"Roses in the Hospital" was the third single taken from the Manic Street Preachers' second album, Gold Against the Soul. It was released in September 1993.
Reaching #15 in the UK charts, it would prove to be the highest charting single from any of the group's first three albums (their cover of "Suicide Is Painless (Theme from M*A*S*H)" had reached #7 the previous year, but it was not featured on any album). Sales of the single were helped by the band's appearance supporting Bon Jovi at the Milton Keynes Bowl on 18 August 1993.
The line "we don't want your fucking love" was excised from the radio edit of the song, being replaced by a reiteration of the title. The song's closing refrain of "Forever, ever delayed" would eventually give rise to the title for the band's greatest hits compilation (Forever Delayed), an album on which "Roses in the Hospital" itself would not actually make an appearance.
At the end of the song James Dean Bradfield can also be heard singing the line "Rudi gonna fail", a reference to "Rudie Can't Fail", a song by The Clash from their seminal album London Calling. The Manics have cited The Clash as one of the key influences on their sound.
Famous quotes containing the words roses and/or hospital:
“Better than mortal flowers,
Thy moon-kissed roses seem: better than love or sleep,
The star-crowned solitude of thine oblivious hours!”
—Ernest Christopher Dowson (1867–1900)
“The sun his hand uncloses like a statue,
Irrevocably: thereby such light is freed
That all the dingy hospital of snow
Dies back to ditches.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)