Rival

This is a frustrating song to try to figure out. I realized that the pull of the song is actually the music. The music is clearer and conveys more than the lyrics. It starts with a dog, as if a hunt for a fugitive is going on, and with that the listener could engage in a certain mindset, especially since the song is about Growing Up Gay in Littleton. This is obviously going to be a song based on conviction, protest, and anger, and not a song about tiptoeing through the tulips.

First to the music, I like how the sounds seem almost disjointed, like a lot of tin or steel to create a feeling of chaos. Even the piano with the higher notes add to this din, this type of white noise, that conveys what I think is meant to be the point of the song. The tempo, too adds to the feeling because it has a this-is-our-way-or-no-way feel to it. Like drunks with an attitude marching.

The words I don't get. I tried really hard. First, so I'm in the mindset of some sort of social fugitive, a gay man, being hunted down, and yet the song is called Rival. Who is the fugitive a rival of? I see that nations have disciples, but the line with nations, and the one with disciples are separated by time, so they are essentially not of the same thought. The metaphors with horses/ponies, and well-hung is forced, as I don't get how it relates to barrels. Barrel chested men, barrel chested horses, so barrel chested men hung like horses? I just sense the violence, and I'm just guessing that some ultra-conservative group is out on the hunt of gay men, but I'm guessing that, it is not really obvious in the lyrics.

Mother earth dams tributaries with mud - Ok, what does that have to do with growing up gay in Littleton?
Chemical warfare against gay men?
Father as in God, or Father time?

You know, I wonder if the words are chaotic because they reflect Stone's feeling towards the production of this record. PJ didn't use Tchad Blake again, and maybe he was just really feeling angst himself. He had a subject he wanted to convey, an anger he wanted to write about, but was too caught off guard by the process, and that led to chaotic lyrics. Probably not true, probably none of my interpretations are correct, and that's OK.