“We Danced”
Brad Paisley
Written by Chris DuBois and Brad Paisley
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
December 1, 2000
Billboard
#1 (2 weeks)
December 2 – December 9, 2000
From day one, I’ve understood the appeal of Brad Paisley.
He used the early nineties playbook in the late nineties, launching his career through a nostalgic embrace of an era that had ended about two years earlier. Paisley understood the structure of that specific brand of nineties country, and “We Danced” might be the best example of his mastery of this very specific form.
The steel guitar plays off the key lines in all the right places. The storyline follows the “Don’t Take the Girl” structure of a chorus staying the same but meaning something different as it follows each verse. And Paisley’s twang is just enough to endear him to traditionalists while still being smooth enough to keep suburban moms and dads from changing the station. But the talents are still developing, for sure. He didn’t write a strong enough melody or deliver a strong enough vocal performance to compensate for the flaccid chorus, which would honestly require a Jackson or a Strait to pull off.
With time, I’ve come to appreciate his reverence for the form, and I feel less cynical about the calculated craft of his records. But that clinical feeling still remains with me. Paisley casts himself as a bartender, but this is a meet cute more suited to a university dining hall. A setup that could be genuinely interesting is secondary to the song’s primary goal of supporting the chorus. That’s a subtle but significant shift that foreshadows so much of what I don’t like about modern mainstream country.
A quarter century later, I’m more charitable to someone who can actually sing and write, and who I believe genuinely cares about the traditions of country music and the preservation of the genre. But Paisley’s the canary in the coal mine, as college educated kids from the suburbs overwhelm the artist rosters and songwriting rooms of Music Row and only know the working class experience from what they’ve seen on TV.
Because there isn’t a honky tonk bar on earth where this scenario would play out like this. But it would make for a good episode of Cheers.
“We Danced” gets a B.
Every No. 1 Single of the 2000s
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I would agree that “B” seem right. Not exceptional but a good song.