Dancing in the Dark

Available for over a year

"Dancing in the Dark was written under duress!" Bruce Springsteen says it was a song about not wanting to write another song. "I get up in the evening / And I ain't got nothing to say" - By 1984, Bruce Springsteen had been recording songs for his album Born in the U.S.A. for two years, but the producer told him the album still didn't have a lead single. This became a product of that conversation, written in just 40 minutes. "I ain't nothing but tired / Man, I'm just tired and bored with myself" - Kieran Leonard's mum was a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. After he lost her to cancer, he paid tribute to her by performing his songs dressed as Bruce on stage. "You can't start a fire / You can't start a fire without a spark" - Ian Gravell was driving to pick up his daughter from nursery on a snowy evening when a lorry appeared out of nowhere. He thought he might never walk again, until hospital staff played his favourite Springsteen album compelling him to his feet. 'Messages keep getting clearer / Radio's on and I'm moving round my place' - Musician Lucy Dacus talks about playing the song on stage with her dad and the genius of the lyrics. "There's something happening somewhere / Baby, I just know that there is" - Artist Holly Casio found huge comfort in Springsteen's music as a young person growing up gay in a small town in West Yorkshire in the era of Section 28. "This gun's for hire / Even if we're just dancing in the dark"- when Jackie Heintz brought a Springsteen record home as a teenager, she never imagined that her mum Jeannie would become a huge fan – following Bruce on tour through her 70s and 80s, and dancing on stage with him aged 91. Producer: Mair Bosworth and Caitlin Hobbs First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2023.