I’m wondering about the meaning of a lyric in Chuck Berry’s 1958 Xmas song “Run Rudolph Run:”
Run, run Rudolph/ Randolph isn’t far behind
Who or what is Randolph? Is it a person’s name with no meaning beyond alliteration? Is it one of his “Promised Land”-type recitations of American geographical features (there being a number of Randolph counties and towns, especially in the south)? Are the reindeer being chased, or are they trying to make good time?
Sorry, gave it another listen, the precise lyric is:
Run run Rudolph/ Randolph ain’t too far behind
… which makes no difference in my question.
Thanks.
This will likely end up in Cafe Society, as I seriously doubt that anyone besides Chuck Berry knows for sure. That said, I always figured it was little more than a nonsense lyric, taking a name that sounded similar to Rudolph (just for the poetry of it) and suggesting a chase or competition to infuse a little urgency into Rudolph’s running. Pretty lame in and of itself, but still the song as a whole works.
Reminds me of Berry’s line “riding along in my calaboose” (in No Particular Place to Go). Calaboose meaning jail doesn’t make sense, but it rhymes with “belt a-loose.” Or think of “campaign shouting like a Southern diplomat” from Nadine – what the deuce is a “Southern diplomat?” Berry could usually phrase things exquisitely, with both meaning and flow, but if push came to shove he’d make it flow, meaning be damned.
a very common childhood variant of the rudolph song was “randolph the two gun cowboy.” maybe this was the shooter to whom he was referring.
The following doesn’t answer the OP directly, but…
Rudolph is “Rudolph the red nose reindeer.”
Randolph is “Randolph the brown nose reindeer.”
Both can run fast but Randolph can’t stop as fast! :rolleyes:
Shooter? What shooter? Are you thinking of the line “whizzing like a shooting star?” That’s referring to something zipping rapidly through the sky, like a sabre jet, or Rudolph.
I’ve learned something interesting by Googling on the lyrics. The song was written by Johnny Marks and Marvin Broady, not by Chuck Berry. One site has the line as “Run, run, Rudolph, you’re runnin’ way too far behind.” Others have “Vixen can’t be far behind.” Apparently Berry used “Randolph” because…I dunno, he felt like it? In the context of the song, “you’re runnin’ way too far behind” seems to make the most sense.
Questions about lyrics usually do best in the Cafe Society forum, so I"ll move this one over there.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Thanks. I obviously have a vested interest in this if you’ll note my screenname. Somehow I made it through life without noticing the reference before… and fortunately so did all the kids at school!
When I asked about the Randoph lyric a couple of years ago, the only thing that the Dopers could come up with is that Chuck was supposed to be singing about Santa being way too far behind but it doesn’t come out that way.