So as you all know, I've been on a Flower Power kick lately.  Typically, the lyrics in a song aren't really my focus in a song unless they stand out.  This morning I listened to (most of) The Garden of Dreams on my way into work and focused on the lyrics.  I came up with two interpretations and wanted to get your thoughts.

1)  It's a song about a father loosing his son in a war.
2)  It's a song about God lamenting the fate of humanity.

What are your thoughts or for that matter, does anyone (Nov) have the actual answer?

Roland113 wrote: So as you all know, I've been on a Flower Power kick lately.  Typically, the lyrics in a song aren't really my focus in a song unless they stand out.  This morning I listened to (most of) The Garden of Dreams on my way into work and focused on the lyrics.  I came up with two interpretations and wanted to get your thoughts. 1)  It's a song about a father loosing his son in a war. 2)  It's a song about God lamenting the fate of humanity. What are your thoughts or for that matter, does anyone (Nov) have the actual answer?

Edited by progrules - July 22 2009 at 13:51

Well, I've read and followed the lyrics to Garden Of Dreams many times, and to me it seems to be basically a human lifetime in one 60 minute song.  The various sections cover different areas of the persons life, with different perspectives (Tomas' and Roine's).  At least, that is how I've always seen it.  I don't really see Roland's explanation 1 in the lyrics myself.  2, however, is certainly plausible.  And actually, I think that also factors in to my explanation as well.  It's an epic concept for an extremely epic track :-)  And, of course, the initials are G.O.D., so obviously Roine and Tomas were going for a spiritual angle.

^ Agreed.  And yes, I recall that part.  But that part strikes me as more of a man missing out on his sons growing up, not being close enough and spending enough time with him, and the regrets he has from that when his son dies unexpectedly before he does.  But whatever the case, great lyrics.

^ You definitely should feel like you donated a kidney. That's one damn good review

I would have given it 4 (I think), but an excellent review nonetheless.

progrules wrote: I hesitated for a long time to post this but I feel he had this coming: what do you guys think of Mr.Trane  and his reviews of our great fav band ? I think they are a disgrace for our site and can't believe they haven't been erased yet. I mean I can accept if someone has a different taste and doesn't like them but at least write a respectable review about the albums and REALLY explain why you have such a problem with them. Another possibility could be for him: write one or two reviews of a band you hate and leave them alone for the rest. But this guy really felt the urge to bash (almost) all TFK albums and thus is partly responsable big time for their relatively low averages. Well, at least I got this off my chest now, feeling better already !

Roj M30 wrote: progrules wrote: I hesitated for a long time to post this but I feel he had this coming: what do you guys think of Mr.Trane  and his reviews of our great fav band ? I think they are a disgrace for our site and can't believe they haven't been erased yet. I mean I can accept if someone has a different taste and doesn't like them but at least write a respectable review about the albums and REALLY explain why you have such a problem with them. Another possibility could be for him: write one or two reviews of a band you hate and leave them alone for the rest. But this guy really felt the urge to bash (almost) all TFK albums and thus is partly responsable big time for their relatively low averages. Well, at least I got this off my chest now, feeling better already ! I've felt that from day one.  It REALLY hacks me off.  One star, one star, one star.  So given his weighting it takes a hell of a lot of good reviews to get TFK's back where they should be. Now I'm not keen on Jethro Tull.  Do I review all their albums? sl*g them all off, give them all one star? No, if I can be bothered to review Tull I'll review one, slate it, and then leave 'em alone. Really, what was the point of all that?  It's not exactly the nicest thing to see right at the top of the TFK page.

Thirded.  I personally take offense to his review of "Flower Power".  I didn't think reviews were a place to take pot shots at others. 

Sean Trane wrote: As with most of TFK albums, this is for people who have yet to built discernement .

Seriously, is this necessary.  I think we're all passionate about our music tastes and thus a bit arrogant about our individual tastes.  This needs to be tempered with the acceptance that not everyone can get into your preferred genre.  If you don't get something, maybe you shouldn't review it . . . or

Sean Trane wrote: I rented out this album , and to my great distress was simply unable to go through the entirity of it as almost every single note appears to be either redundant or lifted from a classic album.

Maybe . . . um . . . you shouldn't review it if you haven't even listened to the whole thing.

This should not be the first review that is seen when someone looks up "Flower Power".


Also, I agree with you two in that I don't review bands that I just don't get.  Yes in particular is my pariah, I just can't get into them, I've tried and frankly, I really don't understand why they don't click with me.  I hear the Yes influences in The Flower Kings and really enjoy them.  The actual band itself does very little for me.  With that being said, why would I review "Close to the Edge" as a one a two or even a three?  It really serves no purpose and frankly would only fill my inbox with hate mail or with the evangelists trying to convert me with phrases like "you just don't get it".  You're right, I don't get it.  But back to my initial point...I'm not reviewing anything by Yes for that reason.

On, and not that I'm nit picking . . . This was apparently reviewed before the advent of the spell checker:

• millenium - not a word
• entirity - not a word
• discernement - not a word
• Youger - not a word

Edited by Roland113 - July 23 2009 at 07:33

And Space Revolver is an absolutely terrible review as well

Read my other F K critics as I don't like to repeat myself. But I will have to find something to write if my opinion (which nobody cares for anyway ;-) is to be seen - are we at fifty words yet?

Again , with this album TFK repeats their musical props without changing much of their previous formula. There is of course a solid dose of hard work that going into such an album , (which are finely crafted too and have many positive qualities to their works) >> but I am afraid it is all lost on me. Every single note appears to have been heard in different albums scattered through the prog giants of the 70's.

All kidding aside and not wanting to hurt anybody's feelings but my opinion is: spend your hard earned cash on other Swedish groups that are more worthy of your support.

Yeah, those reviews make me sad. This Mr. Trane guy should move on to another group and not continue to put down the Flower Kings, which he obviously doesn't get. I always try to pull out the positive things in my reviews, even in albums that I'm not a huge fan of.

Yeah, he is entitled to his opinion, but he should at least qualify why he has that opinion by citing specific examples from the album. From his reviews it seems that he has never really heard a Flower Kings album all the way through. As a rule I don't review an album unless I've heard it all the way through at least a few times. If I dislike the album so much that I can't even get through it a couple times, then it isn't an album I should be reviewing.

Of course, this is all just my opinion

^ Heh, I love the 'Pigeons' (no insult intended) comment . . . what else would it be construed as?  Incidentally, most people that I know prefer to use the grammatical structure of adding at least a space if not two spaces at the end of a sentence. 

As a side note, I initially made two spelling errors in the previous paragraph, but once again, through the magic of spell checker, I was able to catch the spelling errors.