Lyrics for (Nothing But) Flowers as interpreted by weezerific:cutlery

(Nothing But) Flowers Lyrics
Here we stand
Like an Adam and an Eve
Waterfalls
The Garden of Eden
Two fools in love
So beautiful and strong
The birds in the trees
Are smiling upon them
From the age of the dinosaurs
Cars have run on gasoline
Where, where have they gone?
Now, it's nothing but flowers

There was a factory
Now there are mountains and rivers
you got it, you got it

We caught a rattlesnake
Now we got something for dinner
we got it, we got it

There was a shopping mall
Now it's all covered with flowers
you've got it, you've got it

If this is paradise
I wish I had a lawnmower
you've got it, you've got it

Years ago
I was an angry young man
I'd pretend
That I was a billboard
Standing tall
By the side of the road
I fell in love
With a beautiful highway
This used to be real estate
Now it's only fields and trees
Where, where is the town
Now, it's nothing but flowers
The highways and cars
Were sacrificed for agriculture
I thought that we'd start over
But I guess I was wrong

Once there were parking lots
Now it's a peaceful oasis
you got it, you got it

This was a Pizza Hut
Now it's all covered with daisies
you got it, you got it

I miss the honky tonks,
Dairy Queens, and 7-Elevens
you got it, you got it

And as things fell apart
Nobody paid much attention
you got it, you got it

I dream of cherry pies,
Candy bars, and chocolate chip cookies
you got it, you got it

We used to microwave
Now we just eat nuts and berries
you got it, you got it

This was a discount store,
Now it's turned into a cornfield
you got it, you got it

Don't leave me stranded here
I can't get used to this lifestyle

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ZBOV
08-31-2002

Rated 0 
Personally, I think this song is about a universe "slider" who gets caught in this one universe where everyone is more environmentally intelligent. Too environmentally intelligent. And this "slider" is walking around the area that was once a city, remembering the old universe, and missing it's convienences. ("Pizza Hut", "7-Elevens", etc.)
Other than that, it could be devolution, and this guy is the only one who misses the old days of modren times.

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DevastatorJr.
02-07-2005

Rated 0 
I think this song is about the way some of us tend to idealize "nature", or primitivistic, edenic fantasies, when the truth is, if we were all of a sudden transported to a place like that, we'd have no idea what to do with ourselves.

I love the part about the highway.

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lonedoggy
05-20-2005

Rated +1 
I like the contrast with songs like "Big Yellow Taxi", which complains that they paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Here we have someone in the opposite position. Where'd my parking lot go? Maybe civilization isn't all bad.

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dmallet
06-08-2005

Rated 0 
Yah, good song. But it is also the only "anti-enviormentalist" song I have ever heard. Usually people are singing about saving the trees, parks, wetlands, etc, etc, etc....

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nocheapthrill
08-04-2005

Rated 0 
I always took this a little bit tongue-in-cheek. I can't find anything that David Byrne says about it, so maybe I am wrong.

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diggit18
12-18-2005

Rated 0 
This song is about de-evolution

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samadriel
01-05-2006

Rated 0 
I think the song could be taken as a meditation on the twisting of our 'human nature' by civilisation; a post-apocalyptic paradise has arisen, and we should all be joyful that we, and the Earth, have been given a second chance; instead, the narrator pines for the old conveniences he had before the fall. It's quite cute, really; the petty little things he misses, the microwaves, Dairy Queens and 7-11s -- heck, I know I'd miss my insulin if I were in his position!
"I can't get used to this lifestyle!"

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elroy
03-01-2006

Rated 0 
If I didn't know better, I'd say this song is about peak oil and the aftermath. It fits the theory to a T. If you don't know what peak oil is.. the song should give enough clues. Or look on wiki.

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Sayna
03-13-2006

Rated 0 
He's in some sort of future where humans live simply and in harmony with the environment, and he misses the old convieniences.

Whiner.

*laughs* I still love this song.

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geoffk
05-15-2006

Rated 0 
Hard to tell if he is sarcastic or not. But if it's not sarcastic, I completely agree with DevastatorJr.'s take on it. We all dream and think how we are destroying the world and ruining it all, I believe the same exact thing, but the truth of the matter is, if one day everyone collectively decided to get rid of all the things so common in our times now, we'd be completely lost. No quick meals to make, no cars to get places quicker, no videogames or television to pass the time. No ice cream. No things we've grown up recognizing and appreciating. But maybe, if it's somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it's telling us, we should start recognizing and appreciating the non-synthetic things in this world, and start realizing that what we have is just a bunch of things to pass the time quicker and keep us from realizing the beauty in the natural world.

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magpiemaniac
05-17-2006

Rated 0 
It's irony, people. Sweet irony. As a veteran of numerous TK and David Bryne (post-TK) concerts, I can tell you that this song anything but anti-environmentalism. It's about the post-modern disconnection between nature and ourselves. Oil and guns makes killing convenient. Just go watch the video and you'll see.

The last time I saw Flowers played live was fall of '04. Bryne sounded as great as ever.

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ohpioneer
07-24-2006

Rated 0 
magpiemaniac has got it! david byrne an anti-enviornmentalist?! no way.

its just irony... byrne compares the earth without materialism as a type of garden of eden and humans as adams and eves. and arent we supposed to be satisfied with what was available to us... this garden of eden that offers us everything? but because were human, we are never satisfied, just like the character in this song.

i think byrne is saying that now that we have manipulated the earth to reap its benefits and instilled this sense of materialism there is no going back to the days of the garden of eden or the days of hunters and gathers beucase all of us we think like the character in this song. "i cant used to this life style!!" and thats the worst part. we'd actually miss dairy queens and parking lots.

