Expert: Leigh Ann - 2/20/2002

Question
Hi!  I'm doing a school project on Gavin Rossdale (I know...lucky me!)and i was wondering if you could answer some questions for me.

1. How is Rossdale pronounced?  Is it just "Ross - Dale" or is the Ross part pronounced differently?  I've heard it a few different ways.

2. We're supposed to analyze the lyrics of a song for the project.  I'm doing "Hurricane" and it's not hard to analyze except for one part.  What do you think the deeper meaning is of the part that goes "Win some ground but lose you/It's never explained how to make it through/ No rope no cash - no serpentine/ All love buried on a bonfire"?  The first part, about winning some ground contradicts the rest of the song because during the rest of the song he says he's going to sacrifice things for her just to make things work, but this line talks about losing her.  And how would he win some ground if he was sacrificing so much?  I also understand the next 2 lines, but what do you think “all love is buried on a bonfire” means?  Sometimes his metaphors are so ambiguous!

3. We have to do a 10-minute presentation along with a paper.  This is for English class and it's all about poetry.  Do you have any suggestions for the oral presentation part?  I was thinking of talking about how he has matured over the years and how it is evident in his writing.  

Thank you so much!


Answer
Hi!:)

Woah! Lots of questions! :) Ill do my best to help you out!!:)

1. Gavin's name is pronounced "R-AH-Z-DALE"...doesnt rhyme with rose, doesnt rhyme with Ross (from Friends!)....its RAH...ryhmes with Oz! :) :) :)

2. Well, in my opinion the whole song is about basically...being in a hurricane! When you think about being in a hurrican, its mass confusion! Youre getting thrown around all over the place! You have no idea whats going on, and whats going to happen next!! And like you said...throughout all this craziness, Gavin is just trying to get to his love.  Now, before you go analyzing Bush lyrics theres one thing thats important to know, so you don't want to pull your hair out: Gavin hardly ever writes one song only about one topic. So, that makes it pretty hard sometimes to understand certain lyrics. With that in mind, if you have trouble, dont worry...its not that it makes no sense, it just might be about something completely different! In my personal opinion....I think "Win some ground but lose you" is simply saying...hes getting closer to something, or maybe understanding, or losing some of his confusion...but with all this time its taking, hes still losing her.  "Its never explained how to make it through"...i think thats pretty straight foward:) ...."No rope, No cash, No serpentine"...these are all things that would probably cause a mess or tempt you Gavin in another direction to sway from his love....money, rope (?), serpentine (snake...international sign of temptation!).  Now, I wont lie to you...the buried on a bonfire line is giving me a tough time too!  But if i had to give my best educated guess, id tell you it meant perhaps it was hard for him to get to his love? Because its buried in this large fire? Im sorry, i find it very confusing as well!! Perhaps its meant to throw you off! ;)

3)  I think youre idea it very good...you can use two songs about love to show this....for example, Glycerine (which is basically about explosive, bad, harmful love) compared to Inflatable (which is like..about flawless, deep, limitless love).  You could also show how Gavin was influenced by other poets...in Machinehead the line "I Saw the best minds or my generation" is a paraphrase from the poem Howl by Allen Ginsberg.  

I hope i helped a little bit, and good luck on your paper and oral report!!! :)