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Dancing With Our Hands Tied

reputation (2017)

“Dancing With Our Hands Tied” is the eleventh track on Taylor’s sixth studio album, reputation (2017). It is a song about the combination of love and fear and how those emotions coincide with each other.
Table of Contents

Background

Taylor released her fifth studio album, 1989, in October 2014. Its synth-pop production transformed her sound and image from country-oriented to mainstream pop. The album was a massive commercial success, selling over five million copies in the U.S. within one year, and spawning three Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles. The BBC asserted that the success of 1989 solidified Taylor’s status as a global pop star.

In 2016, when Taylor was at the peak of overexposure, some of her rivals in the industry (including Scooter Braun, Kanye West and Justin Bieber) succeded in launching a worldwide hate campaign against her. As a result, Taylor disappeared from public view for an entire year and thought about quitting music for good. She became increasingly reticent on social media, having previously maintained an active presence with a large following, and avoided interactions with the press. She conceived her sixth studio album, reputation, as an answer to the media commotion surrounding her celebrity.

“Dancing With Our Hands Tied” is Taylor’s brother Austin Swift‘s favourite track on reputation.

Lyrical Theme and Production

When in the studio to record the song, Taylor cried for an hour before she was able to put down her vocals, which she says had never happened to her before. A fan on Tumblr who attended the “reputation Secret Sessions” explained the story behind the song.

«Taylor set 'Dancing With Our Hands Tied' up by saying that the inspiration for the song came when she was back in LA after spending several months out of the public eye. As we know now, she spent basically all of this time in the UK with [boyfriend] Joe Alwyn, without anyone knowing she even was in a relationship. Back in LA […] she went to the gym only to be caught by paparazzi on her way out. They shouted all kinds of things at her, including comments about her weight – remember this was the first time she had been properly seen in months. She described being really overwhelmed by the experience but that her thought process was less about herself and more about how she could possibly have a normal relationship when this was her life. Taylor actually said that after the incident she went straight to the recording studio, cried, and wrote this song.»

The song shows a different side of Taylor’s sound not present in much of her previous music. It has house music vibes and heavy beat drops. In the last chorus of the song Taylor also hits notes in vocal ranges she has not hit in the previous history of her music career; the notes F5 and G5.

Live Performances

On the “reputation Stadium Tour” (2018), Taylor regularly performed “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” with an acoustic guitar. She alternated between this song and “So It Goes..“. Five years later, Taylor again acoustically performed the song on guitar on November 19, 2023, in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), during one of her shows on “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024). Introducing the song, she said:

«So, this one is one of my favorites. I haven’t played it since the 'reputation Tour.'»

Commercial Performance

“Dancing with Our Hands Tied” has over 100 million streams on Spotify. Although the song was never released as a single, it charted on several daily Spotify charts, at No. 193 in Malaysia, No. 191 in Australia, No. 151 in the US, and No. 89 in Ireland.

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
I, I loved you in secret
First sight, yeah we love without reason
Oh, 25 years old
Oh, how were you to know?
And my, my love had been frozen
Deep blue, but you painted me golden
Oh, and you held me close
Oh, how was I to know?

[Pre-chorus 1]
I could’ve spent forever with your hands in my pockets
Picture of your face
In an invisible locket
You said there was nothing in the world that could stop it
I had a bad feeling…
And darling, you had turned my bed
Into a sacred oasis
People started talking
Putting us through our paces
I knew there was no one in the world who could take it
I had a bad feeling…

[Chorus]
But we were dancing
Dancing with our hands tied, hands tied
Yeah, we were dancing
Like it was the first time, first time
Yeah, we were dancing
Dancing with our hands tied, hands tied
Yeah, we were dancing
And I had a bad feeling
…but we were dancing

[Verse 2]
I, I loved you in spite of
Deep fears that the world would divide us
So, baby can we dance
Oh, through an avalanche?
And say, say that we got it
I’m a mess, but I’m the mess that you wanted
Oh, ’cause it’s gravity
Oh, keeping you with me

[Pre-chorus 2]
I could’ve spent forever with your hands in my pockets
Picture of your face
In an invisible locket
You said there was nothing in the world that could stop it
I had a bad feeling…

[Chorus]
But we were dancing
Dancing with our hands tied, hands tied
Yeah, we were dancing
Like it was the first time, first time
Yeah, we were dancing
Dancing with our hands tied, hands tied
Yeah, we were dancing (Knew we had our hands tied)
And I had a bad feeling
…but we were dancing

[Bridge]
I’d kiss you as the lights went out
Swaying as the room burned down
I’d hold you as the water rushes in
…If I could dance with you again
I’d kiss you as the lights went out
Swaying as the room burned down
I’d hold you as the water rushes in
…If I could dance with you again (Again)

[Chorus]
Dancing with our hands tied, hands tied
Yeah, we were dancing
Like it was the first time, first time (First time, first time)
Yeah, we were dancing (Oh)
Dancing with our hands tied, hands tied (Dancing with our hands tied)
Yeah, we were dancing (Oh)
And I had a bad feeling (I had a bad feeling)
…but we were dancing (Oh)

[Outro]
Hands tied, hands tied (Dancing)

General Information
ArtistTaylor Swift
Albumreputation
ReleasedNovember 10, 2017
RecordedJanuary 11, 2017
StudioConway (Los Angeles)
GenreDance Pop
Length3:31
LabelBig Machine Records
SongwritersTaylor Swift
Max Martin
Shellback
Oscar Holter
ProducersMax Martin
Shellback
Oscar Holter
REPUTATION CHRONOLOGY
King of My HeartDancing With Our Hands TiedDress
Song Certification
Handwritten Lyrics
Live Performance
Official Audio