Back To The Start (God's Great Dance Floor)

Album: God's Great Dance Floor, Step 01 (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the first single from former Delirious? frontman Martin Smith's debut solo album, God's Great Dance Floor, Step 01. Martin penned the Pop-Dance celebration with Swedish songwriter Jonas Myrin ("10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)").
  • In our interview with Martin Smith, he explained where the idea for "God's Great Dance Floor" came from. "I'd had that line for a couple of years," he said. "I always knew I'd put it in a song, but just never knew when. The church in general has forgotten how to dance. And of course we were talking about the past and history, and probably moments where we look back when our own church existed, and probably things were a bit freer or things of the spirit were hitting the church and its freedom. Then you have a season in the '90s where everything gets very professional. And this whole excellence thing."

    "Now we look back and probably see that some of that has squeezed out, some of that rural kind of passion," he continued, "and we've turned our congregations into consumers rather than worshipers. So I think that's coming again, though. We've realized that when a community gathers together, it has to have that sense of freedom and expression. That is at the heart of gospel. So God's Great Dance Floor is common to everybody, it doesn't matter where you come from. Now's the time, let's get back on the dance floor. And this is not about professionalism. This is about getting down.
    "And the second part is the story of the prodigal son. It's just a fantastic story where he as the son is coming back and embraces the father. Of course he can hear music playing in the distance, a celebration. Consecration always leads to celebration, and that's something that we're discovering again is the celebration. Where there's joy of freedom, that's very attractive to people. There's life there.
    "Then the third thing is grace. God's Great Dance Floor is about grace. It's about everybody's welcome. Everybody. And that's the great thing about 'Dance Floor,' is it doesn't matter how good or bad you are, you can always give it a go. And I think that's God's heart. I think the dance floor is the threshing floor, where God does a lot of healing in us."
  • The song's companion concept video features Martin's teenage daughter, Elle, in the lead role.
  • The tune evolved after a conversation with Chris Tomlin. Martin Smith told Christianity magazine: "It started as a song called 'Back to the Start,' a very slow so brooding song about waiting on God. For me, it was a really important statement and a prayer to say, 'I'm in a new place now. I really am going back to the beginning, in so many ways.'"

    "I played it to Chris Tomlin and he fell in love with the end bit and said, 'Right, we need to write a brand-new song with two new verses' (the whole 'I feel alive, dance floor thing'). So that's what we did. And he recorded back on his new record and I recorded that version for EP4."

Comments: 1

  • Chiamaka from NigeriaThank you for sharing. It really puts perspective to the lyrics and meaning of the song.
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