Almanac Music: ‘Pink and Purple Wisteria’ – Songs Involving Flowers
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vase of Flowers, c. 1884. [Wikimedia Commons.]
Almanac Music: ‘Pink and Purple Wisteria’ – Songs Involving Flowers
Hi, Almanackers! This week’s piece in my ongoing series about key popular song themes concerns songs that in some way involve flowers.
So, dear readers, please put your relevant songs in the ‘Comments’ section. Below, as usual, are some examples from me to get things going.
‘Ramblin’ Rose’, written by Noel Sherman and Joe Sherman, performed by Nat King Cole (1962)
‘San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) ’, written by John Phillips, performed by Scott McKenzie (1967)
‘Goodbye’, written by Paul McCartney (but credited to Lennon–McCartney), performed by Mary Hopkin (1969)
‘leave your flowers at my door’
‘Dead Flowers’, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, performed by the Rolling Stones (1971)
‘Summer Breeze’, written by Jim Seals and Dash Crofts, performed by Stylus (1975)
‘blowing through the jasmine in my mind’
‘You Don’t Bring Me Flowers’, written by Neil Diamond, Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman, performed by Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand (1978)
‘The Rose’, written by Amanda McBroom, performed by Bette Midler (1980)
‘Cootamundra Wattle’, written and performed by John Williamson (1986)
‘Nature Boy’, written by Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn P. Casey and Jim Sclavunos, performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2004)
‘pink and purple wisteria’
…………………………………….
Now, dear readers / listeners – it’s over to you. Your responses to this topic are warmly welcomed. In the ‘Comments’ section, please add your own choice of a song (or songs) involving flowers, along with any other relevant material you wish to include.
[Note: as usual, Wikipedia has been a good general reference for this piece, particularly in terms of checking dates and other details.]
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Cracking list KD! Here are a few flower songs that come to mind.
‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone?’ – Peter, Paul & Mary (and many others)
‘Flowers In The Rain’ – The Move
‘A White Sports Coat and a Pink Carnation’ – Marty Robbins
‘My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose’ – The Fureys (and many others)
‘Flowers on the Wall’ – The Statler Brothers
‘Build me up Buttercup’ – The Foundations
‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ – The Byrds (and many others)
Kiss from a rose – Seal
I never promised you a rose garden – (can’t recall who sang this)
Where the wild roses grow – Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue
Edelweiss – Sound of Music soundtrack
Every rose has a thorn – Poison
Push the little daises – Ween
Tiptoe through the tulips – Tiny Tim
Note: the Pogues’ debut album was called Red Roses For Me
Thanks, Col, for opening the batting – what a fine, interesting bunch of songs to get us off the mark. ‘Build Me up Buttercup’, to select just one for comment, is an old favourite of mine.
Thank you, Smokie, for being the fellow opener. Good stuff! I think it’s the first time Tiny Tim has received a guernsey in relation to one of my music themed pieces.
“I Love The Flower Girl”, by The Cowsills
(Nothing But) Flowers from Talking Heads’ final album, Naked. I went overseas for the first time in 1988, the year this was released, and remember buying a now long-lost bootleg copy on cassette from a bloke in an alley.
Earlier this year Vampire Weekend played an afternoon show in Austin to coincide with the full lunar eclipse. As the sky went dark, they played a long, jammy version of Flower Moon from their Father of the Bride release. They left the stage during the eight minutes of totality and then returned in full light to complete the gig.
“English Country Garden”, by Jimmie Rodgers (“How many kinds of sweet flowers grow in an English country garden”), (“Daffodils, heart ease and flox”) and (“Roses, foxgloves, snowdrops, forget me nots”)
Thanks, Anon, for an initial two. You’re off to an early start! Cheers.
“Rose Garden”, by Lynn Anderson
Thanks, Mickey – interesting song choices and accompanying material. The Vampire Weekend concert sounds like it had a wonderfully evocative, theatrical element to it.
Thanks for ‘Rose Garden’, Anon – Smokie mentioned the song earlier, but not the artist connected with it.
“A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)”, by Marty Robbins
Thanks, Anon – Col Ritchie mentioned ‘ A White Sport Coat’ earlier – it’s a good song, I reckon.
Tupelo is a flowering tree in the American South that produces “Tupelo Honey” – thanks Van Morrison. My fave Jason Isbell also has “Tupelo” and “Palmetto Rose”.
“Iris” is an epic power ballad by Goo Goo Dolls featured in the movie “City of Angels”. The song lyric seems to be about an angel named Iris, but hey irises are my favourite flower. Often bought for the Avenging Eagle, and called “Eagle Flowers” in our house from their deep blue and gold colours.
A fruitful theme, Kevin, and nice use of the Renoir. These are my first thoughts:
English Rose – The Jam
Vermilion – Hello Sailor (“That tattooed rose inside your left-hand thigh”)
My Pohutukawa – Citizen Band (NB: Pohutukawa is an EnNZed treee with a red Christmas-time flower)
Poppies – Buffy Sainte-Marie
Dandelion – Kristin Hersh
Floral Clocks – Floral Clocks (“His own father/detested flowers/and would scorch the earth/
in a distant land”)
Happy and Bleeding – PJ Harvey (“Fruit flower myself inside out/I’m tired and I’m bleeding”)
Sunflower – Paul Weller
Petals – Hole
And Death Shall Have No Dominion – Paul Kelly (“Where blew a flower may a flower no more/Lift its head to the blows of the rain”)
Little Star – Mick Harvey (“A dress of braided gold you wear/Jewels and flowers here and there”)
Every Grain of Sand – Bob Dylan (“Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear/Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer”)
Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky – Manic Street Preachers
Hat tip to NZ bands Dead Flowers and Wild Poppies.
Thanks, Peter B – some fine choices there. Pretty certain a Southern boy called Elvis was born in a little place called Tupelo, too.
Thank you, Peter C., for your song selections – epic stuff! Much for Almanackers to listen to and digest. Really glad you like my use of the Renoir, too – he’s one of my favourite painters. Also, I really enjoy finding appropriate images for my Almanac pieces.
Hey KD
Excellent theme and should brings up another century.
Dylan will have a decent innings on this theme, so to add to Peter C’s ‘Every Grain of Sand’ lyric, I’ll throw in a couple of verses from ‘You’re Gonna make me Lonesome When You Go’:
‘Purple clover, Queen Anne lace,
Crimson hair across your face,’
&
‘Flowers on the hillside, bloomin’ crazy,
Crickets talkin’ back and forth in rhyme,
Blue river runnin’ slow and lazy,
I could stay with you forever
And never realize the time.’
