The Rolling Stones Songs - Dancing With Mr. D Lyrics

The Rolling Stones - Dancing With Mr. D

The Rolling Stones - Dancing With Mr. D Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Goat's Head Soup
Released: 1973

Dancing With Mr. D Lyrics

Down in the graveyard where we have our tryst
The air smells sweet, the air smells sick
He never smiles, his mouth merely twists
The breath in my lungs feels clinging and thick
But I know his name, he's called Mr. D.
And one of these days he's gonna set you free
Human skulls is hangin' right 'round his neck
The palms of my hands is clammy and wet

Lord, I was dancin', dancin', dancin' so free
Dancin', dancin', dancin' so free
Dancin', Lord, keep your hand off me
Dancin' with Mr. D., with Mr. D., with Mr. D.

Will it be poison put in my glass
Will it be slow or will it be fast?
The bite of a snake, the sting of a spider
A drink of Belladonna on a Toussaint night
Hiding in a corner in New York City
Lookin' down a forty-four in West Virginia

I was dancin', dancin', dancin' so free
Dancin', dancin', dancin' so free
Dancin', Lord, keep your hand off me
Dancin' with Mr. D., with Mr. D., with Mr. D.

One night I was dancin' with a lady in black
Wearin' black silk gloves and a black silk hat
She looked at me longin' with black velvet eyes
She gazed at me strange all cunning and wise
Then I saw the flesh just fall off her bones
The eyes in her skull was burning like coals
Lord, have mercy, fire and brimstone
I was dancin' with Mrs. D.

Lord, I was dancin', dancin', dancin' so free
I was dancin', dancin', dancin' so free
Dancin', dancin', dancin' so free

Dancin', dancin'

Writer/s: JAGGER, MICK/RICHARDS, KEITH
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC, SONY ATV MUSIC PUB LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Dancing With Mr. D Song Chart

A common point of confusion is whether the title "Mr. D" refers to the devil or death. The case is strong for death, judging by the lyrics: "Down in the graveyard," "one of these days he's gonna set you free," "skulls," "the flesh just fall off her bones," plus many speculations on how to die - by poison, snakebite, "the sting of a spider," or being shot with a .44. There's very little of the demonic going on here (only one line, "fire and brimstone"), very much of romanticizing the end we all eventually face.

This was the last track producer Jimmy Miller worked on for The Stones.

The lyrics will remind Harlan Ellison fans of Ellison's short essay The Day I Died, first published in a 1973 issue of the Los Angeles Free Press and later published in Ellison's Stalking the Nightmare anthology. In it, Ellison idly speculates on a number of scenarios in which he dies, trying to predict the future. He's since lived long enough to prove most of them wrong. Read about it here, fantasy fans.

That's Billy Preston on clavinet, a type of keyboard. You might remember him as the title role in the film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - that is, if you could stand to sit through such a train wreck. Preston jammed with the Beatles, most famously on Get Back.

This song is typical of the whole Stones album Goat's Head Soup, having a darker tone than most Stones work. The album was recorded in Jamaica, and Keith Richards commented on the ethnic mix of studio hands they had coming in, not just Jamaicans but Chinese and Guyanans as well. It made him appreciate the cultural diversity of the island country.