Roy Rogers Lyrics
There's nothing there at all
You just seem older than yesterday
And you're waiting for tomorrow to call
You're cozy in your little room
The carpet's all paid for, God bless the TV
Let's go shoot a hole in the moon
Returning to our silver screens
Comic book characters never grow old
Evergreen heroes whose stories were told
Oh the great sequin cowboy who sings of the plains
Of roundups and rustlers and home on the range
Turn on the T.V., shut out the lights
Roy Rogers is riding tonight
I'd liven the pace if I could
Oh I'd rather have a ham in my sandwich than cheese
But complaining wouldn't do any good
I can hear hoofbeats ahead
Roy and Trigger have just hit the hilltop
While the wife and the kids are in bed
This song is about aging and the ever angst of growing old. In realizing that one is old, it is about looking back and going along with the rest of the folk, in the old age home.. "We just seem older than yesterday (in our minds, we never age) we are waiting for tomorrow to call"...maybe hopelessness...
The curtains are drawn by someone...and we are cozy in our fixed "little" rooms that include a TV, probably time-controlled, too.. Everything is arranged and paid for. Our only hope for youth is to shoot for the moon and fucking shoot a hole through it...the Movie Cocoon.
This individual is old. And he/she knows it. They are remembering Roy Rogers, the TV show. And what it felt like to think about riding in the fantasy of that TV show. OR just being young- both! They are remembering that adventure...ahhhh.
Back in the home- he/she would like some control- ham, cheese- on a simple sandwich. He/She again goes along, because "complaining wouldn't do any good.'
He/She lays back in their armchair and goes on to remember, with such clarity- the TV show. Of hearing hoof beats ahead, while remembering family. He has hit the hilltop, while the wife and kids sleep.
It is about going back in time to a favorite episode, while thinking about one's seeming uselessness, in a nursing home. It is about dreaming. It is about dying, after a passion of riding as a kid.
Nothing so profound as merely personal here: A co-founder of the musical group "ShaNaNa," I've always held that our TV series transformed us from being a rock group to being a cartoon show. Hated that, until I contemplated the song with the lyric "comic strip characters never grow old."
One of my favorite songs from my favorite album of all time. To me, this song epitomizes a life already spent. Perhaps this character made some bad choices, which he thought good at first, and has now grown to hate his current situation. He's old, and life has passed him by, so he sits in front of the TV and lives life through the adventures of Roy Rogers and Trigger. I named my Ford Mustang "Trigger" because of this song. Hah.
I have a different take. I see this song as representing a very simple, uncomplicated life, where basic things are appreciated. Being "cozy in your little room" is something many people would be happy with.
Sounds to me that the author lives a mundane but comfortable and predictable life. It must have been set in the 1960's however when Roy Rogers still featured on late night black and white TV.
Not so much about aging as it is finding contentment, if not happiness, in the ordinary & mundane.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Great lyrics from Bernie Taupin, great music from Sir Elton and the band.
Boomer-rock at it's BEST. Favorite album. A song like this has cultural references that may not always be grasped by later generations. Makes me recall reading a book about Will Rogers when I was 6 and wondering who he was and why he was famous but still loving the cowboy story of his life.