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Tulip Lyrics
Ada, my rarest bud from the desert valley
Your hair of fire and skin of snow
Have coursed me to the heights of the desert mountains
In search of the cure for a rampant fever
Your beauty's power, it plagues me now
I come and scour the land for the desert flower
For beauty and perfume I'd stake my house and my lands
The gold is sleeping in the river but the flower's in my hand
With a paler leaf and a broken petal, I'll paint the king and queen
And to the goldsmith with my flower I'll buy your wedding ring
Tulip, tulip
With one word I'd a-buy
Oxen, sheep and wheat and rye
Land on the north seaside
Tulip, tulip
With one word I'd a-buy
The finest dresses man can buy
And a pearl for to pay my bride
Then with my rarest bowl to her father's garden
Like gold for lamb or wool for clam I gave that man a bowl for his daughter Ada
Your heart is mine and it's mine forever
And she replied, "my fate that lies on yon horizon's tethered me to the sky"
The match arranged, and vows exchanged and the dove flew away
The bells spilled out the hollow canyon on our wedding day
To me she gave her hand and to death do us part
But the bird will nest with one that she has promised her heart
Tulip, tulip
With one word I'd a-buy
The bed from which our sons will rise
And the window where she cries
Tulip, tulip
With one word I'd a-buy
A net to catch the birds that fly from the window where she cries
He reaches out and I withdraw
Spilling the flowering bribes from his paw
The broken petals climbing the walls
Stealing my oxygen, no air at all
From the bed I hear him call
But I answer cooing when the night falls
The cotton sword is storming the hall
Cutting my vision to no sight at all
I tied the tulip around her neck
Like a red lead sinker
And blindfold and spin around
And round and round
To the banks of the river and then walk
My true love into the rushing water
And by her long hair, bleeding red
Hair-pulled my love there under until she drown
For beauty and perfume I'd stake my house and my lands
My love is sleeping in the river but the flower's in my hand
With a paler leaf and a broken petal
I'll keep her all to me
And to the river with my flower
I'll hear my true love sing
Your water is still in my friend
Ready to drown
Water, water oh water my kin
Carry me out
This Eine river is mercy at last
Die as she laughs for
He's waiting with a dove's nest
My true love
Tulip, tulip
With one word I'd a-buy
A veil that parted o'er my bride
And the breath as my true love died
Tulip, tulip
With one word I'd a-buy
A veil that parted o'er my bride
And the blue from the bluest eye
Your hair of fire and skin of snow
Have coursed me to the heights of the desert mountains
In search of the cure for a rampant fever
Your beauty's power, it plagues me now
I come and scour the land for the desert flower
The gold is sleeping in the river but the flower's in my hand
With a paler leaf and a broken petal, I'll paint the king and queen
And to the goldsmith with my flower I'll buy your wedding ring
With one word I'd a-buy
Oxen, sheep and wheat and rye
Land on the north seaside
Tulip, tulip
With one word I'd a-buy
The finest dresses man can buy
And a pearl for to pay my bride
Like gold for lamb or wool for clam I gave that man a bowl for his daughter Ada
Your heart is mine and it's mine forever
And she replied, "my fate that lies on yon horizon's tethered me to the sky"
The bells spilled out the hollow canyon on our wedding day
To me she gave her hand and to death do us part
But the bird will nest with one that she has promised her heart
With one word I'd a-buy
The bed from which our sons will rise
And the window where she cries
Tulip, tulip
With one word I'd a-buy
A net to catch the birds that fly from the window where she cries
Spilling the flowering bribes from his paw
The broken petals climbing the walls
Stealing my oxygen, no air at all
From the bed I hear him call
But I answer cooing when the night falls
The cotton sword is storming the hall
Cutting my vision to no sight at all
Like a red lead sinker
And blindfold and spin around
And round and round
To the banks of the river and then walk
My true love into the rushing water
And by her long hair, bleeding red
Hair-pulled my love there under until she drown
My love is sleeping in the river but the flower's in my hand
With a paler leaf and a broken petal
I'll keep her all to me
And to the river with my flower
I'll hear my true love sing
Ready to drown
Water, water oh water my kin
Carry me out
This Eine river is mercy at last
Die as she laughs for
