Red Rover?
 

Red Rover is starting to grow on me, but I'm still not totally sure what to think about it. The same goes for Come.

Just curious...but what is it about Red Rover that you like so much. I really need to know. ;)

Well, this is a mystery, but there are many speculations...

I thought it was about childhood, then now some think it is about his brother Greg's death, now people feel it is about Lindsey's mom and the death of their father.

I think this song is open for interpretations, as Lindsey like to do that.

I've been listening to Red Rover for so long now that I simply love it...but I do remember for a very long time, and to a certain extent even still, I liked it so much because it's a very musically suprising song. Someone who hadn't heard it before would have no idea where it's going. My favourite part is when he says "something you can't touch"....."keep it so well hid"......"what you can do"......"heaven or hell"........the way he sings those parts is so damn cool! And that chorus kicks ass aswell...! "Could see you were dying, but no one was crying"....!:cool:

:wavey: :wavey: :wavey:

Well, I still think it must have a little something to do with his childhood. I mean...the name of the song is a childhood game, unless there is another meaning to Red Rover.

It must be about a number of events in his life, and maybe not just a specific event. I guess it will always be a mystery.

I don't remember listening to the demo of Red Rover, so I guess that's why it's so fresh to me. It's certainly has a lot going on and sometimes all at once.

And that chorus kicks ass aswell...! "Could see you were dying, but no one was crying"....!

This is the part of the song that I like. I'll have to keep playing it some more. I'll be sure to listen to those parts that you mentioned. I'm trying to keep an open mind about this one. It's kind of like Go Insane. At first, I was puzzled by some of those tracks. It all came together after reading some of the reviews and listening to some of them a number of times.

Yeah, I have been listening and examining this song for a year and a half now and I think it is my fav FM/Lindsey song.

I like the intro vocals..where he goes, "Why, why do you you come around"...his voice sounds so cool like you guys said.

I like how after the first part of the song, it stops, and then starts right back up to.

I'll REPOST about my thoughts...
 

Okee folks..I've been singing this at work ALL DAY long and with the lyrics that I now know (which were NOT what I thought he was saying), I think I've figured out what this is about. Dang, it's hard to sing the RIGHT lyrics!! LOL I believe this song is Lindsey telling his mom it's okay to grieve for his father.

Why do you come around so very much (go to the gravesite)

You know it just brings you down, it's just something you can touch (the gravestone? Going to the site depresses her?)

You don't belong here, I guess you never did. (Hmm...not sure about this line, she doesn't belong at the gravesite??)

Whisper murder in your ear, you just keep it so well hid.(MURDER!!?! WHAT??!!? LOL Can anyone explain this!?!? Her keeping her feelings and emotions hidden from the family. Perhaps, she was being strong and stoic for her boys, not showing her emotions in front of them? Some people are like that in the grieving process)

Anyone at all, could see what was missing (Dad was missing?)

Could see you were dyin', though no one was cryin' (She was dying inside after the loss of her husband, Lindsey's family seems REALLY REALLY close)

And the lips you were kissing, night after night (mom kissing dad)

All were bathed in blue, all bathed in white (Blue and white from death..paleness perhaps?)

One of the quiet ones, one of the few (She is quiet and strong, not crying in front of others, not wailing and sobbing)

Now fall down onto your knees (I think this is a demand for her to cry out to God, to ask WHY her husband died so young, let it out, he's saying)

Show us all what you can do (Show the family that you are hurting like we are?)

We came around here, to see if you were well (The family went to see if mom was okay)

And there's nothing for you to fear, in heaven or in hell. (Don't fear death and know that dad is in heaven?)

Red Rover, Red Rover...we come to take you over (The angels/spirits are taking his dad to the other side...heaven)

NOW, my original thoughts were that in the line about lips...I thought he was saying "And I did hear what you said, now I can die." Well, I'm an idiot. LOL

I love the typical Lindsey voice manipulated far away sound on the chorus f.e. "and the lips you were kissing..." and so on. Sounds simply great!

I love this song!
 

I have absolute ZERO idea about what it means, especially now that I know he was whispering MURDER - what the?!

But it's so beautiful and complex melodically. Yes, the "Red Rover" chant is a little unnerving, but the "ahh-ahh" over it make it blend into the song.

The only fault I find with it is that it seems that some of the lyrics, poetic as they are, seem awkwardly stuffed into the melody. The natural cadence, syllablic stresses, and pauses have been thrown away so that the song will fit the cadence of the melody.

Just speak it and you'll see:

Normal: lips-you-were-KISSing

RR: lips-youwerekiss-ING

No wonder we couldn't understand him!

Nancy, I bet that was all intentional.