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speakingintongues
08-08-2006

Rated 0 
A very environmental song with a definant ironic twist.
Like with what ohpioneer has said, we always want more and an Eden-like world would never be enough.
We'll up destroying ourselves and not having a clue as to what to afterwards.

And oh how I love the part about the billboard....

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Schr4nz
08-25-2006

Rated 0 
what magpiemaniac and ohpioneer said... dead on the money, no other comment but to commend them on their well worded interpretations...

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moik
10-15-2006

Rated 0 
it reminds me of a mr natural comic i saw many years ago.

mr natural sits down and meditates in the desert. as he meditates they build shopping malls, denny's, a suburb around him and he is oblivious. then, i think, he starts "ooommmmmmmmm . . . " and all the development is blown away. then he stands up and says, "good session."

no, i don't think the song is about that comic - it just reminds me of it when i hear it.

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CuteSparkina
11-19-2006

Rated 0 
What just about every Tom, Dick, and Carlos here said. I mean, we fantasize about trees and flowers and butterflies and lush romantic parks, but if we really did live in an environment like that, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves if there were no houses or streets or offices or fast food companies. We've gotten so civilized that we can't see ourselves reverting to living like "apes."

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Torlek42
01-09-2007

Rated 0 
I'm pretty sure he's being sarcastic. I think it's about the environment but more specifically about urban sprawl. People move to the countryside to get away from the bustle of the cities, but then they miss all their old conveniences and want the city life back. So all the chains spread out into the suburbs and the countryside and you get all these Pizza Huts and convenience stores...something people were moving away from in the first place. Brilliant song.

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NosumusHic
04-08-2007

Rated 0 
Reverse psycology? hes trying to get us to understand how important nature is perhaps.

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humancorporation
05-01-2007

Rated 0 
I think samadriel's comments are right on the money (or coconuts, or whatever is currency after the apocalypse).

Whether or not the song is "sarcastic" is a moot point if you consider that the narrator of the song is NOT David Byrne himself, and does not speak for him. I think the character should be seen as kinda pathetic, but is he really that different from the rest of us?
The brilliance of this song is that Byrne uses his own voice to present a character that we should simultaneously laugh at and pity, and recognize as similar to us. It's a brave move, considering that people in this country don't seem to get irony and dry humor.

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siddfinch
05-25-2007

Rated 0 
I always thought the greatness of this song was that it reversed time.

People have a tendency to long for the past, and that is just what happens in this song. It's just that time was reversed, but in the singer's experience the "green fields" are new to him and the "Diary Queens and 7-Elevens" are part of his memory.

That is so original and cool.

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Slightly_Shinobi
08-25-2007

Rated 0 
I think it's basically kind of a statement about how we could tear down all the stores and factories, and if we really wanted to we could get by as a hunter/gatherer society in a way that preserves the earth rather than destroys it, but most of the people who could make these changes wouldn't be able to adjust to the loss of all the conveniences.

So many people have become completely dependent on technology, so it's not likely we'll be making these environmentalist changes any time soon.

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Susan_The_BassPlaye
11-23-2007

Rated 0 
I like what Samadriel says. I'm a type-1 diabetic, so I'd certainly miss my insulin.

That said, I think the song uses a sort of "reverse-irony" to prove its point. It's every bit about the environment and how we've come to depend on these things such as Pizza Huts, Dairy Queens, and 7-11s.

A good example proving Byrne's point is this. Ever see people take a walk in the woods, yet they can't NOT be without their cel phones. They can't appreciate the nature in front of them, they want to talk about nothing to someone who's someplace else that is no more interesting.

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bufomarinas
02-08-2008

Rated 0 
Consider if you grew up in the concrete jungle. There is no place like home. DB uses ironic imagery a great deal in the 80's. Much like Big Country, he creates lyrics that say. . . Everything is not wonderful. & its ok for people to feel that everything isn't wonderful. They may be flowers and wild grasses returning to that prarie setting, but something bad happened here or this wouldn't be happening. I think he is just emulating the poetic waxer to make this exact point.

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dhawk
02-13-2008

Rated 0 
This is one of my favorite songs ever! This song is so awesome! I think it's about irony, sort of, like sarcasm. I think if you reversed the lyrics it would sound like what David Byrne wants the world to be like. I don't know but I love the part about the honkey tonks (bars) and Dairy Queens and 7-11s!

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maddsurgeon
02-24-2008

Rated 0 
"but the truth of the matter is, if one day everyone collectively decided to get rid of all the things so common in our times now, we'd be completely lost. No quick meals to make, no cars to get places quicker, no videogames or television to pass the time."

Speak for yourself. I've nothing against insulin, but I've always found myself angry with the narrator here. The technique definitely seems to be irony - there's a sense of a bucolic pastoral paradise, but the narrator is whining about 7-11s and microwaves. Please - I never use a microwave if I can help it, and Pizza Hut makes me sick. We can get by without these things.

Remember that this was recorded in 1988, when environmentalists were still looked at as a lunatic fringe (I hope I don't need to remind you who got elected that year), so I don't think it's a stretch to say that this song is a stab at people who held views similar to this guy who prefers factories to mountains and rivers...

Definitely a thought-provoking song, in any case.

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