Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky

It's actually explicitly about zoo animals and the way they react to their conditions. It was written after Nicky and Richey watched a documentary about this subject. Any attempt to relate it to human life is purely coincidental (but probably very apt).

I think that Richey probably saw te documentary, and wrote this lyric, comparing himself to lion. "Once you roared now you just grunt lame"

this song is despair. beautiful.

To those in charge, we're just a number, and we're trapped in the invisible cage they've built around us. They harvest us and use us; we have no real rights. It's really self explanotory as to meaning, and is another stab at Capitalist society. "Here chewing your tail is joy"... like a pig in a farm would do.

I know it's been a while since this song has been commented but I have some thoughts. My first point is that this whole deal about "The Matrix". The Matrix is a film is a representation of a common philosophical theory that the world around us is only a representation of what is real, determined by and limited to our brain, which draws direct comparisons to the physical entrapment of animals in zoos, think about it. Your mind is trapped in it's own cage of the world it creates, animals are trapped in a physical cage. However much money a film made does not change it's meaning or intent. My second point is that I think thestamp's theory is, while creative, extremely unlikely. My suggestion is that the small black flowers that grow in the sky would be some kind of manifest of malcontent in a world which should be perfect. I don't like to overanalyse the lyrics of songs because literacy is often substituted for poetic license, furthermore, why would people say "animals and vegetables" rather than "animals and plants". Flowers are plants, and there is no opposite of a vegetable either, I'm afraid. Black flowers exist, too. So while I have no idea what the small black flowers that grow in the sky are, I think it's a great title and a great image. Furthermore I've never heard a harp played so naturally on a song like this, usually it's so forced. Either way, I love the song!

Here's what I got from an older discussion... 'I think it's an image from the THB-era trip to Auschwitz/Birkenau concentration camp. The main spotlight on the gate watchtower become known as The Black Flower of Brzezinka because of it's shape and colour. remember.org/jacobs/… I think that Richey was comparing the fate of the animals he had seen in the documentary with the prisoners' fate - death being the only release for most. The "small black flowers" are the lights around the animal enclosures.'

I read somewhere at the time that this was inspired by a polar bear at Bristol zoo. Anyone who grew up in south Wales in the 70s and early 80s would have visited the zoo at some point (I went on a school trip when I was about six) and seen this poor mad polar bear pacing endlessly up and down his small enclosure. The visitors would be looking down into what was basically a concrete pit, and I've always assumed the 'small black flowers' were the people coming and going above. Polar bears don't have great eyesight.

it is beautiful. we are born in cages, and trapped in our own bodies. we are 'bred dead' as soon as we are born, taught to be submissive to life.

Heh. Oops. I guess that makes sense, though I still think, even if it's not the intended meaning, that it can easily be used as a reference to human society/life.

Beautiful. "wanna get out, in here you're bred dead quick". will anyone ever beat Richey's beautiful, touching and scarily real lyrics? i think not