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Cole Swindell - 'Dirty Dancing'
Release Date: May 9, 2025
Album: Spanish Moss
Songwriters: Beau Bailey, Ned Cameron and Hunter Phelps
Producers: Jordan Schmidt
The Background:
Cole Swindell's fifth studio album is upon us; and just ahead of Spanish Moss' arrival this May, comes 'Dirty Dancing'.
The hitmaker's latest single and the second track off of his upcoming release has little to do with the 1987 classic film of the same name and everything to do with a pair of broken-in boots, a muddy riverbank and two full hearts.
The brand new ballad – full of saccharine lyrics and a cheeky play on words – joins a fleet of them on Spanish Moss, an album that chronicles where the hitmaker currently stands on life and in love.
The Sound:
With a dusting of gentle strums and the cry of a fiddle, 'Dirty Dancing' waltzes awake, the dreamy ballad a wash of delicate strings. The groan of bright steel and a peppering of rhythms soon joins in with the approaching chorus, but the song doesn't stray too far from the weightless arrangement that drives the airy tune.
The Meaning:
"We ran out of clock at that hole in the wall
We were one two-step in when we heard last call
She said take me somewhere
She high-fived the wind all the way out of town
At the edge of the world that’s where I slowed it down
She let down her hair"
'Dirt Dancing' takes place after last call, the song opening on a couple who have found themselves at the end of a night out and with nothing to do once the bars have all closed.
One moment, they were dancing the night away, and now, they're in search of a place when they can keep the two-step stepping. They load up and head out to the middle of nowhere.
As Swindell sings,"We cut them high-beams off on some old farm ground / Left that radio on, spun her around."
"A thousand miles from the ocean by an old riverbank
We felt every word of 'Marina Del Rey'
We let the stars guide every step that we took
The cars passing by never knew where to look
Had some beer from the store and a field for a floor
Nothing fancy up under that moon
Just a slow country song and my old lucky boots
Getting dirty, dancing with you"
They find themselves on a muddy riverbank in a remote locale, with the radio playing nothing but George Strait classics. There, they dance – first, to his 1982 hit, 'Marina Del Rey', and then, to his 1996 ballad 'Carried Away'.
Their surroundings – "The fireflies were firing, the Magnolias sway / Heat lightning sky turning night into day" – set the mood and they're free to pick up the night where they left it, dirtying up their boots along the way.
It's on nights like these that memories are made, with Swindell aptly singing, "Oooh, getting dust on this old Texas leather / Oooh, yeah we made one night sure last forever."
For the full lyrics to Cole Swindell's 'Dirty Dancing', see below:
We ran out of clock at that hole in the wall
We were one two-step in when we heard last call
She said take me somewhere
She high-fived the wind all the way out of town
At the edge of the world that’s where I slowed it down
She let down her hair
We cut them high-beams off on some old farm ground
Left that radio on, spun her around
A thousand miles from the ocean by an old riverbank
We felt every word of Marina Del Rey
We let the stars guide every step that we took
The cars passing by never knew where to look
Had some beer from the store and a field for a floor
Nothing fancy up under that moon
Just a slow country song and my old lucky boots
Getting dirty, dancing with you
The fireflies were firing, the Magnolias sway
Heat lightning sky turning night into day
Then the next song played
We got Carried Away
A thousand miles from the ocean by an old riverbank
We felt every word of Marina Del Rey
We let the stars guide every step that we took
The cars passing by never knew where to look
Had some beer from the store and a field for a floor
Nothing fancy up under that moon
Just a slow country song and my old lucky boots
Getting dirty, dancing with you
Oooh, getting dust on this old Texas leather
Oooh, yeah we made one night sure last forever
A thousand miles from the ocean by an old riverbank
We felt every word of Marina Del Rey
We let the stars guide every step that we took
The cars passing by never knew where to look
Had some beer from the store and a field for a floor
Nothing fancy up under that moon
Just a slow country song and my old lucky boots
Getting dirty, dancing with you
Yeah, dancing with you
Dancing with you
––
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