BTW, this verse also has valid contributions to your ‘animals’ & ‘river’ themes from earlier in the year!
Thanks, Karl, for Dylan’s ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go’ , especially the section of quoted lyrics.
Thanks Kev. Karl’s “Flowers on the hillside” line reminded me of Tom Waits’s eulogy to a dying Victorian town, ‘Town With No Cheer,’ which come complete with a flowering weed:
“All ya can be is thirsty in a town with no cheer
No bourbon, no branchwater
Though the townspeople here
Fought her Vic Rail decree tooth and nail
“Now it’s boilin’ in a miserable March 21st
Wrapped the hills in a blanket
Of Patterson’s curse
The train smokes down the xylophone
There’ll be no stopping here
All ya can be is thirsty in a town with no cheer”
Wildwood Flower – The Carter Family (“Oh, I’ll twine with my mingles and waving black hair With the roses so red and the lilies so fair And the myrtle so bright with the emerald hue The pale and the leader and eyes look like blue.…”)
Wildflowers – written by Dolly Parton and sung beautifully on the Trio album by Dolly, Emmylou and Linda
Gulf Coast Highway – Nanci Griffith (” This is the only place on earth Blue Bonnets grow Once a year they come and go”)
John Doe number 24 – Mary Chapin Carter (“And it was my heart’s own perfume When the crape jasmine bloomed on St. Charles Avenue”)
Rose of Cimarron – Poco
Thanks for ‘Town with No Cheer’, Peter C – the lyrics are certainly highly evocative and could apply to many Australian country towns.
Another ripper theme KD and already some magnificent selections. Tip of the hat to Ramblin’ Rose, what a song.
My first up must be Adelaide by Paul Kelly, as his song begins with the flower mentioned in the title of this week’s theme! (The wisteria on the back veranda is still blooming)
Dolly’s Wildflowers a must
Tom Petty, Wildflowers, ditto (and not just because it’s Vicki’s fave TP song)
The Carter Family’s The Wildwood Flower (as I type tears are welling)
and I round off my first set with Lucinda Williams’ Fruits of my Labor (Traced your scent through the gloom/’til I found these purple flowers/I was spent, I was soon/Smelling you for hours/Lavender, lotus blossoms too/Water the dirt, flowers last for you, baby/Sweet baby)
I swear Dave N, I hadn’t seen your selections before I posted! But, great minds, huh. Cheers
Neil Young’s – Love Is A Rose
Love is a rose but you better not pick it
It only grows when it’s on the vine
A handful of thorns and you know you’ve missed it
You lose your love when you say the word “mine”.
This was an unreleased song written by Neil in the early 70’s and included on the 1977 compilation triple album ‘Decade’. The bass player on the song is Tim Drummond – who worked with Neil from ‘Harvest (1972) to Harvest Moon (1992) as well as Ry Cooder & JJ Cale. Tim also played bass on Dylan’s 3 ‘religious-era’ albums: Slow Train Coming, Saved, Shot Of Love and has a co-write credit for the song ‘Saved’.
Wonderful selections, Dave N – every one of your songs is thing of beauty.
How could a theme like this one fully bloom (so to speak) without a key song in America’s Country Music canon, the Carter Family’s ‘Wildwood Flower’?
Thanks, Rick, for your fine choices – and, as is obvious immediately above, I certainly agree with the sentiments expressed/indicated by you and Dave concerning ‘Wildwood Flower’. I was just watching/listening to a wonderful version in which ‘Mother’ Maybelle Carter sang lead vocal while playing a combination of lead and rhythm guitar (the ‘Carter scratch’ guitar playing technique she invented), a young June Carter played autoharp, and other Carter sisters were on backing vocals etc. It wasn’t the Carters’ earliest version of the song, of course – the original Carter family version was recorded in 1928.
Sweet Violets (Sweeter than the Roses) – Dinah Shore
Tip Toe Through the Tulips – Tiny Tim
Artificial Flowers – Bobby Darin
Roses are Red – Bobby Vinton
Sweeter Than the Flowers – Bobby Bare
The Yellow Rose of Texas – Mitch Miller
Tar and Cement (I forget the singer)
A Good Year for the Roses, George Jones (funny, I don’t seem to care kills me everytime)
Magnolia Wind, Shawn Camp (covered by Guy Clark)
Don’t Take it Too Bad, Townes Van Zandt (covered by Guy Clark)
The Randal Knife, Guy Clark (mentions roses as does Townes song, and each reference might seem like a small detail in the song but if you know Townes and Guy’s songwriting, every detail is significant to the tale they’re telling)
We Want Everything, The Cicadas (Rodney Crowell’s “rock” band of the late 90s!)
Many thanks for Neil Young’s ‘Love is a Rose’ and the interesting accompanying information, Karl.
I was introduced to this song via Linda Ronstadt’s wonderful version.
Thanks, Fisho, for your choices. Welcome aboard the very good ship ‘Flowers’! ‘Yellow Rose of Texas’ was under serious consideration for my initial list. It’s obviously an important ‘flower’ song.
(Note: Smokie Dawson mentioned the Tiny Tim song near the beginning of this series of comments.)
Great, Rick – thanks for your most recent bunch. Love the general country ‘feel’ of it, for a start.
To make just one point here: the late George Jones is one artist whose work I like more and more as time goes on.
The Birds and the Bees – Jewel Akens
Let the Little Girl Dance – Billy Bland
Truly Fair – Guy Mitchell
Chincherinchee – Perry Como
Tulips and Heather – Perry Como
Secret Love – Doris Day
Mama Liked the Roses – Elvis Presley
Simplicity – Cliff Richard
Butterfly Kisses – Cliff Richard
I Found a Rose – Cliff Richard
April Love – Pat Boone
Flowers Mean Forgiveness – Frank Sinatra
Violets for your Furs – Frank Sinatra
I will Drink the Wine – Frank Sinatra
Bouquet of Roses – Bing Crosby
Honeysuckle Rose – Bing Crosby
Who Gave You the Roses – Bing Crosby
Tar and Cement, mentioned by Fisho, was a hit in Australia for Verdelle Smith. You could claim this as the first pop environmentalist song, it predates Joni’s Big Yellow Taxi by at least three years.
Stardust – Hoagy Carmichael (“The nightingale Tells his fairytale Of paradise, where roses grew”)
Salvation Jane – Broderick Smith (“Just like that purple flower untouched by rain”)
Leave Love Enough Alone (Winter in America) – Doug Ashdown (“The harbour’s misty in the morning love,
Oh how I miss December, the Frangipani opens up to kiss the salty air,”)
Some of these might be drawing a long bow, but they involve the word “flowers”.
