Tag: kiss

Song Lyric Sunday – Kiss From A Rose

This week our host for Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams, has given us the prompts, Hug, Kiss and Embrace. I have chosen Kiss From A Rose, by Seal. This was an easy pick for me as I just happened to hear it again today. I have always liked it as it reminds me of a visit back home to the UK in the nineties. It was such a great trip and this song was being played everywhere. On checking I did notice that I had featured this song more than three years ago for another SLS prompt. I think enough time has passed and that it really doesn’t matter if I choose it again, right?

Have a great Sunday.

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The Song

One of the more mysterious songs ever written, there has been much speculation as to the meaning of “Kiss From A Rose” – many think it has something to do with drugs, while others hear it as an expression of love or a journey to the afterlife. Seal has never explained what the song is about, offering only that there was “some kind of relationship that inspired the lyrics.” Seal bucked convention by not including printed lyrics with the album, something he did because he didn’t want to wash away anyone’s interpretation. He also says that his songs often mean more than one thing, so attributing a meaning would be too simplistic. In lieu of lyrics, Seal wrote a screed on the subject that went with the album. “I think it’s the general vibe of what I’m saying that is important and not the exact literal translation,” he wrote. “The song is always larger in the listener’s mind because with it they attach imagery which is relative to their own personal experience. So it is your perception of what I’m saying rather than what I actually way that is the key.”

Seal wrote this song sometime around 1988 when he was living in a squat in Kensal Green, London. He says it was a liberating time, as it was before he had a record deal and there was no pressure on him. He didn’t know how to play any instruments, so he sang the instrumental parts onto a 4-track tape recorder as an experiment. He tossed the tape aside and thought nothing of it; when he recorded his 1991 debut album, he didn’t even consider it. The song was revived two years later when Seal played if for his best friend, who told Seal’s producer, Trevor Horn, about it. Horn made Seal play it for him, and he liked what he heard. They recorded the song for his second album (Seal, 1994), but they still nearly tanked it. “I thought it was too flowery and that it didn’t fit,” Seal told The Guardian. They were going to pull it from the tracklist, but reconsidered after their friend Lynne Franks heard the album-in-progress and said she liked “that song that was something about a rose.”

The song was released as a single in the UK, where it went to #20 in July 1994. In America, the song didn’t get noticed until it played under the end credits of the movie Batman Forever and was included on the soundtrack. The film was released in May 1995, nearly a year after Seal’s album was issued. The movie appearance sparked demand for the song in the US; it was issued as a single there in June 1995 and climbed to #1 in August.Batman Forever was distributed by Warner Bros., the same conglomerate that owned Seal’s US label, Sire Records. The song was submitted for a love scene featuring Nicole Kidman’s Dr. Chase Meridian character and Val Kilmer’s Batman, but the film’s director, Joel Schumacher, decided it was a better fit under the end credits.

Do you hear the lyric as “kiss from a rose on a grave?” If so, you’re not the only one, but it’s really “kiss from a rose on a gray.” David Sancious, who played keyboards on Seal’s 1998 album Human Being and joined him on the subsequent tour, found out from the source.  “We were having lunch somewhere one day and he explained it to me,” Sancious told Songfacts. “It was a poetic thing, just a little taste of poetry that happened to sound like something else.”

With its curious waltz time, lavish harmonies and epic sound proportions, “Kiss From A Rose” has a very different sound and stood out on the radio, where many stations were willing to play it. In the US, it was a #1 hit on the Adult Contemporary charts for 12 weeks.

This won Grammy Awards in 1996 for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance. It wasn’t eligible for an Oscar because the song appeared on Seal’s album before it was used in the film.

Courtesy of Songfacts

The Lyrics

Ba-ya-ya, ba-da, ba-da-da-da, ba-ya-ya
Ba-ya-ya, ba-da, ba-da-da-da, ba-ya-ya
Ba-ya-ya, ba-da, ba-da-da-da, ba-ya-ya
Ba-ya-ya, ba-da, ba-da-da-da, ba-ya-ya

There used to be a greying tower alone on the sea
You became the light on the dark side of me
Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill

But did you know that when it snows
My eyes become large and
The light that you shine can't be seen?

Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey
Ooh, the more I get of you, the stranger it feels, yeah
And now that your rose is in bloom
A light hits the gloom on the grey

Ba-ya-ya, ba-da, ba-da-da-da, ba-ya-ya
Ba-ya-ya, ba-da, ba-da-da-da, ba-ya-ya

There is so much a man can tell you, so much he can say
You remain my power, my pleasure, my pain
Baby, to me, you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny
Won't you tell me, is that healthy, baby?

But did you know that when it snows
My eyes become large and
The light that you shine can't be seen?

Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey
Ooh, the more I get of you, the stranger it feels, yeah (yeah)
Now that your rose is in bloom
A light hits the gloom on the grey

I've been kissed by a rose on the grey
I've been kissed by a rose on the grey
And if I should fall, will it all go away? (I've been kissed by a rose on the grey)
I've been kissed by a rose on the grey

There is so much a man can tell you, so much he can say
You remain my power, my pleasure, my pain
To me, you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny (yeah)
No won't you tell me, is that healthy, baby?

But did you know that when it snows
My eyes become large and
The light that you shine can't be seen?

Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey
Ooh, the more I get of you, the stranger it feels, yeah
Now that your rose is in bloom
A light hits the gloom on the grey

Yes, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey
Ooh, the more I get of you, the stranger it feels, yeah (yeah)
And now that your rose is in bloom
A light hits the gloom on the grey

Ba-ya-ya, ba-da, ba-da-da-da, ba-ya-ya

Now that your rose is in bloom
A light hits the gloom on the grey

Writer/s: Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel 
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

More Than a Kiss – Poem of the Month – October 2020

More Than a Kiss

You held my hand
as we walked 
Hummingbirds hovered
by bougainvillea
tumbling over
whitewashed walls
Sun tingling
tanned skin
As we stopped to kiss
a lightheadedness
from shared wine
released inhibitions 
You pulled me closer to you
Biting my lip
knowing I wanted more
Loving,
clawing, scratching
at the air
in silent screams
Desires sated
as light rain
showered
surprised
entwined bodies
Cooling
heated passions
Leaving our footprints
on parched sidewalks
The day turned sultry
as we resumed
our walk in silence
Introspective
Both knowing
more of what
was still to come
 
 
Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing ©

Image by マサコ アーント from Pixabay 

Bjorn is hosting Open Link Night at D'Verse

Word Prompts
Loving - Word of the Day
Footprint - RDP
Introspective - FOWC

Kiss The Dust – A Quadrille

Kiss The Dust – A Quadrille


The steady rain kisses my cheeks
Mixing with my tears
I am waiting for you to come
and quell my deepest fears  
Why are you so late my love?
 I hope it is not true
You have found someone else
Maybe I always knew      
 
 
 
Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing ©

dVerse Poets Pub is hosted tonight by De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo)
and we have been challenged to write a Quadrille with the word "Kiss"

 A Quadrille is a poem of exactly 44 words, excluding the title

Photo by Laura Marques on Unsplash

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Faraway

Faraway

Faraway in my dreams
You wait for me here
We kiss in sunlight
and then you disappear

You come and go
whenever I wish
Never staying long
Swimming away like a fish

Playfully you are the wind
Blowing up my dress
Water splashing me
Gently like a caress

Sometimes I hide
And you have to go seek
Running down the beach
While I admire your physique

My fantasy is
one day you’ll stay
Then you’ll be mine forever
and no longer faraway

Christine Bolton – Poetry for Healing ©

In response to Sue Vincent’s Write/Photo Prompt Faraway

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Date

Date

Early morning light
Streaks through the curtain
Another day dawning
That’s all that is certain

Sarah lies in her bed
Remembering what occurred
The events of the previous night
Have left her somewhat disturbed

“What happened?” she thought
Everything was going so great
Andrew was delightful
Considering it was a blind date

They had gone to a restaurant
For an early dinner and talk
Then a movie to follow
And a stroll on the boardwalk

Andrew had become romantic
And leaned in to kiss
She reciprocated the action
It was a moment of bliss

It lasted just a moment
And then he doubled over in pain
What was the problem?
She could not ascertain

After some endless moments
Sarah realized what was amiss
He’d eaten the lamb curry
It wasn’t the kiss

The hospital emergency room
Was where they eventually parted
They likely wouldn’t meet again
Dating is not for the faint hearted

Christine Bolton – Poetry for Healing ©

In response to Bjorn’s challenge at D’Verse Poets Writing Narrative Poetry

Photo by Nathan Walker on Unsplash

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