JUKEBOX: English Roses, Buttercups, and Dead May Flowers
April has come and gone, and you know the old saying about what April showers bring. This week on REBEAT, we’re offering some flower favorites to brighten up your springtime activities. Break out your terra-cotta pottery while you’re working in the garden or grab a picnic basket and enjoy the blossoms in the park (just don’t forget the allergy meds!) while listening to these floral-inspired tracks.
1) “Build Me Up, Buttercup,” The Foundations (1968)
Flowers, with all their beauty, have long been used as terms of endearment. In this classic Sixties hit, the flower of choice is the buttercup, that lovely yellow bloomer for which most of us have fond childhood memories. (I didn’t really need a flower to tell me I liked butter, but I yield to tradition.) This track is always a top sing-a-long pick, so belt this one out to your own buttercup, baby.
2) “Dead Flowers,” The Rolling Stones (1971)
Not every song about flowers is bright and cheerful. This Stones song is an ode to lost love with a morbid twist. Jagger croons this country-esque ballad, requesting dead flowers as a reminder of what he can’t have, with hints of class division and the promise to leave roses on his love’s grave.
3) “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” Peter, Paul, and Mary (1962)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QZq-wKaBWc
Originally written by Pete Seeger and completed by Joe Hickerson, this song has been covered by numerous artists, most notably the Kingston Trio and our group of choice, Peter, Paul and Mary. The song has long been appropriated as an anti-war anthem, but moreover this lament questions the loss of innocence and humanity’s inability to learn from its mistakes.
4) “English Rose,” The Jam (1978)
Paul Weller gifts us with this gentle love song featuring another endearment in the form of a classic epithet. The Jam, who usually resided in new-wave/mod-revival territory, turn down the amps and punkish attitudes in favor of acoustic flare and unrivaled emotion. This is a song to woo by, if you happen to have your own English rose.
5) “(Nothing But) Flowers,” Talking Heads (1988)
A trope oft featured in the works of literature’s most enlightened minds is the struggle between man and nature. Don’t let the danceability of this song deceive you; the message is satirically bitter. David Byrne illustrates an imagined future where nature reclaims man’s modern coveniences much to the dismay of the narrator, who seems to prefer the creature-comforts of capitalism. What kind of world would you rather have?
Go put some flowers in your hair and enjoy these tracks and more in our 29-song playlist.
What are your favorite floral-inspired tunes? Let us know in the comments!
