May is our favorite month of the year here at AC.com world headquarters. You just can’t beat temperatures in the low 70s with low humidity. Flowers also are busting out all over, further enhancing the mood.
So to celebrate, it’s time for another thematic playlist, this time featuring songs with the names of flowers in the title, all taken from my iTunes library. As always, hit the play button to listen and right-click on the link to download. Enjoy.
“Tigerlily,” Luna — Let’s start things off with one that has special meaning for me, as this is the song that The Girl was middle-named for.
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“Marigold,” Nirvana — Released in 1993 as the B-side to the “Heart Shaped Box” single, this song is said to be the only official Nirvana release with no contribution from Kurt Cobain. Dave Grohl wrote the song and played all the instruments, save for the bass.
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“Blue Flowers,” Dr. Octagon — A time-traveling gynecologist from Jupiter in the year 3000, Dr. Octagon is one of the many personas of hip-hop genius Kool Keith. “Blue Flowers” is off the 1996 classic “Dr. Octagonecologyst” album, which features Keith’s non-sequitur rapping, DJ Q-Bert’s wicked scratches and trippy production by Dan the Automator. It’s a must-have for any hip-hop fan.
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“Roses are Free,” Ween — While it’s one of the weaker tunes from 1994’s “Chocolate and Cheese” album, it’s still pretty good. Sorta like the pizza/sex thing.
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“The Hop,” A Tribe Called Quest — The hop, of course, is the flower from the Humulus lupulus plant used to make beer delicious. The song, while not about beer, nonetheless features some of the illest Phife lyrics ever put to wax: “I’m representin’ with my crew / Mess around bite my rhyme / I’ll beat that ass with my shoe.” Sweet.
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“Soul Flower,” Brand New Heavies and the Pharcyde — This version is from BNH’s 1991 album “Heavy Rhyme Experience,” which featured rappers, uh… rapping over the Heavies’ live instrumentation. “Soul Flower” later was remixed as a more straight-ahead hip-hop for the Pharcyde’s debut LP in 1992.
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“Big,” New Fast Automatic Daffodils — Okay… I don’t have a lot of songs with flowers in the title, but since it’s my blog I can use bands with flowers in their names if I want, dammit. NewFADS came out of Manchester in the late 1980s and are thus associated with such acts as Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses, although none really sound like the others. “Big” is probably their most well-known song (and probably my favorite of theirs, too), and it’s combination of an uptempo dance beat, a funky bass line and waka-waka guitar make it easy to shake one’s arse to.
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“I Wanna Be Adored,” Stone Roses — Speaking of the Stone Roses…
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