Story
The song tells the story of a little boy who on the first day of school started drawing pictures of flowers using many different colors. The teacher tells him that he's coloring the flowers all wrong and that he should paint them red and green, "the way they always have been seen." The boy disagrees and continues to color them from his imagination until the teacher punishes him by standing him in a corner. Finally, the little boy gives in and tells the teacher that "flowers are red, and green leaves are green." When he goes to a different school, he continues mechanically painting flowers red and green, to the dismay of his new, kind teacher.
In the live concert versions, Chapin extended the song's ending to: "There still must be a way to have our children say..." before featuring the little boy's chorus again and bringing the song to a better conclusion. A version of this is featured on his album Legends of the Lost and Found.
Read more about this topic: Flowers Are Red
Famous quotes containing the word story:
“Its idea of “production value” is spending a million dollars dressing up a story that any good writer would throw away. Its vision of the rewarding movie is a vehicle for some glamour-puss with two expressions and eighteen changes of costume, or for some male idol of the muddled millions with a permanent hangover, six worn-out acting tricks, the build of a lifeguard, and the mentality of a chicken-strangler.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“When I die, my epitaph should read: She Paid the Bills. That’s the story of my private life.”
—Gloria Swanson (1897–1983)
“... if there’s a house, then there is a wall ... between them and the outside world. The ideal is to stay inside and to never have to go out, and the whole idea of staying home is really important. I think men do get out, but it is not glamorized the way it is here in America, where the big story is to ride out and go someplace and to travel.”
—Gish Jen (b. 1956)