Bauhaus – St. Vitus Dance lyrics

This song describes a glam punk scene dancer and his electric generating device he designed that fits on his hip. He uses it to power his body suit which is covered in tiny lights that flash in a colorful sequence of patterns when he moves. It creates so much power, he can hurl bolts of lightning a distance of 85 feet. the lyrics also describe his gyrating, slowly bouncing dance steps including the 'check your hot shoe' where the dancer steps forward and bobs down slightly before springing up and backwards onto the back foot. To 'bump' and 'scrape' is also mentioned, a sliding dance move that includes thrusting a hip to either side while pivoting back and forth by spinning on the ball of the left foot and rocking onto the heel of the back foot. The output of his device is so great, it can be felt as it diffuses into the air around him. The dancer is described as a popular character on the dance scene whose special accessory is his own electronic invention he uses, solely, as a unique crowd pleaser in the form of his body suit which makes him into a human light show.
The St. Vitus Dance is a historical name for a nervous disorder that might have also been referred to as palsy, a jittery and shaking involuntary movement of the body, now known as Sydenham's chorea. It was eventually discovered to be an autoimmune response to a streptococcal rheumatic fever attacking the basal ganglia of the patient and giving rise to this movement disorder.