I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)
I love Ptown. It’s a magical place that just makes me smile as I walk down the street. And one of my foavorties things to do in Ptown is go to the Tea Dance. Seven days a week during the season, and on the weekends in the off season, the Boatslip hosts the Tea Dance. Most people go there to listen to the music, to drink, to socialize, etc. Not me. I go to dance. I’ve been going to the Tea Dance for years. Since I first came to Ptown in 2003? I love DJ Mary Alice. She plays the best music. Pop music remixes. So familiar songs with big vocals. I will openly admit that I’m a bit of an anthem queen. I love the songs that are like anthems. Pink’s “What About Us?” and “This is Me!!” from The Greatest Showman are just a couple of the recent anthem songs that I know by heart and sing as the beat from the latet remix drives the words from some where deep in my body out into the crowded dance floor and the universe.
“Oh, I wanna dance with somebody
I wanna feel the heat with somebody
Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody
With somebody who loves me
Oh, I wanna dance with somebody
I wanna feel the heat with somebody
Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody
With somebody who loves me”
It was Monday night. So “I Love the 90s” at the Boatslip for Tea Dance. And who doesn’t love the 90s? In the 90s I wasn’t even in the closet. I was in denial. In the Navy and yet I would go to the clubs and listen to Whitney sing. But on this Monday night in Ptown, the dance floor took this song and owned it. Packed with big burly men (Bear Week after all) and their admirers, the refrain would just echo across the small (ish) dance floor and resonate with hundreds of gay men. “I want to dance with somebody” we sang loudly, “I wanna feel the heat with somebody” we declared. “Yeah I wanna dance with someobody, With somebody who loves me!” we shouted at the top of our lungs defiantly! We’ve been defied that for so long and we weren’t going to take it anymore! If you have a gay friend, he knows the words to this song like a promise we’ve kept to ourselves for far too long.
Tueaday night. I’ve been to the pool, a party, and Tea. Always Tea. And a bit drunk. Let’s be honest. But I have tickets to see Matt Alber perform. One of my favorite artists that I’m sure you’ve never heard of. But he’s good. And he does an amazing set including an acapalla version of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Imagine it, stripped of the beats, without Whitney’s amazing voice but with a deeper manly voice, and a little slower tempo , ,
And now this song, this anthem, that I’ve sung a thousand times become something else. Not a dirge, but maybe a ballad? A bitter sweet love song to a hope that is almost gone? To a dream that is slowly fading from my grasp? And I start to cry. I’m sure it’s the alcohol, but it’s also me.
And I think of John. And “The End of the World” by Matt Alber:
Don't you want to fall, don't you want to fly
Don't you want to be dangled over
The edge of this aching romance
If it's gonna end, then I wanna know
That we squeezed out every moment
But if there's nothing left can you tell me why
That it is you're holding onto me
Like it's the end of the world