I have a different take from Christy's on this song. To me, it is about someone who is dying slowly. He is speaking to the afflicted person. It might well be someone who has a drug problem and is going through a lot of emotional pain:

"Whisper murder... well hid." This could be about the great lenghths a drug addict will go to to hide the disease. Or, if it's about someone who is dying of some illness, it could be a reference to trying to hide the pain, be strong and face the day.

"You don't belong here..." To me, this is a common sentiment expressed after someone you love and/or respect dies. I would translated this to: "You are not of this world." Meaning, the person was larger than life.

The song makes me think of Curt Cobain, though it is unlikely that Lindsey was singing about him.

DANG!!
 

I was wrong!! Read Livia's post:

I'm gonna jump around here a bit and skip to the end. I asked LB, off the air, what Red Rover is about. This is gonna blow your minds! He said that he imagined a set of Greek Gods looking down on earth, on the human race, watching us be self-destructive and wondering what we were going to do next. And should the Gods pull the plug on the human race? It was wild! I'm sorry I don't remember verbatim, I was jotting down notes as fast as I could while he was talking, but that was basically it.

THANK GOD FOR LIVIA and her chance to ask the MAN!!!!!!

It is BLOWING MY MIND that I had a TOTALLY different interp than what he was going for!!!!!!! Now, I love this song THAT much more....because GREEK GODS...THAT IS AWESOME TO ME!!!!!

Re: DANG!!
 

LOL! :laugh:

I've already said this in the other thread, but I'll say it again. It certainly puts a whole new perspective on things. Now, I see why the chant sounds so robotic. Especially the part:

Red Rover red rover red rover
We've come we've come we've come
we've come to take you over

I'll have to listen to it some more. Still, I wonder what's up with the lips turning blue, white, and then...red rover. Could this whole verse vaguely represent the USA?

LOL, even that we know this song is about Greek Gods I am still puzzled. HOW IN THE HELL DOES THIS FIT INTO THE LYRICS?!?!?!

Well, I think it fits if these gods are looking down at us and don't like what they see. Who knows...maybe it's just an underlying theme. It could actually apply to some of his other songs on the album. Someone in the Rumours forum said that this could just be Lindsey's way of playing it safe, without having to go through the personal meaning of the song. It's possible.

Something irks me about the way he says Red Rover Red Rover Red Rover.. it just sounds creepy and I don't like it.

The words are good as hell though.. I like to *read* the words. I just don't like to hear him say them all creepy.

Greek Gods is an interesting thought.. I'm going to have to think about that for a while.

Sarah

Yeah, plus add that to the 'murder' reference, the thread about the Tango-era violence, and his recent remark about how without a music career he'd be in jail ... :eek: Are there any strings of unsolved murders in the Beverley Hills region?? ;) :laugh:

Yet if Stevie had written "Red Rover," there would be three threads running simultaneously, busting her chops over those very same things! :laugh:

Sorry, I just had to tease a little. :)

Hmm... perhaps the jury was right, and O.J. was innocent after all! :eek:
:laugh:

You mean like this lyrics from Dreams:

...When the rain wash- ES you clean, you'll know...

It apparently drove Don Henley up the wall. I'm sure he'd feel the same way about the flow of the words in Red Rover. ;)

Here is Lindsey's response about "Somebody's Gotta Change Your Mind" :

GWA In keeping with that, your lyrics have become more philosophical, more ideas-oriented, and not just about people or relationships. For instance, "Change Your Mind" seems to ask a lot of questions about the future of the planet.

Buckingham A lot of the things I say there came from visualizing if there were, not a God, but a bunch of gods, in the Greek sense, looking down on these people really going off the track down here and saying, "What are we going to do about this? Are we going to cut them loose?" And there's also a personal vibe. It's sort of a memory about my childhood in the second verse, things I did with my family, and how much I value them.

It seems to me that the functional family that turns out healty, grounded kids has become a rarer species. It all seems to be going off the track. When I sing, in that context, "Someone's got to change your mind," I don't know who that is - perhaps I'm speaking to myself or perhaps the outside world.


HHMMM...this is basically the same response he seems he gave Livia about Red Rover. Maybe he was in a rush and just gave that one, lol. I dunno, I just don't see the Greek God thing happening @ all in this song.

Thanks for posting that, BlueGrass!

That is so weird that he's said this about two separate songs. Maybe this idea about the Greek Gods was just the basis to more than one song. :shrug:

BlueGrass beat me to it, but I was about to make that very point. Lindsey had that very explanation for Someone's Gotta Change Your Mind. Three possibilities here:

--Lindsey misspoke when Livia asked him the question.
--Livia's recollection is faulty.
--Lindsey wrote more than one song from the Greek gods' perspective. That would seem unlikely, but then again, why not?

Ok--I was thinking about this song while I was in the shower this morning and it occurred to me that it could be, yet another, "gotta get away from Stevie/Fleetwood Mac" song (I'm completly ignoring Lindsey's "greek god" rationale). I agree with the death imagery, I'm just thinking it may be more emotional death rather than actual death.

