"Red Rover" - WHAT THE HECK IS IT ABOUT?
 

Please...what do you think this song is all about. It's like a mystery...it is really becoming one fo my favorite songs of all-time, but I have yet to really get a good answer on what the subject is here.

Over @ buckinghamnicks there are like 2 totally different opinions and I just want to hear what you guys have to say?

I have NO idea what this song is about.....but I don't really like it.....I've only listened to it a couple of times.....but that whole Red Rover....Red Rover......part is creepy.....I don't know...for some reason this song rubs me the wrong way. Good luck interpreting!

Kristin

Maybe it's the age thing, but, do you not remember the kids game "Red Rover"?? See? I'm so old that I remember the game, but not how to play ("duck, duck, goose" is kind of a variation, if I remember correctly) The song's lyrics kind of metaphorically make a correlation between the gist of the game and how it relates to life in general.

I wasn't a big fan of the song either upon the first few listens, but the more I played it, the more hooked on it I became...now it's one of my 20 favorite GOS tunes (out of 21...we all should know "The One" I dislike by now :laugh:

I think the song is a mixture of fantasy and reality, but I don't have a clue who the reality parts could be directed at...! Maybe it's like Songbird, in the sense that it isn't really directed to any one particular person. Who knows! We're sure to find out soon...;)

It's a fantastic song anyway, one of my favs. on GOS.:)

:wavey: :wavey: :wavey:

Ooooh...
 

Tied with chilid's least fave song as my fave song from GOS!! :nod: I LOVE IT TO DEATH....the guitar sound is AMAZING, his vocals are cool and this song relates to something that happened in my life recently, so the lyrics, as I interpret them, mean something to me...now, what LB means by them, NO CLUE! :laugh:

Having never heard it, I wouldn't know.
What does it say in the Song Interpitation(sp?)thing on here?

The Game of Red Rover
 

First, I wanna answer a question:

Ugh, I'm 28 (tomorrow) and I remember this wretched game all too well. Two teams stand in lines. The object is to keep your team's line unbroken. One team hollers, let's say, hypothetically, at some girl named. Nancy. "Red Rover, Red Rover, let NANCY come over!" knowing that Nancy is too pathetically weak to break through their line. She attempts, throwing herself at the arms, but only lands on her rear end and is now a member of the other line.

But let's say this hypothetical Nancy is not called. She stands in the line while "KYLE" or someone else (the guys are usually the only ones left after a while) comes over. Kyle heads straight for Nancy and the unlucky person next to her, knowing that Nancy will be easily overpowered and therefore breaking through her section of the line is no problem. Not only does Nancy get in the grass again, she has let down her team. Nancy begins to have "issues" about Red Rover. lol

As a guy, you probably thought it was really fun. ;)

Speculations about Red Rover
 

Here are the speculations on that song [WEBMISTRESS is me, I like to give myself an air of importance that way lol]

WEBMISTRESS speculates:

Granted, I probably heard a lot of these words wrong, but I'm having a hard time figuring this song out! But I never back down from a challenge, so here goes:

Well, here's somebody who's suffering and lonely. He's "one of the quiet ones" and "keeps it [all] well hid", but he still needs contact, needs "something to touch." Instead, he feels like a rejected outsider who nobody cares about, and who's got nothing left to lose.

Now, the chorus...when I heard it, it reminded me of some kind of delusional insanity thing - like "here come the men in the white coats to take you away!" type of stuff! Taking a more studied guess, perhaps he's talking about one's true nature being suppresed and eventually broken by the outside world's expectations and insistence on conformity in order to gain acceptance....OK, OK, I don't know!!! But I love how that bridge sounds. "Anyone at all...could see you were dying, but no one was crying!" Aw!





SCOTT speculates:

Red Rover is a child's game...for the rules on how it was/is played check out the following site: http://www.gameskidsplay.net/games/s...s/redrover.htm

I think Lindsey both sings about the character in this song as well as from the point of view of the character. Verses and bridge are sung about the character, the lines "And I did hear..." are from the point of view of the character as if he's at a party or other social event that he would rather not be at and he has done his duty/mad conversation and now can get the hell out of there.

Could the character be loosely based on Lindsey, certainly. The line "we came around here to see if you were well" may imply what he feels an audience thinks when coming to an FM concert or any concert with nostalgia being the sole reason. The line "nothing to fear in heaven or in hell" ties into this with the type of immortality such nostalgia hopefully brings. Using the child's game Red Rover as a title/chorus is interesting as well as it bespeaks nostalgia as well. The game in itself is rather philosophical since all the players are on the winning team at the end, there really are no losers in this game. You can play this theory in your mind for hours of endless fun or frustration.





BRENT speculates:

I've never speculated about Lindsey's lyrics before, but is it possible that it is about the death of his brother or mother. Perhaps Red Rover was a game they played as children and Red Rover is now symbolic of being called over from life to death.

ok, I think i'm far too young to remember the game 'Red Rover.' (Am 13, 14 in April)

I used to play that game when I was in the 2nd and 3rd grade......I hated that game cause it always really hurt when the person running over would try to break through the chain. Ouch.

Kristin