The way life’s meant to be: Electric Light Orchestra
Reminds me of you: The Idle Race
Safe in my garden: The Mamas and the papas
Flowers never bend with the rainfall: Simon and Garfunkel
Newly weds in the morning: Australian Crawl
James Reyne: Reno
Cities: Moody Blues
Our house: Crosby Stills Nash and Young
Brick: Ben Folds Five
Where you lead: Carole King
The right thing to do: Carly Simon
Lucy in the sky with diamonds: The Beatles
I’ll add a couple more from John Williamson’s discography:
Waratah Rock’N’Roll Ball (1978) – also relevant to the last theme
Waratah Street (1991)
And a couple from Donovan:
‘Lullaby Of Spring’ (1967:
Rain has showered far her drip/Splash and trickle running,
Plant has flowered in the sand/Shell and pebble sunning.
Young Girl Blues (1967)
The flowers on your stockings
Wilting away in the midnight
Jennifer Juniper (1968)
Jennifer Juniper, rides a dappled mare
Jennifer Juniper, lilacs in her hair
“My Favourite Things”, by Julie Andrews (“Raindrops on roses”)
“Bill and Ben The Flowerpot Men” television theme song.
“Bed of Roses”, by Bon Jovi
“Let It Shine”, by Olivia Newton-John (“A woman needs attention like the flowers need the sun.”)
“Flowers”, by Miley Cyrus
“Run for the Roses”, by Dan Fogelberg
“Delta Dawn”, by Helen Reddy (Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?”)
“Poison Ivy”, by The Coasters (“She comes on like a rose.”) and (“She’s pretty as a daisy.”)
“Somewhere in the World”, by Boney M (“Time will see another flower growing.”)
“Jesse”, by Carly Simon (“Jesse, I won’t cut fresh flowers for you, no.”)
“American Pie”, by Don McLean (“With a pink carnation and a pick up truck”)
“If I Only Had a Brain”, by Judy Garland, from the film “The Wizard of Oz” (“I could while away the hours, conferrin’ with the flowers”)
“A Spoonful of Sugar”, by Julie Andrews (“From the flowers to the comb”) and (“From every flower that they sip”)
Congratulations to the Almanac Music Readers for reaching another half century.
Thank you, Fisho, for your latest fine selection of ‘flower songs’, quite a number by artists acclaimed for the quality of their singing voices, for example Sinatra, Crosby, Como and Presley.
Thanks, Dave, for your most recent choices – some excellent songs there. To select one for comment: Ashdown’s ‘Leave Love Enough Alone (Winter in America)’ deserves special mention for its wonderful line about frangipani, one which has stayed with me over many years.
Hi Liam – great bunch of songs involving flowers. You really are the ‘go to’ person among us when it comes to relevant songs by artists such as ELO, James Reyne and Australian Crawl!
Thanks, Karl, for the Williamson and Donovan songs.
Interestingly ‘Jennifer Juniper’ was written about Jenny Boyd, sister of iconic sixties model Pattie Boyd, one-time wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton.
Many thanks, Anon, for your latest selections – you’ve certainly been productive in the wee small hours. Your mention of Bon Jovi’s ‘Bed of Roses’ made me think of another relevant song, Ross Wilson’s ‘Bed of Nails’ (e.g.You lay down in a bed of roses / And wake up lying on a bed of nails).
Hey KD
Although it doesn’t ‘qualify’ for this weeks theme. I do think that Paul McCartney & Wings ‘Red Rose Speedway’ albums at least deserves a mention.
Paul, with that red rose in his mouth. could have been the opening image to this theme.
Still don’t know why the album was called what it was – any clues?
Anyway, have a happy Saturday.
“You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth”, by Meat Loaf (“Would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?”)
Petals, by Hole
Flowers by the Roadside, The Felice Brothers
Roses, Outkast (check out the chorus)
Lavender Haze, Taylor Swift
Let’s Go Crazy, Prince (Pills and thrills and daffodils will kill)
“River Deep Mountain High”, by Tina Turner (“I love you baby like a flower loves the spring.”)
“Ring-A-Ring-A-Roses, a pocket full of posies”, by The Wiggles
She Wears Red feathers – Guy Mitchell
Daisy a Day – Jud Strunk
A Rose and a Thorn – Andy Rose
“What a Wonderful World”, by Louis Armstrong (“I see trees of green, red roses too.”)
Hi Karl. Thanks for your latest comments. Regarding Red Rose Speedway, the following comes from The Paul McCartney Project website – it is a quote from a Wings fan club newsletter: ” ‘Red Rose Speedway’: The title was inspired by Rose, Paul and Linda’s housekeeper, a redhead. Apparently, Rose was rushing around making breakfast one morning when Paul suddenly said, “I know, Iet’s call it ‘Red Rose Speedway.’….. “
Thank you, Anon, for your latest. Great to see classics like ‘What a Wonderful World’ and ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ listed. (Possibly ‘You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth’ is a classic, too – a matter of opinion.)
Thanks, Rick, for your most recent choices. Particularly good pickup in relation to the Prince lyric’s flower reference.
Thanks also to Fisho, for your latest three songs.
Our songlist is developing impressively!
Four from Dolly Parton
Where have all the Flowers gone?
Wildflowers Don’t Care where they Grow
Yellow Roses
A Violet and a Rose
Thanks again, Fisho. Very good to get additional Dolly Parton songs for our list.
Love N’ Flowers – The Hollies
Three from Cilla Black
If I Thought You’d Ever Change You’re Mind
A Lover’s Concerto
I will Bring You Flowers in the Morning
I don’t want to quibble but if you are keeping score, Rick and I have both already mentioned Dolly’s song Wildflowers, and Colin Ritchie mentioned Where have all the flowers gone? in the first post.
Where have All the Flowers Gone? was actually written by Pete Seeger. Pete was apparently inspired by a line from the Russian novel And Quiet Flows the Don by Michael Sholokov. One of the most interesting versions of the song was recorded by Marlene Dietrich (Sag mir wo die Blumen sind)
Ode to Billy Joe – Bobby Gentry (“And me, I spend a lot of time pickin’ flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge”)
Freedom on the Wallaby – The Bushwackers (amongst others) (“We’ll make the tyrants feel the sting of those that they would throttle They needn’t say the fault is ours if blood should stain the wattle”) a Henry Lawson poem, I don’t know who originally set it to music.
