Take Your Partner by the Hand

(Robbie Robertson)

She walks alone down a sleazy backstreet
Around a corner, up an alley to a dead end
There under a small blue light
She enters an unmarked doorway
A low heartbeat, a low pounding escapes into the night This is a place she goes to fulfill a very basic need Something people have been doing since the dawn of man To communicate without talking
If she needs something she makes a gesture with her hand And mouths what she wants
She wants to make a connection
A certain kind of connection
No this is not about something from the black market This is about no questions
This is about smoke and sweat and beats
This is about no message
Take your partner by the hand
He’s a woman, she’s a man
What’s so hard to understand
Take your partner by the hand
Mona in the Promised Land
Take your partner by the hand

Keep it simple if you can
And take your partner by the hand
At the club they circle around some sex goddess like vultures Flashbulbs popping like bees around their queen
She is completely indifferent to all the commotion
And orders some mango tango ice cream by sign language She’s approached by some wild-eyed poet drunk with love
I like her easy refusal, the way she shakes her head
She lives these days in the attic of an old dance hall That’s been shut down for years
And swears there’s times when she can hear feet shuffling below And can see the shadows swaying, moving to the music Take your partner by the hand
He’s a woman, she’s a man
What’s so hard to understand
Take your partner by the hand
Elevator going up Fifth floor
Lady’s handbags, shoes, leather accessories, and electronics Wait a minute, where am I, on this elevator to nowhere Going up, going down
Then like a hallucination I saw her out of the corner of my eye Studying some shoes very carefully
She definitely had a particular purpose for these shoes in mind Then as quickly as she appeared, she disappeared

Back into the slash and burn of New York Ah, stuck in traffic
Crosstown, the stress of not moving She described it as like being locked in a car With a madman behind the wheel
And the radio tuned to static
Take your partner by the hand
He’s a woman, she’s a man
What’s so hard to understand
Take your partner by the hand
Mona in the Promised Land
Take your partner by the hand
Keep it simple if you can
Take your partner by the hand
Take your partner by the hand
Take your partner by the hand