He's waiting with a dove's nest
My true love
With one word I'd a-buy
A veil that parted o'er my bride
And the breath as my true love died
Tulip, tulip
With one word I'd a-buy
A veil that parted o'er my bride
And the blue from the bluest eye
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Here are the correct lyrics:
Ada, my rarest bud from the desert valley Your hair of fire and skin of snow Have coursed me to the heights of the desert mountains In search of the cure for a rampant fever Your beauty's power, it plagues me now I come and scour the land for the desert flower
For beauty and perfume I'd stake my house and my lands The gold is sleeping in the river but the flower's in my hand With a paler leaf and a broken petal, I'll paint the king and queen And to the goldsmith with my flower I'll buy your wedding ring
Tulip, tulip With one word I'd a-buy Oxen, sheep and wheat and rye Land on the north seaside Tulip, tulip With one word I'd a-buy The finest dresses man can buy And a pearl for to pay my bride
Then with my rarest bowl to her father's garden Like gold for lamb or wool for clam I gave that man a bowl for his daughter Ada Your heart is mine and it's mine forever And she replied, "my fate that lies on yon horizon's tethered me to the sky"
The match arranged, and vows exchanged and the dove flew away The bells spilled out the hollow canyon on our wedding day To me she gave her hand and to death do us part But the bird will nest with one that she has promised her heart
Tulip, tulip With one word I'd a-buy The bed from which our sons will rise And the window where she cries Tulip, tulip With one word I'd a-buy A net to catch the birds that fly from the window where she cries
He reaches out and I withdraw Spilling the flowering bribes from his paw The broken petals climbing the walls Stealing my oxygen, no air at all From the bed I hear him call But I answer cooing when the night falls The cotton sword is storming the hall Cutting my vision to no sight at all
I tied the tulip around her neck Like a red lead sinker And blindfold and spin around And round and round To the banks of the river and then walk My true love into the rushing water And by her long hair, bleeding red Hair-pulled my love there under until she drown
For beauty and perfume I'd stake my house and my lands My love is sleeping in the river but the flower's in my hand With a paler leaf and a broken petal I'll keep her all to me And to the river with my flower I'll hear my true love sing
Your water is still in my friend Ready to drown Water, water oh water my kin Carry me out This Eine river is mercy at last Die as she laughs for He's waiting with a dove's nest My true love
Tulip, tulip With one word I'd a-buy A veil that parted o'er my bride And the breath as my true love died Tulip, tulip With one word I'd a-buy A veil that parted o'er my bride And the blue from the bluest eye
@circusgirl corrected thanks
@circusgirl corrected thanks
I really like this song, catchy tune and slight Irish sounding melody I think. And lots of complex lyrics!
Overall, the story is about a wealthy man who falls in love (or at least lust) with a beautiful girl named Ada. He buys her hand in marriage from her father, and they are wed. However she does not love him in return, possibly because she loves another man, and refuses her husband's advances in the bedroom. So he takes her to the river and drowns her there.
Did he know before they were married that she didn't love him? Well, when told that he intended to marry her she replied "my fate that lies on yon horizon's tethered me to the sky". Huh??? Guys are optimists, and interpret any ambiguity as "Yes". Ladies, keep that in mind. Be clear.
Parts of the song are from the perspective of the man, and parts are from Ada's perspective, this makes it a little confusing.
Speculation time now. The title "Tulip" comes from the Dutch Tulip Mania of 1636-1637. The man either got his wealth from speculating in tulips, or was already wealthy and enjoyed trading in tulips. He uses tulips to buy things, including the wedding ring ("to the goldsmith with my flower I'll buy your wedding ring") and even buys Ada's hand in marriage by giving a bowl of tulips to her father. The most sought-after tulips at that time actually got their beauty from a disease called "Tulip Breaking Virus" which accounts for the "broken petal" references in the song. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_breaking_virus)
Now the line "The cotton sword is storming the hall" -- I have no idea what that means.
