"I Won't Dance" is unusual in length. Rather than the usual 32 bars (8-8-8-8) it is 60 bars (12-16-16-16). You have the first 12 set correctly, but you lopped off the last two lines of the next 16 and added them to the following section. This song is an example of one of Dorothy's favorite tricks. She likes to reverse the usual Limerick pattern (two long lines followed by two short lines and then a final long line) and put the short lines last (three long lines and then--surprisingly--two short lines). "For heaven rest us, I'm not asbestos" here, and "Red Rover, cross over" and "I shoulda forbid it, but I did it" in other songs.
I somehow needed to have it pointed out to me that the song is another example of “dance” as code for sex. It gets obscured by the intricate rhymes and topical references, plus the big joke of suggesting that Fred Astaire was too clumsy to get on the dance floor. But it makes so much more sense decoded.
"I Won't Dance" is unusual in length. Rather than the usual 32 bars (8-8-8-8) it is 60 bars (12-16-16-16). You have the first 12 set correctly, but you lopped off the last two lines of the next 16 and added them to the following section. This song is an example of one of Dorothy's favorite tricks. She likes to reverse the usual Limerick pattern (two long lines followed by two short lines and then a final long line) and put the short lines last (three long lines and then--surprisingly--two short lines). "For heaven rest us, I'm not asbestos" here, and "Red Rover, cross over" and "I shoulda forbid it, but I did it" in other songs.
Dorothy Fields was the daughter of Lew Fields, of the comedy duo Weber and Fields.
I somehow needed to have it pointed out to me that the song is another example of “dance” as code for sex. It gets obscured by the intricate rhymes and topical references, plus the big joke of suggesting that Fred Astaire was too clumsy to get on the dance floor. But it makes so much more sense decoded.