Pam and I were on a cruise recently with a bunch of other folks. There were a couple of notable bands providing a number of dancing opportunities. We took advantage of these opportunities.

One band was called Summer Breeze and they usually performed in the lobby of the ship. Summer Breeze had two band members: a female vocalist and a male vocalist/keyboardist. They usually did light, loungey stuff where we’d do slower, more graceful dances.

Later in the week, I was getting another Diet Coke and the bartender, Paree, said that she liked the way we danced because we “have such passion.” At times like these, I’ve often had a quick joke ready. Usually, it’s something like “The look on my face is because I’m counting furiously (quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, slow) rather than being passionate.” These days, I’ve learned to smile, say “Thank you”, and take the compliment,

One time, Summer Breeze performed a very slow song and we did a Night Club Slow dance to it. In this dance, we spend a lot of time gracefully moving across the floor, staring into each other’s eyes. The song ended with us slowly rocking back and forth in a close embrace with more gazing into each other’s eyes. We stopped dancing but didn’t let go. Despite being a Brit, I couldn’t resist giving Pam a light kiss on the lips.

Another night, I was in the casino watching a heavy metal, classic rock band called Blood Power perform “Hotel California”. I knew that the song ended with a pretty good guitar solo and it looked like the guitarist could be good so I stuck around to see what he did with it. The guitarist lived up to his appearance. Blood Power usually played faster tunes so if we could dance at all, it would be the faster dances that we’d do.

Both bands had noticed Pam and I dancing and approved. I guess we’re hard to miss: there was only one time that anyone else ever danced on that cruise. He was severely intoxicated and his favorite move was to shake his enormous belly with both hands.

Later in the cruise, Blood Power were performing in some hidey hole part of the ship and we danced to about half of the songs. Some female vocalist was keeping them company and she sang on one or two of their songs. She was a decent enough singer.

Blood Power’s keyboardist, Nelson, spoke with us during a break. He’s Philipino and had only done four tours with Blood Power.

When they started the last set, they dragged out the female vocalist who protested that she didn’t know the song. The band insisted and gave her the lyric sheet. As the song started, I realized that the song was Heart’s “Alone”. I like that song because it’s a slow dance despite the heavy metal trappings. Nelson was already butchering the keyboards. The bass lines were OK though so Nelson didn’t interfere with our dance.

For someone who didn’t know the song, the vocalist did remarkably well. My only quibble was that the gratuitous heavy metal howl was in the wrong place.

When we got home, I played Alone a few times to purge Nelson’s keyboard work from my head.