Winter may still have a tight grip in the western hemisphere as spring slowly stirs, but this noun is the highly descriptive name for an unopened flower bud, and also the architectural term for bulbish knobs of a similar design. Like pursed lips awaiting the full blossom and all associations, where might it come up in song?
While poetic in its own way, knosp isn’t ideal for singing, but buds still make an appearance. First up here’s Judy Garland comparing the frustrated flowering season love that won’t blossom, in a number, Bud’s Won’t Bud, written by Harold Arlen, who also penned the songs for 1938’s classic, The Wizard Of Oz. The song has also been covered by Peggy Lee and several others.
Buds won't bud, breeze won't breeze and dew won't dew,
One and one ain't even two
When the love you love won't love you.
Buds won't bud, chicks won't chick and micks won't mack,
Blue is white and white is black
When the love you love won't love back.
Talking of Peggy Lee, here she is with more budding optimism in Hey Look Me Over! – a song here backed by the Quincy Jones orchestra, but also covered by many other great singers, including Louis Armstrong.
Hey look me over
Lend me an ear
Fresh out of clover
Mortgage up to here
But don't pass the plate folks
Don't pass the cup
I figure whenever you're down and out
The only way is up
And I'll be up like a rose bud
High on the vine
Don't thumb your nose
But take a tip from mine
While Judy looks for the buds to open, and Peggy even more so, the B-52s seek to stop a more metaphorical growth from happening, in their song from 1981’s Mesopotamia album:
Nina Simone’s perhaps most moving bud song meanwhile is typically one that contains hope and harshness, tragedy and fertility, and it spans the year – in July Tree:
True love seed in the autumn ground
True love seed in the autumn ground
When will it be found?
True love deep in the winter white snow
True love deep in the winter white snow
How long will it take to grow?
You know true love buds in the April air
The April air
Was there ever a bud so fair?
True love blooms for the world to see
True love blooms for the world to see
Blooms high upon the July tree
In another contrast of style and perspective, Mary J. Blige meanwhile, a singer who also knew about tragedy, is hopeful at the prospect of spring in I Can See In Color, sometimes with a shortened title of simply Color, a song also used in the soundtrack of a tough film, Precious (2009), and also her album Stronger with Each Tear:
The first sign of spring, the rose buds are blooming
I got a new song new song to sing
Life looks so amazing I never knew that it could open my eyes
And for the very very first time I can see in color
Lou Rawls has a smooth, buoyant optimism in Spring Is Here:
It's spring again
I can hear the birds sing again
See the flowers start to bud
See young people fall in love
Well, it's spring again
Thunder showers, they are here again
An extra hour for me and you
To spend together
Pretty colours are everywhere
Mother Nature, she still cares.
But is there a better bud-related song than Talking Heads’ Nothing But Flowers from the 1988 album Naked, one that reverses the city-sprawl perspective with a beautiful sound, featuring guitar work by The Smiths’ Johnny Marr:
Here we stand
Like an Adam and an Eve
Waterfalls
The Garden of Eden
Two fools in love
So beautiful and strong
The birds in the trees
Are smiling upon them
From the age of the dinosaur
Cars have run on gasoline
Where, where have they gone?
Now, it's nothing but flowers
There was a factory
Now there are mountains and rivers
You got it, you got it
We caught a rattlesnake
Now we got something for dinner
We got it, we got it
There was a shopping mall
Now it's all covered with flowers
You've got it, you've got it
So then, care to plant any more ideas about the knosp in our musical knowledge? Please feel free to share any further examples in songs, instrumentals, on albums, film, art or other contexts in comments below.
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