Book of Dreams, Bruce (if garland is accepted in the flowers theme)
Second-hand Flowers, Tom T (you want lyrical beauty, try this sad, reflective refrain, bearing in mind there are at least 5 even better examples of country music poetry on the same album(
Lilacs, Waxahatchee (if you don’t know this band, check and correct your compass, this song is about appreciating what you have in a relationship)
Sun to Me, Zach Bryan (another beautiful tearjerker from one of country music’s finest young stars)
Starkville City Jail, Johnny (hey KD, reckon this song could have been in your intro, true story of Mr Cash being arrested and put in jail for, drum roll please, picking flowers)
Thanks for your very latest, Fisho. Good to see Cilla Black get a guernsey, too!
Thanks, Dave, for your latest material – interesting, as always.
Regarding multiple mentions of the same song, if it is early on in the piece, I’ll most likely point out that a song has previously been listed; after the list has grown really big, I’m not so fussed if the occasional multiple mention occurs, as it get harder and harder for everyone (including me) to keep track of every song listed for the theme concerned. The wonderful thing is that these themed lists often grow so large – and also involve a fair amount of interesting discussion and commentary – that I’d need to employ a secretary to keep detailed, exact track of things!
Great material, Rick, with, again, a notable country flavour. Regarding the flower picking episode, of course I can’t be at all sure of what happened, but it seems to me that he was probably off his face when he did it, reading between the lines of what I’ve read (c’mon – picking flowers at around 2am after a show), but that the arrest was bullsh@t anyway – someone in law enforcement may have been trying to big note themselves. Far Out Magazine online says: ‘Some years following his death, Johnny Cash would eventually be pardoned in 2007 as part of the town’s ‘Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival’ which ran for a weekend in the November of that year. Citizens of the town held a ceremonial pardon for Cash on the campus of Mississippi State University.’
Hey KD
Now I must confess that my C&W knowledge is somewhat limited but my osmosis I came upon this fine number to enhance the theme:
Little Jimmy Dickens – My Hearts Bouquet (circa 1960)
‘I was just a very young fellow when I found my pretty flower
Growing in a field of love one day
When she told me that she love me then I knew that I must have her
And I picked her as my heart’s bouquet’
Another chance discovery, that I believe has not been mentioned:
My Wild Irish Rose by Chauncey Olcott (published & first performed in 1899). This may be the earliest song to ever feature in one of your themed song articles????
‘My wild Irish Rose,
The dearest flow’r that grows
And some day for my sake, she may let me take
The bloom from my wild Irish Rose’
There was a 1947 American musical based on Olcott’s life titled ‘My Wild Irish Rose’. Olcott also wrote ‘When Irish Eyes Are Smiling’!
There have been over 100 covers of My Wild Irish Rose, the most recent (Feb 2014) by Luka Bloom
“Wasn’t It Good”, by Tina Arena (“Caring for flowers that just wouldn’t grow”)
Hi Karl – some fine, interesting material in ‘My Heart’s Bouquet’ and ‘My Wild Irish Rose’.
And, yes, the latter song is early in the context of our themed song lists, but I suppose there’s been quite a few earlier ones that have been mentioned, such as folk numbers still played and recorded today with ‘Traditional’ listed as the writer (e.g. The Black Velvet Band’) – the origins of some of these go back centuries, of course.
Here’s another specific song very relevant to our current flower theme, one from 1856, and recorded by many (e.g. Kate and Anna McGarrigle and Linda Ronstadt). The song is the beautiful ‘Gentle Annie’ by Stephen Foster. I even wrote a Footy Almanac Piece about it: ‘Greatest Hits of 1856 – ‘Gentle Annie’ by Stephen Foster’.
‘Gentle Annie’ is just about the archetypal flower song. Here are the lyrics (as represented by the Song of America website):
Thou wilt come no more, gentle Annie,
Like a flower thy spirit did depart;
Thou are gone, alas! like the many
That have bloomed in the summer of my heart.
Chorus:
Shall we never more behold thee;
Never hear thy winning voice again
When the Spring time comes, gentle Annie,
When the wild flowers are scattered o’er the plain?
We have roamed and loved mid the bowers
When thy downy cheeks were in their bloom;
Now I stand alone mid the flowers
While they mingle their perfumes o’er thy tomb.
Chorus
Ah! the hours grow sad while I ponder
Near the silent spot where thou are laid,
And my heart bows down when I wander
By the streams and the meadows were we strayed.
Chorus
Thanks for ‘Wasn’t It Good’, Anon.
Hey KD
Happy Sunday!
Firstly, thanks for the info on the origins of ‘Red Rose Speedway’.
Secondly, thanks for the info re songs predating my 1899 entry, including the ‘Gentle Annie’ lyrics. As soon as I posted my comments I realised that the FA site has many well informed contributors (esp. Dave Nadel & yourself), so songs before 1899 were highly likely to have featured in previous themes.
Now, for a new contribution to the flower theme:
The Cure – Bloodflowers
‘Between me and you, It’s hard to ever really know
Who to choose, How to feel, What to do
Never fade/Never die
You give me flowers of love
Always fade/Always die
I let fall flowers of blood’
A fairly typical Robert Smith lyric & sentiment…..
“Crimson and Clover”, by Tommy James and the Shondells. Clover was the lead singer’s favourite flower and crimson was his his favourite colour.
“Tenterfield Saddler”, by Peter Allen (“And if you had questions about sheep or flowers or dogs”)
Happy Sunday to you, Karl! Many thanks for your comments, and for ‘Bloodflowers’ in particular – it’s certainly a fine song.
Thanks for ‘Crimson and Clover’ and ‘Tenterfield Saddler’, Anon. I came to ‘Crimson and Clover’ via the excellent Joan Jett and the Blackhearts version.
Lay Down Your Arms – Anne Shelton
Here’s a couple from the great GEORGE FORMBY
On the Wigan Boat Express
I Parted my Hair in the Middle (I got her a nice bunch of flowers from a dustbin just up the street)
Thanks, Fisho, for your latest trio.
Here’s a fun song from an all time favourite album – Arlo Guthrie’s 1967 ‘Alice’s Restaurant’
Ring-Around-A-Rosy Rag
‘Ring around, ring around rose
Touch your nose and blow your toes and mind
Doing the ring-around-a-rosy rag’
& an Aussie connection…..verse 2
‘We ought to send Officer Joe Strange
To some Australian mountain range
So we all can do the ring-around-a-rosy rag’
Thank you for the Arlo Guthrie number, Karl, and the accompanying illuminating quote.
