[Les]

Lindsey once described his song "I Want You" from Go Insane as a "body rhythm" – something that you go to sleep thinking about and you wake up with it being the first thing on your mind. That was a song that presented the conflicting aspects of personalities and love that brought down a relationship. I sort of think of this song in the same way and am drawn to think that the woman in this song is probably the same person to whom most of his Go Insane songs were dedicated. But, in "Caroline," there is more distance between him and this woman at this point, whereas on Go Insane, the break up was very fresh and still very much agonized over. There is not so much of a feeling of deep longing for her here or regret over love lost, but it's more of a description of her that explains why she's lingering on his mind.

She’s so crazy
She’s so lazy

She’s so cagey
She’s so stagey

Both verses leave the strong impression on me that he is struggling with two very different sets of emotions about Caroline. The adjectives he’s chosen to describe her have various meanings or have several different kinds of connotations. For example:

cagey – cautious, shrewd
stagey (stagy) – flamboyantly theatrical
crazy – insane, unusual, impractical, unpredictable, intensely eager or enthusiastic

These behaviors have positive and negative aspects in different kinds of situations, which takes me back to the feeling that he’s a little conflicted and probably means them to represent both the positive and negative. It appears as though he finds her difficult and he doesn’t trust her, but he’s definitely still got her on his mind. He’s both repulsed and attracted.

Keeps on coming
Keeps you running

She’s very persistent, but depending upon what she’s pursuing, that may be good or bad. She keeps you running, perhaps running back to her for more, or running away from her to escape, or just generally running around, edgy, on your toes because it’s difficult to anticipate her moods, actions, behavior.

So attractive
So reactive

Reactive might mean she still responds very strongly to him, but again, that can be in good ways and bad ways. She’s someone he still finds somewhat fascinating to observe.

Time recedes
With a fatal drop

When something recedes it usually becomes more distant or removed, like water from the beach at lowtide. As each day passes, he and Caroline are further separated from the happy times they once had together. Each day may represent one of those fatal drops toward the ultimate death of whatever may remain of their broken relationship.

Dusty fury
On the mountain top
Cut the cord if you can

"Dusty" may be a cocaine reference, recalling "Hey little girl/ leave that little drug alone" from "I Must Go" on Go Insane. "Fury" is a term to describe great anger, rage and passion. Furies are also divine female mythological figures who were fierce and violent. A "dusty fury" may represent some drug-induced ugliness in Caroline (Lindsey discussed that a drug addiction was a source of great difficulty between he and ex, Carol Ann Harris).

In "Big Love" from Tango In The Night Lindsey describes his "house on the hill." I wonder if the "mountain top" may represent his home in the hills here, thus presenting a picture of great discord in the home they once shared.

"Cut the cord if you can." I actually think he’s talking to her and himself in this line. He’s telling her to cut a figurative umbilical cord to him to learn to be on her own again and not depend on him for support or to react to her behavior anymore now that they’re not together. He may also be sort of taunting her to cut her dependence on "dust" (drugs). Finally, since he is writing this song and she clearly still lingers on his mind, I think he may be telling himself to do all that he can on his end to sever ties to her to break whatever cycle of dependence may still be going on between them to which he is wittingly or unwittingly contributing. Any continued reliance or preoccupation with each other isn’t breeding anything healthy now and what they once had seems to be something that Lindsey recognizes needs to be stopped completely. And yet, he’s still calling her name . . . maybe because he can’t let go or maybe because this is, once and for all, goodbye.

Caroline
Caroline
Caroline
Caroline

This a complex set of emotions in this song. I like the way he communicates a whole set of feelings through the use of only a few suggestive and vivid images. This song feels like a burst of emotion or a dream maybe - a few powerful images jump to mind and instantly evoke strong and conflicted feelings, and then they just as quickly depart as the song ends – as he wakes up from the dream or shakes the thought from his head. I like the instrumentation too, which seems to sort of have eastern and jungle rhythms combined. It has what I think of as a "night time" sound – thick, deep, tense, powerful, smoldering.