Dear listeners,
Last month, I sent you a playlist of rainy songs, in honor of April showers. I also promised a sequel. I bet you have spent weeks racking your brain thinking what that playlist’s theme could possibly be. Well, wonder no more. It’s time for a selection of songs about (say it with me) …. um, no, not bell towers. And also not cauliflower, but that’s a fun guess.
May flowers, guys! May flowers!
Music history is, naturally, scattered with references to flowers — giving them to a lover, or maybe just buying them for oneself. There’s a song for just about every possible type of flora: irises, forget-me-nots, lilacs, you name it. Roses probably get the most mention of any flowers, but hey, even they have their thorns.
Today’s playlist is just a smattering of the many songs out there about flowers. It features a few throwbacks from Scott McKenzie and Patrice Rushen, as well as a few freshly bloomed tracks — from Billie Eilish and Cassandra Jenkins — that came out this May. You’ll find a few wildflowers, a rhododendron and even a lotus. Consider this a sonic bouquet from me to you.
Lindsay
Listen along while you read.
1. Tom Petty: “Wildflowers”
We begin with the tenderhearted title track from Tom Petty’s great 1994 solo album. A few years ago I wrote about the deluxe edition of “Wildflowers” — a treasure trove for Petty fans — and a fact I stumbled upon in my research forever changed the way I hear this song. Written during a turbulent time in his life, the song is not a loving missive to someone else but rather, as Petty eventually realized with some help from a therapist, “me singing to me.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
2. Patrice Rushen: “Forget Me Nots”
The R&B artist Patrice Rushen sends a certain memory-jogging flower to a former lover on this 1982 classic with an indelibly funky bass line. Just don’t start accidentally singing “Men in Black” on the chorus!
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. Cassandra Jenkins: “Delphinium Blue”
Here’s a brand-new song I’ve been digging since selecting it for our Friday Playlist last week. Cassandra Jenkins, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter, vividly describes her experiences working at a flower shop on this dreamy track from her upcoming third album, “My Light, My Destroyer.” “I sweep the floors, but I’m talking to you,” she sings, as her external and inner worlds swirl together. “I see your eyes in the delphinium, too.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
4. Wilco: “Forget the Flowers”
“You’re trying my patience, try pink carnations, red roses and yellow daffodils,” Jeff Tweedy sings on this wry, bluegrass-inflected number from my favorite Wilco album, “Being There.” “Don’t forget the flowers, someday/I know I will.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. Scott McKenzie: “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)”
Written by the Mamas & the Papas’ John Phillips to drum up excitement for the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival, this song by the folk musician Scott McKenzie quickly became an era-defining anthem — although the Coachella generation seems to have heeded its sartorial advice, too.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. Hurray for the Riff Raff: “Rhododendron”
Alynda Segarra shouts out some imaginatively named flora — “rhododendron, night-blooming jasmine, deadly nightshade” — on this rollicking track from their 2022 LP “Life on Earth.” (If you’re into this song and new to Segarra’s project Hurray for the Riff Raff, I put together an entire playlist in their honor earlier this year.)
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
7. Radiohead: “Lotus Flower”
Yes, this is the Radiohead song with that video of Thom Yorke dancing. And don’t get me wrong: Dancing Thom Yorke forever. But I think that highly meme-able video makes people forget what a good song this is — stealthy, hypnotic and clearly a highlight of the band’s 2011 album, “The King of Limbs.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
8. Billie Eilish: “Wildflower”
An ex haunts a current relationship on one of the most subdued, and wrenching, tracks from Billie Eilish’s new album “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” “I see her in the back of my mind all the time,” Eilish sings, trading in her signature, understated cool for a more impassioned delivery. “Feels like a fever, like I’m burning alive.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
9. Jamila Woods featuring duendita: “Tiny Garden”
I think I’ve recommended this song before, but so be it — it always puts a smile on my face. On this single from her 2023 album “Water Made Us,” the musician and poet Jamila Woods likens living and loving to the continuous work of tending to a small garden. Her energy is so bright that the song itself sounds like nourishing sunshine.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
10. Outkast: “Roses”
And finally, we have one of the more pessimistic pop songs ever to be named after a flower. Most love songs take for granted that roses smell sweet, but in Stankonia they smell like … well, you know.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The Amplifier Playlist
“A Bouquet of Songs for May Flowers” track list
Track 1: Tom Petty, “Wildflowers”
Track 2: Patrice Rushen, “Forget Me Nots”
Track 3: Cassandra Jenkins, “Delphinium Blue”
Track 4: Wilco, “Forget the Flowers”
Track 5: Scott McKenzie, “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)”
Track 6: Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Rhododendron”
Track 7: Radiohead, “Lotus Flower”
Track 8: Billie Eilish, “Wildflower”
Track 9: Jamila Woods featuring duendita, “Tiny Garden”
Track 10: Outkast, “Roses”
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