Faded Flowers Lyrics
Everything, and everyone, is ephemeral. We are to the gods as flies to wanton boys; a tiny speck in the interminable progress of history. Only Shriekback could make this sound so beautiful; this is perhaps one of the most touching and emotional songs I've ever heard; and it rivals "Tomorrow Wendy" by Concrete Blonde for sheer sadness.
A touching song based upon the acceptance of the notion of impermanence and the appreciation for, and admiration of human frailty and the untinged innocence that comes with naivity.
I love Barry's description of this song as having "the camp soul of a power ballad".
And it kind of does feel like it started as a big, cheesy power ballad written by someone who can't take them seriously, but then it gradually turned into a thing of actual ethereal beauty because Shriekback (at least up to Oil & Gold) had a hard time not doing that even when they tried not to. :)
From a December 2015 blog post by Barry Andrews himself:
"Well, yes, the old showstopper from Oily Gold, made for this sort of [piano-only] production of course. Or great big drums and guitars and Michael Bublé possibly: it has the camp soul of a Power Ballad but let us not dwell on that."