sometimes the best music, is the music that you find as an accident. i stumbled upon this song when i was listening to music and working around this time last year. i had just begun working from home along with a lot of others, and i found myself needing to find a rhythm to maintain sanity surrounded by 4 other roommates. for me, that rhythm was literally music, and being able to sit back (turn my camera off so as to not get in trouble with the boss) and listen and play music. this song came on a playlist one day, but it was the phish cover of this song.
after hearing it the first time, i played it immediately again. and then one more time for good measure. i was hooked. so i looked up the song to try and learn the chords and chop my way through it, and it occurred to me that the band ween actually was the original writer of the song. i had heard of the band before, and i think a friend of mine had played the album chocolate and cheese for me once before, but they were never a group that stuck with me. in fact the only thing i knew about the band was that dean ween runs deep sea fishing charters out of new jersey, and never places his guitar in front of his member.
after listening to this song for nearly a year, i gave the ween version a chance again. a little bit different than the phish version, but i think it captures the essence of the song a little bit better. skepticism and questioning is okay. doing weird shit is okay. and love is a weird, weird experience to comprehend. for the longest time i really believed that the song was about the cost of love, and how you should not listen to the florist when he tells you that the roses are free, because there is an implied cost to everything. the roses may be free today, but the love who you are getting them for has cost you something, either financially, mentally, or spiritually.
but really that interpretation of the song is largely based on the fact that you shouldn't believe the florist when he tells you that the roses are free. in fact, when i listen to the song now, i find that it’s less about the implied cost of love, and more so about how love can sometimes feel like it makes no sense. a lot of these lyrics literally feel like nonsense, which makes sense why phish would love the song enough to cover it… i like that band, but most of their songs have nonsensical lyrics.
and then it happened, a few short weeks ago. i was sitting in my home with a friend. a woman who i thought (think?) i was (am?) falling in love with, and as we were playing chess i wanted to fill the dead air in the room with some music. so i yelled over to my google assistant to play “roses are free” and it responded to me “playing roses are free by ween” and then proceeded to play the phish version (sometimes technology can get itself confused). and as it turns out, the woman who was sitting there, has this random 1994 album chocolate and cheese in her car, and this is one of her favorite songs.
so then the song took on a whole new meaning for me. not only does love sometimes not make any sense at all, but it really doesn’t have to make any sense at all. love is such an odd feeling, it doesn’t feel like anything in particular after all, we all love differently, and we all feel different things. but it also feels like everything in the moment. and in those specific moments, the ones where your heart slowly begins to melt, and you find yourself staring deep into the soul of someone else as you both sing along to an obscure b-side track that was introduced to you from different walks of life, you realize that everything that brought you to where you are right now is exactly what it needed to be. and that is really the truly fascinating power of music, but more importantly, of love, and it can’t really be explained, but if it could, i feel like this song is trying to do a good job of it.
so give it a listen. obviously my video won’t do the song as much justice as one of these two versions, but i’m having fun singing and playing, even if they are both terrible. and the biggest thing is i feel like i am getting better, and at the very least i surely am more comfortable doing the two things. as @steevc was saying last week, it’s not easy to sing and play at the same time, and the playing needs to get down to being somewhat automatic before the singing can really come in. i’m still flubbing as i go along, but if every artist waited for “perfection” before releasing their art, the world would be a boring place. as always, please provide feedback on anything you think might make my singing better, as i would love to spare any and all ears as i continue to post music to the hive. would love to hear from anyone really!!!
ween version
phish version
roses are free - ween
take a piece of tinsel and put it on the tree
cut a slab of melon and pretend that you still love me
carve out a pumpkin and rely on your destiny
get in your car and cruise the land of the brave and the free
but don't forget to understand exactly what you put on the tree
don't believe the florist when he tells you that the roses are free
take a wrinkled raisin, and do with it what you will
push it into third if you know you're gonna climb a hill
eat plenty of lasagna 'til you know that you've had your fill
resist all the urges that make you want to go out and kill
but don't forget to understand exactly what you put on the tree
don't believe the florist when he tells you that the roses are free
throw that pumpkin at the tree
unless you think that pumpkin holds your destiny
cast it off into the sea, bake that pie and eat it with me
throw that pumpkin at the tree
unless you think that pumpkin holds your destiny
cast it off into the sea, bake that pie and eat it with me
▶️ 3Speak