“Girls from all over the world in a fever dance”: The Eagles song about a night out in Amsterdam
Never underestimate the power of a great night out. While a big night is more often than not followed up first with a headache, the best nights also come along with a sense of gratitude for living and a deep love for the friends you went out with and the friends you made along the way—if you can look past the hangover enough to feel it. For Larry John McNally, one big night proved inspiring as he penned an ode to the joy of nightlife that resonated with the Eagles.
Besides the pounding head and criminal dehydration, the worst part of a hangover is the way it can shroud the memories of the night. There’s nothing better than that moment, a few drinks in, where you look around at friends or even strangers, call caught up in a collective experience of fun and suddenly feeling so excited to be alive. The best nights make life seem endlessly more interesting and optimistic, as suddenly, the existential question of “what’s it all for?” gets a simple answer, and the evening’s silliness seems grand and sincere.
That’s how McNally felt after a great night in Amsterdam when he was struck by the beauty of the city’s bustling nightlife and live music scene. “I was in Amsterdam for the first time and had a night free. I wandered over to the music club Paradiso, which is one of the coolest music venues anywhere,” he recalled, shouting out one of the most beloved venues on the planet. Built in 1880, it still has all the original features of the church it first stood as, but since the 1960s, it’s been the centre of youth culture and music in the city, with artists from around the world still flocking to play it.
“It’s an old church with the altar as the stage with big stained glass windows behind it. That night there was a Gypsy band playing and the room was swirling,” he remembered, conjuring up the scene in his mind as if his night out transformed into something spiritual.
At that moment, with the music playing and the surroundings so beautiful around him, life felt amazing. He continued, turning his night out into poetry, saying, “Girls from all over the world in a fever dance!”
“I went back to my hotel and started writing this song,” he explained, with ‘I Love To Watch a Woman Dance’ being the result. “There’s so much I don’t understand, But I love to watch a woman dance,” he sings on the song, putting aside any big, difficult wonderments about the world to simply be presenting in this moment of joy as the girls danced around him.
The track was first released on McNally’s 1999 album Dandelion Soul, but clearly, it resonated with the Eagles, who had certainly had their fair share of big nights, too. “That was certainly an exciting call,” he said of the moment when Don Henley and Glenn Frey called him up to say that their cover of the song would be on their record, adding that it was “done very nicely”.