“I Just Called to Say I Love You”, by Stevie Wonder (“No April rain, no flowers bloom”)
“La Vie en rose”, by Dean Martin (“A world where roses bloom”)
“Sway” by Michael Bublé (“Like a flower bending in the breeze”)
“When You’re Not Here”, (2018) by Michael Bublé (“When you’re not here the flowers don’t blossom”). This song is from his tenth album, titled “Love”.
“Just One More Dance” by Michael Bublé (“I send flowers every day but you just turn them away.”). It was from his 1995 album “First Dance”, which was independently released.
“Let’s Dance”, by David Bowie (“If you should fall into my arms, and tremble like a flower”)
“Paper Roses”, by Marie Osmond (“Paper roses, paper roses, oh how real those roses seem to me.”)
“Vincent”, by Don McLean (“Sketch the trees and the daffodils.”), (Flaming flowers that brightly blaze”) and (“The silver thorn of bloody rose”)
Many thanks, Anon, for your latest song choices. To select just one for comment: I suppose it was inevitable that McLean’s song about Van Gogh contains a range of flower references – particularly good selection!
Like a Rose, Ashley Monroe (she’s a great songwriter and has released a couple of cracker albums)
Like a Rose, Lucinda Williams (different song, from her eponymous “first” album and that album blew us all away, my two cents, she’s the finest countryish songwriter of the last 40 years)
Rose of Jericho, Lori McKenna (if you don’t know here stuff get on it, you will not be disappointed, another top shelf coutryish songwriter)
Seeds of Love, Lorenna McKennitt (a folk poem/song that may date back to the 1600s, by Canadian folk singer in the 1990s, she is only one of many covers/versions but beautiful voice)
(Listen to the) Flower People, Spinal Tap (yes, before they released Smell the Glove they were a psychedelic pop group!)
Has anyone mentioned these 2 from Paul Anka – Pretty Flowers and Roses Ain’t Red?
Jenny – Danny Kaye (Could have made a bed of Roses)
“Spanish Harlem”, by Ben E. King (“There is a rose in Spanish Harlem , a red rose up in Spanish Harlem”) and (“I’m going to pick that rose”).
“Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)”, by Roxette
Holiday, James McMurtry (Counting the crosses off down in the ditch/This one’s got flowers, this one’s got a wreath/This one’s got a name painted down underneath)
Bougainvillea, I Think, Sam Outlaw (After all this time I can’t recall her name/But if I try, I might recall the name of the flower on that wall/Shades of purple, red and pink/Bougainvillea, I think)
Roses in the Snow, Emmylou (My darlin’s buried on the hillside/Where all the wild spring flowers grow/And when the winter snow start fallin’/On his grave, I’ll place a rose)
Dandelion, Kasey Musgraves (A million little wishes float across the sky/But it’s a waste of breath and it’s a waste of time I know/Cause just like him, you always leave me cryin’ dandelion)
Camooweal, Slim Dusty song and my very fave of his (Should ever I go back to Camooweal/’Twould be in the spring when desert flowers bloom/Oh, the spinifex I know would still be there/And the desert pea would brighten up the gloom)
Many thanks for your latest selections, Rick, and for the accompanying informative quotations, and bits of info and opinion. Wow – what a wealth of material for Almanackers to ponder, as well as to listen to!
Deservedly, you were at the crease when we clocked up our collective ton.
Thanks, Fisho, for the latest trio of choices (I just had a look back though, and don’t think any of them have been previously mentioned.)
Thank you, Anon, for your latest couple – ‘Spanish Harlem’ is a particularly good ‘get’, i feel, as it is certainly a fine, classic song which uses the rose as its key reference point.
Here’s a little more Oz content: ‘Let Go’ (1974), written and performed by Brian Cadd. The first line is ‘Moonlight and roses are the going thing’.
After Karl and Kevin’s mentions yesterday of sentimental songs from the Nineteenth Century here is another.
Lorena – John Hartford (“Oh, the years creep slowly by, Lorena,
The snow is on the ground again.
The sun’s low down the sky, Lorena,
The frost gleams where the flow’rs have been.”)
Lorena was written in1856 and became very popular with soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War. I chose John Hartford’s version because it appears on the CD that was released to coincide with Ken Burns’ documentary on the Civil War. Also because John Hartford wrote one of my favourite songs from the 60s which is
Gentle On My Mind – Glen Campbell (“Not clinging to the rocks and ivy planted on their columns
Now that binds me”)
Going back to older songs
Tam Lin – Fairport Convention (“She’d not pulled a double rose, a rose but only two
When up there came young Tam Lin says “Lady, pull no more”) This is a Scottish Ballad that goes back at least to the Sixteenth Century although it is possible that lines that I have quoted were written by Fairport in 1969.
Finally, returning to the Twentieth Century
Timberline – Emmylou Harris
(“But when I rise from the timberline and call your name
Will you remember mine?
And the sweetest kiss will be the tie that binds
Like the wild, wild rose and the columbine”)
Hey KD
My Monday contribution is from one of my favourite albums:
Thin Lizzy’s 1979 Black Rose: A Rock Legend
…and the title track…..
“Róisín Dubh (Black Rose): A Rock Legend”
Tell me the legends of long ago
When the kings and queens would dance
In the realm of the Black Rose
Play me the melodies I want to know
So I can teach my children, oh
Love your most recent post, Dave, with its excursions into historical and contemporary territory highly relevant to our present theme. Over recent years, particularly, I’ve developed a major interest in American antebellum songs, of which ‘Lorena’ is an example, of course.
Thank you for your Thin Lizzy song, Karl – they are, incidentally, one of my favourite heavier rock bands of their era. I remember seeing them play live at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne as a teenager.
How about some early Dylan to kick off Tuesday?
It Ain’t Me Babe
‘To gather flowers constantly
And to come each time you call’
Love Minus Zero/No Limit
‘People carry roses,
Make promises by the hours,
My love she laughs like the flowers,
Valentines can’t buy her’
It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
‘Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something they invest in’
To Ramona
‘For the flowers of the city
Though breathlike, get deathlike sometimes’
Great work Kev.
Hyacinth House by The Doors off LA Woman.
“What are they doing in the Hyacinth House to feed the Lions this day…”
Great to get some Dylan to kick off Tuesday, Karl. Love the highly apt quotations, too.
‘It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ has to be one of my all-time favourite song titles, incidentally.
Thank you for the song by The Doors, Richard.
