Mother Rose

Album: Trampin' (2003)
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Songfacts®:

  • Patti wrote this song about her mother Beverly, who died September 19, 2002, and about her own experience as a mother. There are mother themes throughout the album.
  • This is written in a classic 1950s - early 1960s slow-rock style reminiscent of the Crystals' 1962 song "He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)".
  • The closing riff contains a homage to one of rock's more cryptic songs, 1963's "Sally Go Round the Roses," interwoven with a fragment of "Golden Mother," a poem Patti wrote for her mom's memorial service, in her usual overdubbed recitative voice.
  • Live performances of this feature a projection of a pretty picture of Beverly as a young lady surrounded by millions of whirling roses.
  • Beverly was a waitress and nightclub singer. She ran Patti's fan club and answered a lot of the fan mail. She enjoyed doing housework to Patti's more uptempo pieces. She loved roses but was allergic to them. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Ekristheh - Halath, for all above

Comments: 3

  • Lordladeda from Cornwall UkI still have a lovely letter from Beverly that she sent me around 1976. She as responding to my letter when I was asking questions about Patti's lyrics etc.
  • Ekristheh from Halath, United StatesI shall have to attend to that little matter, Nadine.
  • Nadine from Riverside, CaHow come there aren't more Patti Smith songs listed here? "Land" is pure genius.
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