Down on Rodeo
 

 Written by L. Buckingham

After the music ended There was nowhere to go but down Faces of glass all hung in the past They only came here to drown We were long, long gone Nowhere else to go Long gone, far gone Down on Rodeo We never took quite enough chances We never had quite enough time I did about a thousand dances But nothing would change your mind You were long, long gone Putting on your show Long gone, far gone Down on Rodeo I'm going where no one has gone before Ain't never coming back I'm going where no one has gone before Ain't never coming back Well, that's just the way it goes sometimes The price is a little too much Two little children on Beverly Hills We looked, but we couldn't touch We were long, long gone Looking in the window Long gone, far gone Down on Rodeo Down on Rodeo Down on Rodeo Do you hear me, Annie? Do you hear me, Annie?

 


WEBMISTRESS speculates:

[Note from WM: I have been persuaded, after much listening and deliberation, that Lindsey is indeed saying "Annie" at the end, and have changed my speculation accordingly].

Due to the ending lines, I think this song is about Anne Heche, who at one time was Lindsey's lover and who is pretty much psycho at this point, but that doesn't mean that Lindsey doesn't look back on the end of relationship without regret. (But this isn't the only emotion he feels when thinking of Anne, who temporarily became a lesbian after she left him - see Come!)

I know so little about Anne - I did watch her on "Another World" when she played the twins Marley and Vicky. At that time she was married to the guy who played Jake - very handsome man. Then Lindsey, of course. I know even less about Lindsey's relationship with her, though - until she wrote her book I had no idea they were ever together. Apparently he was on a "break" from Cheri at the time.

So, here's a try. "After the music ended" could be a reference to the common saying of how lovers make 'beautiful music' together which he picked up on since he is, of course, a musician.

The "faces of glass" echoes both Loving Cup and On the Wrong Side, What does it mean? Faces of glass - faces that don't reveal true emotion and expression, perhaps? It seems Lindsey and Anne are worn down by something - their careers? Tired of on-again, off-again fame? Cynical? And now they're "long gone, far gone?"

"Rodeo" is Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, the self-proclaimed "locus of conspicuous consumption" with all the expensive shops frequented by "the big shots." I believe Lindsey uses it here to represent fame and success. They're big shots now, rich and famous, but they're not happy.

"We never took quite enough chances, we never have quite enough time" echoes the sentiment of On the Wrong Side, which works with the lyrical repetition. This relationship was apparently pretty brief. Perhaps that was partly due to the fact that they were too busy with their careers for each other.

Also, it seems Anne left him, so it could be that he thinks this was more of a problem with her, hence the shift to "you were long gone." She was "far gone" pursuing her own success, leaving their love behind in the process. So, that was the price of fame: the destruction of what might have blossomed into something more. And Lindsey thinks "the price was a little too much."

Note: at the Soundstage 2003 performance, he did not say "Do you hear me, Annie?"

 

LUKE speculates:

In regards to the last lyric, which you have listed as "Do you hear me, [WM note: I've changed it to Annie]": I hear it as "Do you hear me Ann" (or Annie). In this case,"Anne" would be more appropriate, as there's more than enough reason to think that Lindsey's relationship with Anne Heche is the theme of this song.

Another fact to corroborate this would be this passage in Anne's book:

"Lindsey and I traveled together for a while while he was on tour, and I tried to be the good girlfriend groupie. We had fun for about a year. We played, we sang. But I was playing for him and not for me. I needed my own career and wasn't willing to sacrifice it for a rock star. I had just gotten cast in a John Frankenheimer movie and it seemed like the perfect time to make the split. Good-bye Lindsey. Hello, Nashville."

...in relation to the song's lyrics.

I'm not one to make lyrical interpretations about Lindsey's lyrics (I'm of the belief that Lindsey hasn't written a song about Stevie in any form or fashion since 1979), but I thought that this was particularly interesting.

 

DW speculates:

I think this has Anne Heche written all over it as well. I've heard three versions of this demo and each one of them sounds pretty clearly like "Annie" not "baby" to me in the last two lines. Anne's account of their yearlong relationship in 1993 when she traveled with him on his Cradle tour fits unsettlingly well with Lindsey's words here. The timing of when the song was written ('94/'95) is right on the mark for it to be about Anne as well. It looks like an open letter to her. Perhaps Lindsey saw more potential for this relationship than Anne did. But there's not a lot raw hurt exposed here; only shades of regret and a sense of weariness on Lindsey's part.

Besides just the last two lines, I hear a few other things a little bit differently too.

After the music ended
There was nowhere to go but down
Faces of glass all hung in the past
They only came here to drown
They were long gone
Nowhere else to go
Long gone, far gone
Down on Rodeo

I hear "they" not "we" in the fourth line. He sees this relationship go the way of so many others. Her face joins all the others that hang in his past and only come to him as sorrows to be drowned. They're gone and there's nothing to be done about it.

We never took quite enough chances
We never had quite enough time
I did about a thousand dances
But nothing would change your mind
You were long gone
Putting on your show
Long gone, far gone
Down on Rodeo

He believes that whatever they had together wasn't given enough time to grow. (One problem Lindsey and Stevie never had was time.) Anne left to pursue a different life ("putting on your show") and he could only watch her leave ("nothing would change your mind"). I think the phrase, "down on Rodeo" (as in Rodeo Drive, a symbol of wealth & fame) is a way to communicate that his affection lost out to her ambitions for stardom. Upon reflection, he sees that she was not quite the person he thought he was falling for, and that she was already "long gone, far gone" from him before they even split. Even when one understands the pull of career ambition, it doesn't lessen the sense of rejection . . . the sense that his love didn't mean enough to her to even try. The rejection is even more acute perhaps because this was not the first time this situation happened to him.

The following refrain is a key element to this song. I hear this differently than is transcribed here also and it changes the meaning quite a bit. This relationship triggered a feeling of déjà vu. He doesn't want to be in this position again and he's going to figure out how to make sure he won't be. That may involve making some changes in his life and that may also involve being more careful about who he gives his heart to and why.

Gone down this road before, ain't a comin' back
(Never...never...never...never comin' back)
Gone down this road before, ain't a comin' back
(Never...never...never...never comin' back)

Well, that's just the way it goes sometimes
The price is a little too much
Two little children on reverie hill
We looked, but we couldn't touch
We were long gone
Looking in the window
Long gone, far gone
Down on Rodeo
Down on Rodeo
Down on Rodeo

He accepts this outcome with some sadness, but with some wisdom gained. Personal relationships are a common casualty of ambition, especially in Hollywood. He's intimately familiar with this reality from both ends and he knows it has happened again. In this verse, he welcomes equal responsibility. He likens them both to two kids with their heads in the stars ("reverie hill") who are a little too caught up in daydreams of their own to share one dream together. Lindsey thinks he glimpsed what they could have had together, but they never could quite reach out and touch it and grab hold together at the right moment . . . and it slipped away the next.

Do you hear me, Annie?
Do you hear me, Annie?

This is interesting. Why does he want her to hear him? Does he want her to know that she was special to him even though it didn't work out? Does he want her to know that she bruised him, but didn't break him? Does he want her to know that next time it may be she who is on the receiving end? Does he want her to learn what he's learned from a lot of experience with personal relationships slipping away? Very interesting.


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