Meaning

Neil says that the title of this song was inspired during a stay on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. "In the evening there was nothing to do except play dominoes; this friend of ours [their personal assistant and Chris's roommate, the late Pete Andreas] always used to beat us, and he used to do this celebratory dance." Despite this prosaic origin, "domino dancing" became Neil's metaphor for a love relationship breaking down because of jealousy. As he once described it, he "created a scenario of, you know, a guy going out with a beautiful girl and all the guys are looking at her on the beach in her bikini or whatever and they’re all dropping dead before her because she’s so gorgeous and so consequently he gets jealous and the relationship collapses…."

But this song has also been widely interpreted as a metaphor for what was going on in the early days of the AIDS crisis: carefree young people dancing (a euphemism for sex; at the very least dancing is, as has been observed, "a vertical expression of a horizontal idea") and subsequently collapsing in succession from illness like rows of dominos ( "Watch them all fall down"). Lending some credence to this alternate interpretation, Neil reportedly said of this song, shortly after its release, that it was their "Numbers," referring to a notorious 1983 track by Soft Cell that is indeed about casual sex.

http://www.geowayne.com/newDesign/introspective/domino.htm

Lyrics

I don't know why, I don't know how,

I thought I loved you but, I'm not sure now,

I've seen you look at strangers,

Too many times,

The love you want is of a different kind

Remember when we felt the sun,

A love like paradise,

How hot it burned,

A threat of distant thunder,

The sky was red,

And where you walked you always,

Turned ev'ry head

All day, all day, Watch them all fall down,

All day, all day, Domino dancing,

All day, all day, Watch them all fall down,

All day, all day, Domino dancing,

I thought that when we fought

I was to blame,

But now I know you play,

A different game,

I've watched you dance with danger,

Still wanting more,

Add another number, To the score

All day, all day, Watch them all fall down,

All day, all day, Domino dancing,

When you look around you wonder

Do you play to win or are you just a bad loser?

All day, all day, All day, all day,

I don't know why, I don't know how,

I thought I loved you but, I'm not sure now,

I hear the thunder crashing, The sky is dark,

And now a storm is breaking, Within my heart.

All day, all day, Watch them all fall down,

All day, all day, Domino dancing,

All day, all day, Watch them all fall down,

All day, all day, Domino dancing,

All day, all day, Watch them all fall down

Play with the song, fill the gaps

Legend

The video player plays from the time specified
Chorus
People Talking

Vocabulary

To Threat

Intent to hurt, risk, intimidation

If you tell someone "I am going to kill you," this is an example of a threat.

Domino Dancing

Meaning

Lyrics

Vocabulary