Songful Style | “Flowers are Red” by Harry Chapin & #SpreadTheKindness Link Up On the Edge #679

It’s Marsha’s turn to choose the song and she picked one I had never heard. I do love learning about new music. People who teach us about new music are very important, indeed. In case you are not familiar with “Flowers are Red” by Harry Chapin, keep reading for some of the history I have found on the internet.

About Songful Style

Songful Style is an ageless style challenge series hosted by Suzy of The Grey Brunette, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. 

Each month we will share a song with the lyrics and video and we invite you to use whatever aspect of the song that inspires you to create an outfit. 

It is similar to Style Imitating Art where we use artwork to inspire our outfit creations. Except Songful Style gives you lyrics, music, video, and album artwork to inspire your fashion creativity. You may even find inspiration in a memory triggered by the selected song. It is all open to your own personal interpretation and just a fun way to discover new music and get a little bit more creative with your wardrobe.

Anyone is welcome to join us on a permanent basis or you can just play along without any obligation to do anything other than feel inspired. We are flexible and fun and just want to find more ways to play dress up because it’s what we enjoy doing! 

We will be posting on the last Monday of each month and will announce our song choice for the following month at the end of each post. Then about a week or two later, I will share a detailed post like this one about the chosen song.

Video Inspiration

The Lyrics

“Flowers are Red” by Henry Chapin

The little boy went first day of school
He got some crayons and he started to draw
He put colors all over the paper
For colors was what he saw

And the teacher said, "What you doin' young man?"
"I'm paintin' flowers" he said
She said, "It's not the time for art young man
And anyway flowers are green and red"

"There's a time for everything young man
And a way it should be done
You've got to show concern for everyone else
For you're not the only one"

And she said, "Flowers are red young man
And green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen"

But the little boy said
"There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one"

Well the teacher said, "You're sassy
There's ways that things should be
And you'll paint flowers the way they are
So repeat after me"

And she said, "Flowers are red, young man
And green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen"

But the little boy said
"There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one"

The teacher put him in a corner
She said, "It's for your own good
And you won't come out 'til you get it right
And are responding like you should"

Well finally he got lonely
Frightened thoughts filled his head
And he went up to the teacher
And this is what he said

And he said
"Flowers are red, and green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen"

Time went by like it always does
And they moved to another town
And the little boy went to another school
And this is what he found

The teacher there was smilin'
She said, "Painting should be fun
And there are so many colors in a flower
So let's use every one"

But that little boy painted flowers
In neat rows of green and red
And when the teacher asked him why
This is what he said

And he said
"Flowers are red, and green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen"

About the Artist and the Song

Harold Forster Chapin was an American folk and pop rock singer-songwriter who achieved worldwide success in the 1970s before his untimely death in 1981 at the age of 38. Born on December 7, 1942, in New York City, Harry Chapin was the second of four children of American jazz drummer Jim Chapin and his wife Jeanne Elspeth. Two of his brothers, Tom and Steve, also became musicians.

Chapin’s parents divorced in 1950 due to Jim’s rigorous touring scheduling with Big Band acts and Jeanne retained custody of the four children. She married magazine editor Henry Hart a few years later.

In 1966, Chapin met New York socialite Sandra Gaston when she contacted him for music lessons. They were married two years later and had two children, Jennifer and Joshua.

Chapin’s first introduction to music was trumpet lessons at the Greenwich House Music School. His younger brothers, Tom and Steve, were choirboys at Grace Episcopal Church in Brooklyn Heights where Harry would meet musician “Big” John Wallace who would become his bassist and backup vocalist. During his teenage years, Chapin would perform with his brothers with their father sometimes accompanying them on drums.

In 1960, Chapin graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School where he was later posthumously inducted into the school’s Alumni Hall Of Fame in 2000. Following graduation, he briefly attended the United States Air Force Academy and then Cornell University but never completed any degree programs at either institution. Chapin’s original plans were to become a documentary film maker. He wrote and directed the 1968 documentary film, Legendary Champions, which features legendary boxers in action in the ring as well as their lives outside of boxing. The film was nominated for, but did not win, the 1968 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

A few years later, in 1971, Chapin shifted his focus from film making to music making and began regularly playing New York City nightclubs. By 1972, he was caught in a bidding war between Columbia Records‘ Clive Davis and Elektra Records‘ Jac Holzman. Ultimately Elektra won, signing Chapin to a multi-million dollar contract, one of the biggest recording contracts of its time which also granted him free recording time as well as other perks that were not standard in recording contracts.

Later in 1972, Chapin released his debut album, Heads & Tales, which was an international success selling in excess of one million records. Each subsequent album seemed to be more successful than the previous one. In 1974, he released his fourth and most successful album, Verities and Balderdash, which sold 2.5 million units mostly due to the success of his number one hit Cat’s in the Cradle. By 1976, Chapin had established himself as one of the most popular musicians of the decade.

Nearing the end of the 1970s, Chapin shifted his concentration to touring rather than producing hit singles but he continued to release one new album every year. At the end of the decade, Chapin was earning approximately $2 million per year (over $10 million in today’s dollars, making him one of the highest paid artists in the world.

Chapin released his eighth studio album, Living Room Suite, in 1978. Chapin and Elektra Records were unhappy with the album, leading to Chapin rerecording some of the songs after the album was released. This album peaked at number 133 on the Billboard 200. The song “Flowers are Red” was the third track on side two of the album. It was initially released as a single and became a top 20 hit in Ireland.

The idea for the song lyrics came to Chapin when his secretary told him about her son who brought his report card home from school with a note from the teacher that read, “Your son is marching to the beat of a different drummer, but don’t worry we will soon have him joining the parade by the end of the term.” Chapin often used that quote along with the story as an introduction to his live performances of this song.

On July 16, 1981, Harry Chapin was driving on the Long Island Expressway en route to a benefit concert. Reportedly, Chapin put on his emergency flashers at 12:27 p.m. and decelerated his vehicle to 15 mph and was weaving betwen lanes before he was struck from the rear by a semi-trailer truck. The rear of the car was crushed, the fuel tank was ruptured, and the car was dragged several hundred feet before passers-by pulled an unconscious Chapin from his engulfed 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit. He was transported by helicopter to Nassau County Medical Center where he was pronounced dead from internal bleeding at 1:05 p.m. Following his death, Chapin’s widow won a $12 million negligence lawsuit against Supermarkets General, the owner of the truck that struck Chapin. Chapin is buried in Huntington Rural Cemetery in Huntington, New York. His epitaph was taken from the 1978 song “I Wonder What Would Happen to This World.”

Oh if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man's life could be worth
I wonder what would happen 
to this world

Album Covers and Other Photo Inspiration

Although these song lyrics make me really sad, I am excited to style an outfit that would really bother that first teacher who insists that we can only see the world of flowers in red and green. Hopefully, you are inspired to join us with your own outfit inspired by “Flowers are Red”. You are welcome to do your own research if you need more inspiration or if you are interested in learning more. If you want to join us, we will be hosting a link party on Monday, November 27, 2023, where you can share your outfits. We would love to see your Songful Styles. Happy styling, my friends!

Featured Favorites

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Anne of SpyGirl

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Joining these Fabulous Link Parties.