When it came time for the band to break out on its own – with Cash’s blessing – they started writing more songs and making more albums.Īt about that time in 1972, the Statlers released an album called “Innerview,” which featured what would become their next big hit, “Do You Remember These,” the group’s second No. I was near the end of writing a book about memorable albums of the 1970s and the song and the album it appeared – the group’s debut album, also called “Flowers on The Wall,” didn’t qualify.Ī little more research revealed that the Statler Brothers spent eight years, from 1964 to 1972, opening for and traveling with the great Johnny Cash. It was released in 1965 and peaked at No. When I got finished with that round of shoveling, I came back inside and researched the song. Those lyrics resonated with me as I kept myself occupied while doing a relatively unpleasant task three for four times in the same evening. The way I interpret that, the guy in the song keeps himself busy doing essentially nothing, even though he thinks it’s something. Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo. Playing solitaire til dawn, with a deck of 51. “Counting flowers on the wall, that don’t bother me at all. It was during one such snow event in early 2014 that I decided I needed a “Shoveling Theme Song.” For no particular reason – in between cursing a blue streak at that ratfink Mother Nature – the Statler Brothers’ song “Flowers on the Wall” popped into my head while I was clearing the driveway. In addition, shoveling snow is downright unpleasant and boring. It does require going out in the storm more often, but shoveling snow three or four inches at a time as opposed to 12 to 15 inches at the end has proven easier for me. I now go out several times during a storm, maybe every two or three hours, and shovel a few inches at a time. So in recent years – and because of an aging back – I’ve taken a different approach. The problem is that if we get a foot or more of snow from one storm, it’s difficult to lift that much snow. I used to believe the best way to attack the issue was to wait until it stopped snowing, then go out and shovel it all at once. Snow makes me grumpy and I have threatened – to no avail – many times to whack Mother Nature upside the head with my snow shovel if she didn’t lay off my driveway.īut over the years, I have changed my philosophy when it comes to shoveling snow. In early 2014, it snowed quite a bit in the Philadelphia area, most of it I think, right in my driveway. That’s how the 1972 album “Innerview” by the Statler Brothers made it into “The Vinyl Dialogues.” Sometimes, all it takes is a foot of snow to provide a little inspiration. There’s another Bruce Willis connection to the song as well: Willis mentions spending his suspension “Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo” in Die Hard With A Vengeance.The Statler Brothers opened for Johnny Cash from 1964 through 1972. Bruce Willis is singing along to the song, which is playing on his car radio, just before he runs over Marsellus Wallace at an intersection. This appears on the soundtrack to the movie Pulp Fiction. He’s in a pretty bad spot, counting flowers on the wall and playing solitaire with a deck that’s missing a card. Written by Statler Brothers singer Lew DeWitt, this song is about a guy who has been left lonely and nearly catatonic by the one he loves. In 1966 it won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Performance-Group (Vocal or Instrumental.) Flowers On The Wall was their only top 10 Billboard 100 hit. Nine weeks later, it had peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100 and #2 in the Billboard Country Charts in 1966.Īll together the Statler Brothers had 66 songs in the top 100, 33 in the Top Ten and 4 number 1’s in the Billboard Country Charts. In December, the song appeared on Billboard’s Hot 100. He described it: “We took gospel harmonies and put them over in country music.” However, it did crossover to the pop charts.īuoyed by interest from the country fans, folk listeners began to demand that rock stations play Flowers On The Wall. Lew DeWitt, the original tenor for The Statler Brothers, wrote “Flowers on the Wall. I remember it early on as a kid and in more modern times when Bruce Willis was mouthing the words it in Pulp Fiction. You know when the Muppets cover you…you have a hit. I have heard this called a psychedelic Country song… CMT named it one of the 100 greatest Country songs of all-time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |