Lyrics to
Rover

This version of Rover was released by Jethro Tull in 1978.

Our About Jethro Tull page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Rover from 1978 as well as all of the other lyrics from Jethro Tull that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Jethro Tull or about the 1970s in general.

I chase your every footstep
and I follow every whim.
When you call the tune I’m ready
to strike up the battle hymn.
My lady of the meadows —
My comber of the beach —
You’ve thrown the stick for your dog’s trick
but it’s floating out of reach.
The long road is a rainbow and the pot of gold lies there.
So slip the chain and I’m off again —
You’ll find me everywhere. I’m a Rover.

As the robin craves the summer
to hide his smock of red,
I need the pillow of your hair
in which to hide my head.
I’m simple in my sadness,
resourceful in remorse.
Then I’m down straining at the lead —
holding on a windward course.

Strip me from the bundle
of balloons at every fair:
colourful and carefree —
Designed to make you stare.
But I’m lost and I’m losing
the thread that holds me down.
And I’m up hot and rising
in the lights of every town.

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Jethro Tull has released many songs over the years besides Rover. Jethro Tull released songs from 1968 to 2003 spanning across albums like This Was, Stand Up, Benefit, Aqualung, Living In The Past, Thick As A Brick, A Passion Play, Warchild, Minstrel In The Gallery, Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die!, Songs From The Wood, Heavy Horses, Stormwatch, A, The Broadsword And The Beast, Under Wraps, Crest Of A Knave, Rock Island, Catfish Rising, Nightcap, Roots To Branches, J-Tull Dot Com, and The Jethro Tull Christmas Album. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Jethro Tull.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1978 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Rover by Jethro Tull

When you decide to study the lyrics to Rover, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1978 song by Jethro Tull. Some of the lyrics to Rover have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Jethro Tull and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Rover if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Rover" means the words set to the music of Rover, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Jethro Tull. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Rover and the lyrics to Rover are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Jethro Tull who came here looking just for the lyrics to Rover, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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