The cotton sword storming the hall may refer to fog, considering it cuts her sight to blindness. It also precedes the stanza describing her death, indicating that the atmosphere may have played a part in her death.
The cotton sword storming the hall may refer to fog, considering it cuts her sight to blindness. It also precedes the stanza describing her death, indicating that the atmosphere may have played a part in her death.
I don't agree with the interpretation that he drowns his wife, however. Considering Ada refers to the water, post-mortem as her mercy, I believe she killed herself. The line about the red lead sinker probably relates to the husband blaming himself for driving her to such an act. Murder seems too odd, considering how happy Ada feels about her death and how her...
I don't agree with the interpretation that he drowns his wife, however. Considering Ada refers to the water, post-mortem as her mercy, I believe she killed herself. The line about the red lead sinker probably relates to the husband blaming himself for driving her to such an act. Murder seems too odd, considering how happy Ada feels about her death and how her husband still refers to her as "my true love" even after the event. There is nothing earlier in the song to indicate he is deranged enough to hold such sentiments after a homicide.
Nice research on the tulip mania... although I'm a bit more inclined to believe he uses the tulip to derive pigment for paints. "With a paler leaf and a broken petal, I'll paint the king and queen" may mean he was using herb based chroma to further his career as a court painter.
A few things:
A few things:
Some listeners have speculated that the flower/tulip might be a metaphor for the opium poppy, in which case the husband would have bought Ada's hand by paying with a bowl, possibly full of opium. And in this case, the thing stealing oxygen, the cotton sword, and the thing cutting her vision could be the high she is getting from the narcotic, either voluntarily administered or forced upon her by her jealous husband. Or maybe they're just a metaphor for the entire progression of events (and the item at the core--opium, the item used to buy her hand)...
Some listeners have speculated that the flower/tulip might be a metaphor for the opium poppy, in which case the husband would have bought Ada's hand by paying with a bowl, possibly full of opium. And in this case, the thing stealing oxygen, the cotton sword, and the thing cutting her vision could be the high she is getting from the narcotic, either voluntarily administered or forced upon her by her jealous husband. Or maybe they're just a metaphor for the entire progression of events (and the item at the core--opium, the item used to buy her hand) that resulted in her marriage-imprisonment. But if this version is what Hoop intended the song to mean, then what would "...I'll paint the king and queen" then refer to? ...OR... as you state, sawk23, the husband was a court painter, making sense of "I'll paint the king and queen." I muse that the bowl used to buy Ada's hand, in this scenario, would logically be full of rare paint that the suitor derived from the tulip. Maybe the later sensory-numbing she experiences is a manifestation of her feelings of emotional repression and deprivation, or maybe the cotton sword and the item cutting her vision refer to the blindfold used to cover her eyes.
Sawk23, I believe that the husband did in fact drown his wife. In an interview with Hoop conducted by The UK's "The Independent," Jesca says of murder ballads, "I love them as a form, because people are singing about killing those they love the most." Also, the husband exhibits the attitude typical of those who murder as an act of passion; "I'll keep her all to me." He wants to think of himself as having done the utmost (even going so far as to end their marriage on his terms) to keep her from her extra-marital love interest, BUT she mocks his act of defiance from the grave and even during the act, as evidenced in "This Eine river is mercy at last. DIE, as she laughs, for he's waiting with a dove's nest...", because she ironically gladly welcomes death as a means of finally uniting with her true love. In the lyrics I just quoted, I took the liberty of adding some puncuation (based on the manner in which Jesca stresses "die" as if an imperative) to clarify the wife's sentiments about the act...she curses her husband for his evil, selfish intent but laughs at him because he is actually setting her free. Lastly, the "bird(s)" mentioned throughout the song are symbols of the wife's love, I believe. As time (and the song) progress, I believe the husband becomes more and more despondent, noticing first that his wife is in love with another, then coming to the conclusion that he must cast a net on the flitting bird that is her love for another. This solution to forever ensnare her love is constructed and revealed directly preceding her last chance of-sorts and then her drowning.
