Rose

(1)

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

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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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6. The Lyrics Parade has "He is a good man, Rose?"

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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.

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Rose: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 1991