Why do you come around so very much You know it just brings you down, it's just something you can touch

Clinging to a dead relationship OR his final days with Fleetwood Mac in the 80's. "Something you can touch" being something real and secure, even in a dysfunctional way.

You don't belong here, I guess you never did.

Gee, maybe this is why my relationship with Stevie/FM didn't work out. Maybe also commenting on how different his musical direction was from the rest of the band

Whisper murder in your ear, you just keep it so well hid.

Can't you see him working at the mixing board, hating what he's doing, thinking "Working with these guys is going to kill me." But the band really wants him to say, and Stevie really wants him to stay and they all try to accomidate him, but he knows he's got to answer to them at the end of the day. You need to stay and you need to be a team player, regardless of your fancy "artistic" notions i.e whispering murder in his ear.

Anyone at all, could see what was missing, Could see you were dyin', though no one was cryin'

Everyone could see he wasn't happy, but no one did anything to alleviate his pain (probably all too busy with their own...)


And the lips you were kissing, night after night, All were bathed in blue, all bathed in white

The lips could be Stevie or FM, but this person/thing you are so intimately involved with night after night is DEAD. DEAD, DEAD, DEAD.

One of the quiet ones, one of the few, Now fall down onto your knees, Show us all what you can do

Maybe he's "quiet" because he didn't get the spotlight like Stevie. Maybe he's "one of the few" because HE'S the one who broke away from the machine and all the craziness. But now he's left and he's really on his own now. And now he feels like he needs to get a little humble and prove himself.

We came around here, to see if you were well, And there's nothing for you to fear, in heaven or in hell.

More recently the old gang has gotten touch with him and I just see this as kinda "All 's forgiven".

Red Rover, Red Rover...we come to take you over

The fear of giving in and compromising himself. At one time maybe more about getting away from the crazy drug filled days, but also a bit about giving things up artistically for the name Fleetwood Mac. He says it like a warning, like a low alarm going off. Remember the kids' game is about breaking through the other guy's defenses and eventually taking them all over to your side.

Just sumthin' else to kick around...:wavey:

Oooh...I especially like the thought of this part of the interpretation. I can definately see this as not wanting to give up control of his artistic freedom. When you incorporate the game into this, it makes a whole lot of sense. He doesn't want to conform.

I love it! :D

This is true, but...

Hasn't Lindsey been big on themes in the past? His solo albums all tend to have an underlying theme, and the songs kind of run together like a story.

Then again, this isn't one of his solo albums. This could be why the theme doesn't make sense when applying them to some of his other songs.

RR is 100000% Lindsey. I mean, he did everything, you can tell. There is no bass, so there is no John. The percussion isn't Mick I bet, it is from a machine prolly. This is a masterpiece period.

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!
 

AMEN BG, AMEN!! I've NEVER in my LIFE heard a more unique song!! EVERY FRICKIN DAY, I fall in love with Lindsey more and more! The fact he talked to people on cell phones Friday, he posed for pics, signed autographs, this ALBUM, that SONG...AAAHH!!! LOVE HIM!!!!!

Frankly, it's SICK how much I love Lindsey. :lol:

This explanation makes more sense than anything else I've heard so far, including my own bizarre interp. lol

That's a perfect example, Karen. In that line, she emphasizes all the wrong syllables: wash-ES you CLEAN...

But, hey, that's part of the charm of the song.

I'm sorta inclined to ignore the Greek Gods angle, too. I think LB might have been in such a hurry with Livia, he was thinking Someone's Gotta Change Your mind instead of Red Rover.

Sugar, I absolutely love your interp, especially the "whisper murder in your ear" - his little demon, maybe? :laugh:

Barbara

Yeah, I can't even imagine what the chorus would have been like without this part.

It adds charm, and a bit of mystery. For a long time, I couldn't figure out what she was saying in this verse. I thought it was "when the rain won't dance" (which doesn't make any sense... :laugh: ). It was always a mystery until I bought the album and discovered the words.

For a long time, Karen, I thought she was saying, "When the rain washes, you'll clean, you know." And that's because of the emphasis on clean. Of course, it doesn't make much sense.

Had she sung the line with the right emphasis:

When the rain WAshes you clean, YOU'll KNOW.

Of course, the allure would be gone, and it wouldn't have as much charm. A lot of the fun of those early Stevie songs was trying to figure out just what the hell she was saying.

Red Rover is the same deal. Lindsey puts unconventional emphasis on certain syllables and makes the meaning that much more mysterious. It's almost impossible to get the lyrics without reading them.

I asked what this song was about on the website, hopefully Lindsey will answer my question.

The only things I know for sure is someone is dying, that's it.