Glad you’re enjoying this flowers theme.
Hi there. Not sure if I spotted Red Roses for a Blue Lady sung by various.
Anyhow, I usually head first to the Ferry songbook and come up with Rhododendron is a nice flower but it can’t beat STRAND power.
Also another one of my faves is Prairie Rose dedicated to his once scented flower Jerry who turned out a Crown of Thorns for Bryan et al.
Lou Reed hits us VICIOUSly with a flower from Transformer.
Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs goes Daisy Petal pickin
And on the theme of earlier contributor regarding Artificial Flowers, Henry Gibson simply gives us FLOWERS plastic up top and wire below. Regards. Frank.
Many thanks, Frank, for your interesting input.
I just had another look through our very long song list and comments, and couldn’t see ‘Red Roses for a Blue Lady’ – but I may have missed it! One way or another, it’s now in, anyway.
Hey KD
Glad you liked the Thin Lizzy & Dylan contributions to the list.
Here’s a few more Dylan lyrics – from his mid-60’s albums:
Queen Jane Approximately
Now when all of the flower ladies want back what they have lent you
And the smell of their roses does not remain
And all of your children start to resent you
Won’t you come see me, Queen Jane?
Desolation Row
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers
Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands
The kings of Tyrus, with their convict list
Are waiting in line for their geranium kiss
Big call out to Frank for his Lou Reed ‘Vicious’ pick up – don’t know how that one slipped by my memory bank.
Thanks for your latest Dylan material, Karl – fine stuff!
Continuing the Dylan-flower lyrics…here’s a few from the late 60’s/early 70’s…..
Time Passes Slowly
Like the red rose of summer that blooms in the day
Time passes slowly and fades away
Never Say Goodbye
My dreams are made of iron and steel
With a big bouquet
Of roses hanging down
From the heavens to the ground.
Shelter From The Storm
Suddenly I turned around and she was standin’ there
With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair
Thanks for some more Dylan songs to add to our impressive list, Karl – wonderful!
Hey KD
I’m still sticking with Dylan & flower lyrics – we advance to late 70’s – mid 80’s.
Changing Of The Guard (1978)
Renegade priests and treacherous young witches
Were handing out the flowers that I’d given to you
Blind Willie McTell (1983)
See them big plantations burning
Hear the cracking of the whips
Smell that sweet magnolia blooming
See the ghosts of slavery ships
I’ll Remember You (1985)
When the roses fade
And I’m in the shade
I’ll remember you
Here’s something I only discovered yesterday. Davy Jones (ex-The Monkees) covered ‘I’ll Remember You’ on his 2009 ‘She’ album.
Something I’ve known for a while, however, is that on his debut 1965 ‘David Jones’ album (before he was a ‘Monkee’ and before he changed ‘David’ to Davy’) he covered Dylan’s ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’.
Love the Dylan calls Karl and how did I miss Queen Jane (in my top 5 Dylan songs!)
A few more:
Flowers on my Window Ledge, Rissi Palmer (African-American country music artist, worth a listen)
Leonard Cohen’s Roses, Johnette Napolitano (you know, lead singer from Concrete Blonde)
Roses Grow, Concrete Blonde
Priests, Judy Collins (written but pretty sure never recorded by Leonard Cohen)
Albatross, Judy Collins (from Wildflowers, the same album as Priests)
Excellent continuation of the Dylan material. Karl!
Surprising to hear about Davy Jones’s covers of Bob, too; that said, I suppose ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ is such that it enables an array of interpretations. I think it’s an eminently ‘coverable’ song, not as idiosyncratically ‘Dylan’ as many of the great man’s works.
Many thanks, Rick, for your latest lot.
Just thought of another (excellent) flower song, ‘No Thunder No Fire No Rain’, co-written by Tim Finn, from his Big Canoe solo album. The song refers to a ‘young wife with flowers in her hair’.
Ah, the fallibility of memory, Rick – regarding the Finn-performed song I referred to immediately above, I just checked and the exact words quoted should be ‘young bride puts flowers in her hair’. It’s lovely, haunting song and right on theme, anyway.
Thanks Rick & KD for appreciating the Dylan contributions.
I now advance to 1989’s ‘Oh Mercy’ & 1990’s ‘Under The Red Sky’ albums.
Where Teardrops Fall
Roses are red violets are blue
And times is beginning to crawl
I just might have come to see you
Where teardrops fall
Ring Them Bells
Ring them bells St. Catherine
From the top of the room
Ring them from the fortress
For the lilies that bloom
Handy Dandy
Handy dandy,
he got a basket of flowers
and a bag full or sorrow
Here’s a few from Roger Whittaker
Little Flower (Petite Fleur)
Red Roses for a Blue Lady
New day in the Morning
Lemonade
A few from Steve Lawrence
Millions of Roses
Everything’s Coming Up Roses.
Tango of Roses
Lollypops and Roses
I Believe – Dinah Washington and Brook Benton
What a Difference a Day Makes – Brook Benton
There Grew a Little Flower – from the Gilbert & Sullivan opera, HMS Pinafore
The Flowers that Bloom in the Spring Tra La from The Mikado
Thanks, Karl – keep the Dylan a-comin’!
I’ve just recollected, too, that Kate Bush’s song, ‘Oh England My Lionheart’, contains a range of flower references: ‘blooming clover’, ‘apple blossom’ and ‘English rose’.
Thank you, Fisho, for your latest choices in relation to the flower theme – your input is always appreciated.
‘Daisy a Day’, written and recorded by Jud Strunk (1972) – also covered by numerous others.
Wrap yer mind around this set of stunners, that happen to mention flowers, actually apart from Dylan, flowers are the main conceit and or metaphor. Willie’s is the title track of his 70th, yep, 70th album, from 2020. He’s up past 75 now! Kacey’s song is from her “break up” album. Kathy Mattea, an 80s country artist really gets inside this beautiful song and Miranda nails this sad, sad song. Note, it’s not a cover of the RS song, I would argue it’s a better use of the metaphor. Definitely not as mean spirited.
Ain’t Talkin, Dylan
18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses, Kathy Mattea
Cherry Blossom, Kacey Musgraves
First Rose of Spring, Willie
Dead Flowers, Miranda Lambert
Thank you, Rick, for your latest song choices. Always enjoy reading your accompanying comments, too.
This flower theme, I feel, is one of those that keeps on giving.
