Dance with the Devil

About

Dance with the Devil was written by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers and first released on the Where Egos Dare DVD in November 2000. The track was presented as part of an interactive video directed by Simon Hilton, which allowed viewers to switch between four camera angles as Williams performed, a novelty format that reflected the experimental side of late-1990s music promotion.

Unavailable on traditional audio releases, the song remained one of Williams’s more obscure recordings. Musically, it combines moody guitar lines and steady percussion with a blues-rock edge. Lyrically, Williams spins a surreal narrative that blurs reality and fantasy, with lines such as “He sold his soul to Bill Gates and he don’t feel all right” and “Granted me three wishes, said I just need clean clothes and can you do the dishes.” Beneath the dark humour lies an exploration of temptation, excess and self-awareness, recurring motifs in his writing of the era.

Although largely overlooked due to its limited release, Dance with the Devil is notable for its imaginative production and sharp lyricism. It showcases Williams’s fascination with moral contradiction, using playful absurdity to examine ambition and downfall; themes that continued to shape his work into the next decade.

It was one of those songs where I was messing around with ideas of sin and success. The devil’s in both, isn’t he?Robbie Williams