4 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
One Red Rose Lyrics
The rain came down
On the tin roof
Hardly
A sound was left
From the birthday party
The kitchen light
Fell asleep
On the bedroom floor
Me and her were talking softer
Than all the time
Before I lost her
Picture sat on top
Of the chest of drawers
Chorus:
One red rose
In the Bible
Pressed between
The Holy alphabet
Probably wouldn't believe you
If you told me
But what I never knew
I never will forget
Rainy nites
Get dark real early
Her dress was soft
And her hair was curly
We danced around the table
To the old banjo
Rainy nites
Were made for lovers
We lay there still
Beneath the covers
And I ain't never felt
Like that before
Chorus:
On the tin roof
Hardly
A sound was left
From the birthday party
The kitchen light
Fell asleep
On the bedroom floor
Me and her were talking softer
Than all the time
Before I lost her
Picture sat on top
Of the chest of drawers
One red rose
In the Bible
Pressed between
The Holy alphabet
Probably wouldn't believe you
If you told me
But what I never knew
I never will forget
Get dark real early
Her dress was soft
And her hair was curly
We danced around the table
To the old banjo
Rainy nites
Were made for lovers
We lay there still
Beneath the covers
And I ain't never felt
Like that before
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
This is one of my favourite jp songs. I'd like to know what people make of the rose pressed in the bible. Did the singer find it after his love left him?
As I understand it, the singer is visiting his ex for a birthday party for one of their kids. After the party, the two of them are alone and, as sometimes happens, they have sex (but it is not a recommencement of their relationship). In any event, sometime during the evening (likely before they have sex), the singer discovers a red rose pressed in his ex's Bible, which he understands to be a momento from some love that his ex lost (but not him). During their love-making, the ex's passion is nothing like he ever experienced when they were together, but he understands that her passion is not for him (the singer), but rather, is a manifestation of her passion for whomever the pressed red rose represents for his ex.
To elborate on the above somewhat, it is important to distinguish between the song's inspiration, and the story actually being told in the song. JP's liner notes explain that the situation that inspired him (in part) was something he experienced as a kid:
To elborate on the above somewhat, it is important to distinguish between the song's inspiration, and the story actually being told in the song. JP's liner notes explain that the situation that inspired him (in part) was something he experienced as a kid:
"I stayed overnight at my cousin Charlie Bill's. It was the back of a general store in Paradise. There was a tin roof and a wonderful thunderstorm going on above and around us." "We were telling ghost stories and staying up late, and there was a curtain separating the bedroom from the mature adults' kitchen. Our light was...
"I stayed overnight at my cousin Charlie Bill's. It was the back of a general store in Paradise. There was a tin roof and a wonderful thunderstorm going on above and around us." "We were telling ghost stories and staying up late, and there was a curtain separating the bedroom from the mature adults' kitchen. Our light was off. Thus, their 'kitchen light fell asleep on the bedroom floor', I was nine."
In the song, he is on the other side of the curtain, having an experience with his ex.
Prine added that "One Red Rose" was about an overnight stay with his cousin Charlie Bill. "It was the back of a general store in Paradise. There was a tin roof and a wonderful thunderstorm going on above and around us. We were telling ghost stories and staying up late, and there was a curtain separating the bedroom from the mature adults' kitchen. Our light was off. Thus, their 'kitchen light fell asleep on the bedroom floor.' I was nine."
The line- The kitchen light fell asleep on the bedroom floor\nalways bugged me, I decided it was actually\n \nThe rain came down on the tin roof\nHardly a sound was left from the birthday party\nThe kids and I fell asleep on the bedroom floor.\n\nI consider it a requiem for a dead wife.\nThe other verses mentioniong her were a dream sequence and then memories.\n\nthe red rose was in his Bible, signifying his lost love.\nThe birthday party was the first one after she had passed.\nListening to the organ music and the structure, it sounds like a funeral dirge to me. That\'s just how I play it and sing it.\nIt makes more sense than a light going to sleep.
@OldMan222 IDK why I’m saying anything but it’s clearly a metaphor and it’s beautiful. It’s just like saying it’s raining cats and dogs… It’s comparing one thing to another and it’s very beautiful because it’s late at night and the only light on in the house is in the kitchen, so it’s just a dreamy image that it falls asleep there behind the curtain on the bedroom floor…
@OldMan222 IDK why I’m saying anything but it’s clearly a metaphor and it’s beautiful. It’s just like saying it’s raining cats and dogs… It’s comparing one thing to another and it’s very beautiful because it’s late at night and the only light on in the house is in the kitchen, so it’s just a dreamy image that it falls asleep there behind the curtain on the bedroom floor…
Think about my Mexican home where he says the windows feel no pain… Heat lightning burned the sky like alcohol… He’s making a...
Think about my Mexican home where he says the windows feel no pain… Heat lightning burned the sky like alcohol… He’s making a play on words with the window pane, but saying the windows feel no pain. Obviously nothing’s burning the sky but that entire song is filled with gorgeous imagery.
Think about any of his songs as he’s a wordsmith and that’s one of the things that makes his music so cool, memorable and timeless. He’s terribly punny - just see onomatopoeia I don’t wanna see you speaking in a foreign tongue… One of his songs. You can see any of his songs for examples of how beautiful his language is.
In the song he was in heaven before he died… He says the harbor is on fire with the dreams and desires of 1000 young poets who failed cause they tried for rhyme without reason floats down to the bottom where scavengers eat them and wash out with the tide.
OK, you can see here that obviously the harbor isn’t on fire. He just has a beautiful way with words… To represent all of the lost lovers who tried to write passionate letters to their significant others, but as it says (comparing to the ocean) that rhyme without reason, just like a piece of lost bait, floats down to the bottom, where the scavengers/bottom feeders of the ocean eat them, they wash out with the tide and are gone forever…
One of my favorite lines is silence is golden until it screams right through your bones. Again, do you see the metaphor here? Silence can never be loud obviously not in traditional way anyway but it’s very clear what he’s saying… It’s golden and great - until it’s driving you insane.
@OldMan222 Lastly, I completely disagree that this is a eulogy, especially after seeing the comments from multiple people listing exactly what John said about this song. I’ve been listening to John Prine for 50 years now and even to this day I’m still figuring stuff out that he says. I’ve been kind of on a quest to find the meaning behind everything because I saw the video where he said a couple of years before he died that his whole repertoire of music was kind of like a joke, and he just hopes that his fans get the punchline...
@OldMan222 Lastly, I completely disagree that this is a eulogy, especially after seeing the comments from multiple people listing exactly what John said about this song. I’ve been listening to John Prine for 50 years now and even to this day I’m still figuring stuff out that he says. I’ve been kind of on a quest to find the meaning behind everything because I saw the video where he said a couple of years before he died that his whole repertoire of music was kind of like a joke, and he just hopes that his fans get the punchline before it’s all said and done.