Another song involving flowers is U2’s ‘Beautiful Day’ – the opening lines are: ‘The heart is a bloom /
Shoots up through the stony ground…’
There’s a lyric & it’s a-comin’
Rollin’ down the track
Bloomin’ like a black rose
O’er them ol’ smokestacks
Maybe it’s a sunflower
Recalled from long ago
Or some fine sweet camelia
Left forsaken in the snow.
Dylan keeps them a-comin’ – 1997 (Time Out Of Mind) & 2001 (Love & Theft) albums:
Highlands
Well my heart’s in The Highlands, gentle and fair
Honeysuckle blooming in the wildwood air
Bluebells blazing where the Aberdeen waters flow
Moonlight
The dusky light, the day is losing
Orchids, poppies, black-eyed Susan
The earth and sky that melts with flesh and bone…..
The trailing moss and mystic glow
Purple blossoms soft as snow
Bye & Bye
I’ve still got a dream that hasn’t been repossessed
I’m rollin’ slow, goin’ where the wild roses grow
Thank you for your latest Dylan, Karl – wonderful stuff – and for your opening verse!
Another couple, to keep our theme ‘blooming’…
First of all, ‘Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)’, a music hall classic, written in 1898 by Britisher Harry Dacre, and much performed and recorded since – Nat King Cole recorded the best known version, and even Nick Cave has recorded it. This Dacre song possess the well-known chorus:
‘Daisy, Daisy,
Give me your answer, do!
I’m half crazy,
All for the love of you!
It won’t be a stylish marriage,
I can’t afford a carriage,
But you’ll look sweet upon the seat
Of a bicycle built for two!’
Also, there’s an obscure Elton John / Bernie Taupin song called ‘The Flowers Will Never Die’, a 1969 demo that appeared on John’s Jewel Box collection in 2020.
Great addition to the theme KD!
I had a quick sqizz through the list and it seems that there maybe a missed Beatles lyric:
Penny Lane
Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout
A pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray
Glad you liked my recent additions, Karl.
Thanks for putting forward ‘Penny Lane’ – I also checked through what we’ve got so far and couldn’t see it anywhere.
My final tiptoe through the songs of Bob Dylan brings us to the 21st century.
When The Deal Goes Down (2006 – Modern Times album)
More frailer than the flowers, these precious hours
That keep us so tightly bound…..
Well I picked up a rose and it poked through my clothes
I Feel A Change Comin’ On (2009 – Together Through Time album)
Everybody got all the money
Everybody got all the beautiful clothes
Everybody got all the flowers
I don’t have one single rose
Many thanks, Karl – you’ve been wonderfully comprehensive in relation to the Bob Dylan songs you’ve listed connecting to our flowers theme.
Great Oz song – ‘It’s Only the Beginning’ (1991), co-written and recorded by Deborah Conway. In it, the line ‘I feel like making daisy chains’ occurs.
Saturday – The Carpenters
Flowers for my Tears – Carpenters
Mind Your Love – The Captain and Tennille
Here’s an Aussie icon – Austen Tayshus’s 1983 ‘Australiana’.
So I said, “What’ll we do about Nulla?….
I grabbed a beer and said, “Thanks Warra, tah!….
Besides, I don’t wanna leave Jack around a party on his own
Thank you and goodnight!
Thank you, Fisho and Karl, for your latest material – the songs keep coming!
Here’s another song involving flowers, a real classic of the rock’n’roll era, ‘Good Vibrations’, written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, performed by the Beach Boys: ‘She goes with me to a blossom world.’
Here’s a triplet from the voice of Robert Plant:
That’s The Way (off LZIII – 1970)
And yesterday I saw you kissing tiny flowers,
But all that lives is born to die.
Going To California (off LZIV – 1971)
Someone told me there’s a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair
Trampled Rose (written by Tom Waits)
I know this rose, Like I know my name
The one I gave my love, It was the same
Now I find it in the street, A trampled rose
(Robert Plant & Alison Krauss covered this song on their 2007 ‘Raising Sand’ album)
Great stuff, Karl, including the informative quotations – many thanks.
Here’s one I used for the moon theme, but the flower theme fits nicely too – & oh, to know a gardener’s daughter….
The Boy With The Moon & Star On His Head (Cat Stevens – from the 1972 ‘Catch Bull At Four’ album)
A gardener’s daughter stopped me on my way, on the day I was to wed
It is you who I wish to share my body with she said
We’ll find a dry place under the sky with a flower for a bed
And for my joy I will give you a boy with a moon and star on his head.
The Girl That I Marry – Howard Keel
I won’t send Roses – Howard Keel
California Rose – Roy Rogers
Thanks for ‘The Boy With The Moon & Star On His Head’, Karl. It’s a song I know well – an older kid up the street (when I was about ten or eleven) had a phenomenal LP collection, and I heard the song at his place many times, as I was a friend of his younger brother.
Thank you, Fisho, for your latest trio – great to see our theme is still flowering!
Another one for the list is Squeeze’s wonderful ‘Up the Junction’ (1979): ‘I worked eleven hours /
And bought the girl some flowers’.
Has anyone mentioned these three from The Kinks?
Flowers in the Rain
Apeman
Scrapheap City
Thank you Fisho – I don’t think these Kinks songs have been mentioned yet.
Here’s another fine Aussie addition to this theme, which was passed the 150 mark:
Jon English – Six Ribbons (1978)
If I were a minstrel I’d sing you six love songs
To tell the whole world of the love that we share
If I were a merchant I’d bring you six diamonds
With six blood red roses for my love to wear
…and a big high five to Fisho for ‘Apeman’! It’s now my morning earworm.
‘Cause compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees
I am an apeman
Thanks, Karl – ‘Six Ribbons’ is a fine selection, featured in a pretty good TV series, as I recall.
Here’s a lot of ABBA songs
Tropical Love Land
So Long
Our Last Summer
Flower in MY Garden – Hep Stars (Bjorn and Benny)
I was a Flower – Agnetha Faltskog
Flower in the Morning – Agnetha Faltskog
Did someone ask for some really sad songs? Well, here they are, most by Merle Haggard, one of the great songwriters and singers of any genre. Dylan loved Merle’s songs. Calling one of his own songs after a Merle song, and in the tour he has just finished (and I not he has started the next tour) when Dylan started doing covers he would choose an artist based on the city or state he was in and of course Merle was played.
When No Flowers Grow, Merle Haggard
I Threw Away the Rose, Merle
Roses in the Winter, Merle
The Man who Picked the Wildwood Flower, Merle
Flowers Won’t Grow (in Gardens of Stone) Don Williams
Thanks, Fisho, for the ABBA-related input – good stuff!