I had a thought about the "cotton sword" - the stamen part of a tulip flower looks something like a sword with its tip covered in cotton. So perhaps this represents how the man's tulip obsession feels like an invasion to his wife.
I had a thought about the "cotton sword" - the stamen part of a tulip flower looks something like a sword with its tip covered in cotton. So perhaps this represents how the man's tulip obsession feels like an invasion to his wife.
I think the line "I'll paint the king and queen" probably refers to how a garden full of tulips, with different colors, can create a beautiful picture similar to the way the most skilled painter could paint when at his best, such as when painting the king and queen.
I think the line "I'll paint the king and queen" probably refers to how a garden full of tulips, with different colors, can create a beautiful picture similar to the way the most skilled painter could paint when at his best, such as when painting the king and queen.
Maybe she's a nun, and her "true love" is God so she doesn't want to marry any man? It could explains: "And she replied 'My faith that lies on yon horizon’s tethered me to the sky'" "But the birds will nest with the one that she has promised her heart" "For he is waiting where the doves nest, My true love"
Maybe she's a nun, and her "true love" is God so she doesn't want to marry any man? It could explains: "And she replied 'My faith that lies on yon horizon’s tethered me to the sky'" "But the birds will nest with the one that she has promised her heart" "For he is waiting where the doves nest, My true love"
The actual lyrics, taken from the artists website:
Ada, my rarest bulb from the desert valley Your hair of fire and skin of snow Have caused me to the heights of the desert mountains In search of a cure for a rampant fever Your beauty’s power has plagued me now I come and scour the land for the desert flower
For beauty and perfume I stake my house and my lands The gold is sleeping in the river but the flower’s in my hand With a paler leaf and a broken petal I’ll bait the king and queen And to the goldsmith with my flower I’ll buy a wedding ring
Tulip, tulip, with one what I did buy Oxen, sheep and wheat and rye And land on the north seaside Tulip, tulip, with one what I did buy The finest dresses man could buy and a pearl for to bait my bride
Then with my rarest bulb to her father’s garden And like gold for lamb or wool for clam I gave that man the bulb for his daughter Ada Your heart is mine and it’s mine forever And she replied “My faith that lies on yon horizon’s tethered me to the sky”
The match arranged and vows exchanged and the dove flew away The bells spilled out the hollow canyon on our wedding day To me she gave her hand until death do us part But the birds will nest with the one that she has promised her heart
Tulip, tulip, with one what I did buy The bed from which our sons will rise and the window where she cries Tulip, tulip, with one what I did buy A net to catch the birds that fly from the window where she cries
He reaches out and I withdraw Spilling the flowering bribes from his paw The broken petals climbing the walls Stealing my oxygen, no air at all From the bed I hear him call but I answer cooing when the night falls The cotton sword is storming the hall Cutting my vision to no sight at all
I tied the tulip round her neck like a red lead sinker And blindfold her and spin her round and round and round To the banks of the river And then walk my true love in to the rushing water And by her long hair bleeding red hair Pull my love there under until she drown
For beauty and perfume I’d stake my house and my land My love is sleeping in the river but the flower’s in my hand With a paler leaf and a broken petal I’ll keep her all to me And to the river with my flower I’ll hear my true love sing
No water is still my friend Ready to drown Water, water, oh water my kin Carry me out This iron river is mercy at last Die as she laughs For he is waiting where the doves nest My true love
Tulip, tulip, with one what is did buy The veil that parted over my bride And the blue from her bluest eyes Tulip, tulip, with one what I did buy The veil that parted over my bride and her breath as my true love dies