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You Can’t Start A Fire Without A Spark
Two days ago Courteney Cox turned 56. While no one’s completely celebrating much of anything these days, two weeks after Cox’s 20th birthday she went Dancing in the Dark with Bruce Springsteen in St. Paul, Minnesota. Cox, along with thousands of others, was in the Twin Cities for an E Street Band concert and the filming of that now, iconic music video moment. The future “Friend” nabbed her breakout performance and The Boss nailed his biggest career hit.
The story behind the song and the video are particularly interesting. After Springsteen finished recording the ‘Born in the USA’ album more than a year prior, manager Jon Landau thought he still needed a verifiable “pop” hit for the record. And sent Bruce back to his New York City hotel room to work it out. Literally feeling like a “gun for hire” Springsteen defiantly banged out ‘Dancing in the Dark.’ As for Cox’s lead role in the future video, she wasn’t even expecting to be pulled up on stage. Cox told Sam Jones in a 2017 ‘Off Camera’ episode that she was terrified of being “the one” to dance with Bruce and hoped one of the other actresses, next to her, would be selected. At the time, neither Cox nor Springsteen, were overly willing participants in what ultimately became a transformative moment for both.
For anyone who knows basic American music history, it’s not too much of a surprise that a rockin’ dance track became an American rocker’s top charting song. Original Rock and Roll was “dancing music” and embodied the sweeping cultural changes across America in the late 50s and mid-60’s. During this period, music and race relations were fantastically tied together- with Black musicians and singers integrating with predominantly white audiences. Thanks to Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis, Black Girl Groups and The Beatles- Blacks and Whites were all singing and dancing, together, to the same beats. Not to mention, the protest song of a generation, Dancing in the Streets by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, came out in 1964, the same year as Beatlemania crashed the States.
For all his worldly traits and influences, Springsteen is a master student of history, culture and music. In his 2013 MusiCares Person of the Year acceptance speech he singled out the vital importance of music and dancing to life and liberty.