Thank you, Rick, for the mainly-Merle-related sad ‘flower’ songs.
Pretty certain Merle will have a significant representation in relation to our upcoming theme, which will appear this Friday.
Happy Wednesday – as the days get slightly longer…..
I’ve got a wonderful song from Richard Thompson to share.
Beeswing (1994; off the ‘Mirror Blue’ album)
They say her rose has faded, rough weather and hard booze
Maybe that’s the price you pay for the chains that you refuse
Happy Wednesday to you, Karl – thanks for this song. I’ll give it a listen.
Some more heavy hitters, as in top shelf lyricists, starting with the good and moving to the great:
Cities, The Moody Blues (Here the flowers don’t grow/Here the river’s just a sewer)
Turning Green, Courtney Barnett (This springtime lethargy/Is kinda forcing you to see/Flowers in the weeds)
Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall, Simon & Garfunkel (I’ll continue to continue to pretend/My life will never end/And flowers never bend with the rainfall
Faded Love and Winter Roses, Hank (Give me back the winter roses and the love you took away)
Save the Children, Marvin Gaye (There’ll come a time/When the world won’t be singing/Flowers won’t grow/Bells won’t be ringing)
Great stuff, Rick. You’ve put in a wonderful innings in relation to this theme.
One more song performed by Hank Williams Snr (and numerous others over the years), written by Marvin Baumgardner: ‘Gathering Flowers For The Master’s Bouquet’.
Here’s a couple from Peter and Gordon
The Flower Lady
Sally Go ‘Round the Roses
Thanks for the Peter and Gordon songs, Fisho.
Also, I’ll add ‘I Got You Babe’ by Sonny and Cher, written by Sonny Bono: ‘I got flowers in the spring…’.
Hey KD
It’s now 12 days & 163 comments into the flowers theme and a new theme is due to rise from the eastern horizon. I must say, my contributions to the current theme are wilting fast!
But….the first song that came to me on the ‘flowers’ theme 12 days ago, is the one that I decided to keep to last. I heard this song back in about 1972, as it happened to be on an album that also had ‘Plan Your Revolution’ – which for me & my mid teen friends was a song that captured our imagination.
When I wasn’t planning a revolution, I was often thinking about girls and the song that followed ‘Plan Your Revolution’ on the album is a song that has stuck fast with me for the past 50+ years – especially the final 2 lines.
John Mayall – 1970 Empty Rooms album
‘Don’t Pick A Flower’
Red and gold were the colours of a love I had in the fall
From the city to a harbour in a car to a place where she bloomed
She was a flower so pretty in the sun
Tender was love when we touched and shared a smile
In a peace of the night how we planned how to keep this precious thing
We couldn’t see how a flower might die and wither away
She was a leaf that had fallen from a tree
And when winter came storms gathered and colours chang?d
So now there is nothing but a memory of a lov? we had and lost
In the silence sometimes I wonder where did you go, my love
Don’t pick a flower unless you’re sure
That no one can be so wise as to know loves rights and wrongs
Thanks for theme KD – it’s been a blooming beauty!
Great pick up Fisho with Sally Go ‘Round the Roses, what a song. I would have gone with The Jaynett’s and their definitive haunting version. And Karl, I meant to give you a nod re the Robert Plant calls, very good. As usual KD the theme has been a ripper and your extras following our posts always add a neat twist to the list, ala your Hank call.
Now for about my last submission to this theme, I throw in some Charlie Rich because he is one of the greats. His long suffering wife, Margaret wrote many of his best songs and the first one in my list today is an example. Tom Jones also recorded this little weeper. Glen Campbell nails this pretty little love song on his album, Gentle on my Mind, and as we know the title song casts a shadow over everything else on that record. You want tender harmonies, look no further than The Jayhawks and this song is a tip of the hat to band member, Mark Olson’s wife, who was another great alt-country artists of the 90s. Thanks to Spotify and suggestions they throw up I chanced upon this folk-country duo with the disorientating name, Cloudbelly and the song Whistling. As they explain, the song written during the covid lockdowns, reflects on the need to “slow down, listen to the songs of the birds, and to marvel at the glorious world outside our windows”. And I round off these songs with another Charlie Rich, a devastatingly sad song, from Pictures and Paintings, his final album, but man, what a treasure to leave.
A Field of Yellow Daisies, Charlie Rich (She loves me she loves me not for daisies didn’t lie/They knew better than I she’d go away/But they didn’t say why)
Mary in the Morning, Glen Campbell (Soft as the rain that falls on summer flowers/Warm as the sunlight shinin’ on her golden hair)
Miss Williams Guitar, The Jayhawks (One night in a bar in Louisville/We had some fun/We walked through a graveyard park/Left the flowers alone)
Whistling, Cloudbelly (Kettle song on a lilac morning, feeder’s full and the birds are swarming)
Don’t Put No Headstone on My Grave, Charlie Rich (Don’t send no flowers when I’m gone/Just put me down, and then move on/Just put me down and let me be/Free, from all this misery)
Wonderful extended comments from both of you, Karl and Rick, regarding your most recent words about our flower theme – two fine mini-essays, really. Thanks so much.
I’m keen to see what you – and Almanackers generally – come up with in terms of our new theme – to begin tomorrow.
Here’s a few from Benny Hill
My Garden of Love
Rose Cords
Older Women
The Bouquet of Flowers
My Old Man’s a Dustman – Lonny Donegan (he’s got such a job to pull them up, he calls them daisy roots)
Not sure if anyone’s already mentioned – What’s New Pussycat – Tom Jones
“On the Inside”, by Lynne Hamilton, from the theme song of the television show “Prisoner”. (“He used to give me roses.”), (“On the inside the roses grow.”) and (“But the roses here are prisoners too.”)
John Martyn – from his 1968 ‘The Tumbler’ album
Seven Black Roses
Seven roses appear in my sight
Shining like black stars in the night
And around them, drops of diamond water float
While between them, on his horse
My friend, the devil rode
Those are the entire lyrics – the rest of the track (about 3m 40s worth) is John displaying/showing off his guitar skills.
Thank you, Karl. Just had a listen to ‘Seven Black Roses’ and liked it in general and for the guitar playing involved. That said, the lyrics are good (well, at least, interesting, anyway), and one wonders why Martyn didn’t take the time to write a couple more verses to present a more rounded lyrical picture.
“Sixteen Going on Seventeen”, from Sound of Music (“I am sixteen, going on seventeen, innocent as a rose.”)
Thanks, Anon, for this Sound of Music tune.