LOL! :laugh:

Anyway, I guess that's one of the reasons why Red Rover has me intrigued. I'm still not quite sure what to think after reading all the various interpretations and reactions to this song. All I know is that I'm starting to like it more and more each time I play it.

I disagree - the emphasis on clean is semantically appropriate considering its importance in the sentence. However, "washes" is indeed done uncorrectly - strangely, it sounded very natural to me, however, when I heard the song. At I do believe it was a heck of a lot more comprehensible than Red Rover.

I LOVE Red Rover, but I have to say, it really annoys me how indiscernable some of the lyrics are. That's really the only thing I don't like about the song - these lyrics are so beautiful, why doesn't he enunciate them clearly?!

Same is true for Murrow and Come. I was astonished when I realized that the uncomprehensible vocals from the "demos" were actually the final cuts. And, honestly, when I listen to "Come" and have the lyrics right in front of me, I STILL cannot hear "Then the band played on." If he says that, he is saying it in some kind of savant language that is beyond me! We're not talking unnatural stresses, we're talking slurred syllables! That's just WRONG!

Ironically, these are two of my favorite songs (admittedly, Murrow is down on the list.) I can buy it was necessary for RR, but it definitely wasn't for "Come," IMO. I think he could have made the song even better simply by redoing the vocal so that we could understand him. Is that too much to ask? Doesn't he want us to know what he's saying to us? Reminds me of some of John Stewart's songs, where what he's saying is almost impossible to figure out.

As for Murrow - I still can't get over the fact that "NSCEA" is NONSENSE! What the... ?! Come on! And I had to listen to that chorus on DVD-A before I could barely manage to pick out something that sounded remotely like "Murrow had a child, the damn thing went wild."
:distress:

Ahhh...I love Lindsey. LOL
 

Yep, his underenunciation of words makes him wierd...that's my Lindsey...hehe. He DOES NOT say "and the band played on", those were probably the ORIGINAL lyrics for the song, but he decided to go "and, yeah, oohhhhhh..." instead. Whatever....the song STILL kicks BUTT!! :nod:

It doesn't bother me about enunciation. You know what? On American Idol, one of the frontrunners, Clay Aiken OVER enunciates his words sometimes and it bugs the CRAP outta people!! LOL They say " he sings too Broadway for a pop star"..he shouldn't win. WHAT?!?! His voice is beautiful, WHY does that enunciation bother you?!?! I don't get it. :confused:

Lindsey is KNOWN for underenunciating words...listen to his demos for Given Thing for a SUPERB example of this. LOL He's not a lyric whore anyways (LMAO!!), he hears the music in his head/heart and THEN comes up with lyrics. I just recently noticed him HUMMING in Miranda...along with the guitar. LOL

GEEZ, I LOVE THIS MAN!!!!!!! :D:D:D

It would seem so --

Philadelphia Inquirer (4/15):

"There are a few songs of mine on the record that imagine if there were gods, in the Greek sense, looking down on the human race, wondering when to pull the plug. 'Peace Keeper' is one of those, and 'Murrow' is another. To me it's strange because 'Peace Keeper' is a very ironic song, but I guess it's one of those songs where [because] you hit the right reference points, it seems to get attached to very specific events. In my mind, it could be applied to a nation and also a love relationship."

I'm still not sure if this applies to Red Rover or not, but the possibility is there. ;)

RED ROVER LIVE FOLKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

HE IS DOING IT IN CONCERT!!!!!! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO happy about this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't think he would since it's very complicated musically, but he said it's TRIPPY live!!!!!! OMG, I AM DYING HERE YA'LL!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D

I have just stopped listening to the bizarre answers Lindsey gives for song meanings nowadays. Peacekeeper is about desensitization to violence, or a brutalized love relationship, or FRIGGIN' GREEK GODS. And I have to say, I'm a little tired of this stock answer being applied to pretty much EVERY LB SONG ON THE ALBUM. Perhaps Lindsey has decided to take on the persona of Zeus to write all of his lyrics from now on. :rolleyes:

You know I love him, though, and I will be THRILLED TO DEATH if they do Red Rover live! That song is STUPENDOUS!!

LOL
 

HA!!! You know what? Maybe this is his way of being ambiguous so that we won't say "Okay, he said it's about THIS, so that's what it's about...case closed." He wants you to draw your own conclusion as to what the songs mean, BUT, I think he meant that Greek god thing in general to the songs on SYW..not so much for Red Rover specifically, but it could apply. His brother said on his BTM that Lindsey has a hard time speaking what he's feeling, so that's why music is his release, his way of saying what he can't say in words. I have a hard time explaining myself too, I stutter sometimes and can't really find the right words, so I understand Lindsey in that sense. He stutters and always has a hard time talking when he's interviewed....I feel his pain.