Joyce loved Jorge Miguel. And every time she played it or it came on, she embraced it. I can only imagine when she was a little kid and into HS and her earlier adult life, her hopeless romances that never fully happened, this was an anthem of hers.
"We could have been so good together
We could have lived this dance forever
But now, who's gonna dance with me?
Please stay"
I can say a few other things about this track. It has this super melancholy 80's ballad sheen to it. It captures this sort of cinematic drama from a teen or maybe early 20's age romance. But while at the time it connected, I think its greatest power is how as it has aged, it brings this enormous sense of nostalgia and going back in time. Maybe not 100% purely in the 1980's, but just for one's youth or looking back when you are younger and in-love, or wanting to be in-love.
Wanting to go back to that time. And when you were young and admired someone. Also the way it has this lost love, or a couple who broke up and the regrets of the man. Something he said or did that caused him to lose her. And he's pouring his heart and soul into his words and the emotion in George Michae's vocals.
Sure the sax part sticks out and it is sad but also soaring and dramatic.
While this wasn't Joyce's favorite Wham! or Jorge Miguel tune, I think even she would admit it is the song that she had the biggest emotional reaction and tie to. Even just with the lyrics. Maybe because Joyce, like me, didn't have a ton success with love and relationships, She had a few, more than I did. But from everytthing she told me, she was kind of a hopeless romantic in a lot of ways.
"I'm never gonna dance again
Guilty feet have got no rhythm
Though it's easy to pretend
I know you're not a fool
I should have known better than to cheat a friend
And waste a chance that I'd been given
So I'm never gonna dance again
The way I danced with you"
I think I'm going to be haunted by this tune for the rest of my life. It just has this enormous staying power of sadness, guilt, and what-could-have-been. And it captures so much of what Joyce felt with music, love and now lost-love. And Joyce was drawn to these. She loved "All By Myself" and "On My Own" as well. She would sing them frequently in front of me (when she wasn't by herself or on her own, lol).
And then when George Michael died, this tune took even more meaning. The tragedy of his death and this song, as much as George Michael himself didn't love it, basically took his memory and legacy and rose it into the stratosphere. He became more iconic and a martyr in a lot of ways at that point. And Joyce I think even saw him that way even more when that happened.
Well, she's up there with him now, dancing without guilty feet that have no rhythm...
