Rose
Lyrics
The step goes down (2)
I hope you are alright
I am alright
There's a letter marked 'urgent'
I have not yet read it
Rose
Rose (3)
I hear you are in Hampstead (4)
I hope you can get married
Rose
Rose
Hear that wah-wah going?
Remember you started it
Freckles
Rose
It is now all the rage
With the younger set (5)
Your replacement
He is a good man, Rose (6)
Rose
I've got a good woman
Sometimes (7)
Rose
Rose
Rose
Notes
1. This may be about Brix, as Simon Ford suggests in his biography of MES; from a listener's perspective, I don't think it really matters much. The riff is basically the same as "Flat of Angles," which in turn may have been derived from "His Latest Flame" by Elvis Presley. Aubrey the Cat on the Fall online forum suggests the title may be inspired by "The Sick Rose," by WIlliam Blake:
The Sick Rose
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
If that were the case, the "invisible worm" may be Rose's new love interest, or perhaps MES himself. Blake's poem is open to various interpretations; the worm could be love itself, in a sexually repressive culture (a common interpretation), or it could be envy or a kind of posessiveness, and othe readings are possible that would lead us beyond the proper scope of this note.
2. The Lyrics Parade has "the scarecrow's down." The line as I have it comes from one of the Lyrics books; I'm unsure what the reasoning behind the Lyrics Parade version is, but it sounds like "the step goes down" or "the store closed down" to me.
3. The song is one of those "we broke up but I wish you all the best" benedictions, and MES mostly plays it very straight; unlike, for instance, Dylan in "If You See Her, Say Hello," I don't sense a lot of bitterness in this song, but this line may be an exception, depending on who the letter is from or what it is about.
4. Hampstead is in London. Here biographical details might perhaps be sleuthed out to determine who the song is about; again, I don't think the question is all that important, unless it were to change the way one interprets the meaning of the lyrics.
5. According to The Story of the Fall (a now defunct website), this statement was true at the time. I'm not sure if this is so; U2's "Mysterious Ways" did come out in 1991, but otherwise I am drawing a blank, although I'm sure in any given year there are a handful of songs with wah-wah. Readers are invited to set me straight in the comments below. MES has actually acknowledged that this song is (at least partially) about Brix, who can be heard playing wah-wah on such Fall songs as "Squid Lord" and "Hot Aftershave Bop." As far as I can tell, this is the only time he has admitted to writing about her, which he usually denies. From 1991:
It's been said a lot of songs from 'Extricate' that they were about Brix. 'Rose', from 'Shiftwork', does seem to be about her.
It does, doesn't it, everybody's thinking the same, yeah. Still, it's not true. No, and on 'Extricate' too, none of them were about that. Sorry to disappoint you, it's the truth. According to a lot of critics, the last two LPs have been all about Brix. (laughs) It's funny. I can see why people think that, but...
Well, I didn't think it of the songs of 'Extricate', but with 'Rose' I thought...
'Rose' is a bit of it, half, maybe. It's got the wah-wah in it and all that, yeah. I always find it funny, though, when people read these things in it.
6. The Lyrics Parade has "He is a good man, Rose?"
7. The most straightforward read is that MES (or the narrator, if they aren't the same) sometimes has a good woman. Although the grammar suggests this first interpretation, it is also possible that he means a woman who is good, sometimes.
More Information
Comments (20)

- 1. | 29/07/2013

- 2. | 23/05/2014

- 3. | 08/01/2016

- 4. | 19/01/2016

- 5. | 07/03/2017

- 6. | 19/03/2017

- 7. | 20/03/2017

- 8. | 23/03/2017

- 9. | 11/03/2019
So Mark always needed a Brix (or a Kay or an Eleni) to keep him in check. Make sure he brushed his hair, his teeth, didn't piss off the record label too much.
So Rose/Brix brought the commercial peak of the Fall from 84-87, was this the creative peak? It depends whether you think two heads are better than one. Brix and Mark were both, and remained with later projects, brilliant minds. But they expressed that differently. So Mark's lyrics post-Grotesque and particularly Frenz Experiment onwards became more sparse and spaced out, whereas Brix is very intricate and dense with The Extricated.
So this is like a response song to himself from the tongue in cheek Bill is Dead 'greatest times of my life' line. He's left the wife fucked a bunch of random girls got remarried and now the bills have mounted up he hasn't released a record in 3 years he looks 10 years older.... if she's the Rose he's the thorn, but that's ok because he's honest with himself, if deceitful with his ex-wife, soon to be ex-band mates and ex-fan base who never bought anything after This Nation's Saving Grace. Fuck em, he'll make better music and find better fans (which he did)

- 10. | 27/04/2019

- 11. | 14/11/2020
Brix. 'Rose', from 'Shiftwork', does seem to be about her.
"It does, doesn't it, everybody's thinking the same, yeah. Still, it's
not true. No, and on 'Extricate' too, none of them were about
that. Sorry to disappoint you, it's the truth. According to a lot of
critics, the last two LPs have been all about Brix. (laughs) It's
funny. I can see why people think that, but..."
Well, I didn't think it of the songs of 'Extricate', but with 'Rose' I
thought...
"'Rose' is a bit of it, half, maybe. It's got the wah-wah in it and
all that, yeah. I always find it funny, though, when people read these
things in it."

- 12. | 14/11/2020

- 13. | 14/11/2020

- 14. | 15/11/2020

- 15. | 15/11/2020

- 16. | 15/11/2020

- 17. | 13/02/2021

- 18. | 13/02/2021

- 19. | 01/07/2021
Listen to the start of 'The Only One I Know'.

- 20. | 03/07/2021
"The step goes down."