender intersects with the divine. Most of the lines start with "she," with the opening line, "She is blessing," implying a blessing. "I had the concept to write a lyric line that would have several levels - the love of one human being for another and the love of ones creator," Smith wrote on his website. "So in a sense, the song addresses both physical and spiritual love."

The last line in the chorus is often interpreted as "heroin," but it's really "heroine":

Some strange music draws me in

Makes me come on like some heroine

"Heroin" seemed logical considering there are also references to addiction and intoxication ("She is addicted to thee... "She intoxicated by thee"), but the song is not about drugs. She's dancing barefoot because the music is pulling her into a state of higher consciousness, relieving her of her inhibitions and making her feel like a heroine, the feminine form of "hero."

The lyrics didn't come with the album, but a blurb on the sleeve read, "Dedicated to the rites of the heroine," which was the only way to know for sure that Smith wasn't singing the homophone "heroin". Smith says she was asked to change the word to avoid confusion and make the song more marketable, but she refused. This certainly stymied the song commercially, but Smith wasn't going to compromise her art.

"Dancing Barefoot" is the theme song to the 2023 miniseries “Daisy Jones & The Six”, about a fictional band from the '70s. The series uses a lot of original music, but producers felt "Dancing Barefoot" encapsulated the story better than anything they could write. The main character, Daisy (played by Elvis Presley's granddaughter Riley Keough), makes a spiritual connection with music that eventually leads her to the band.