Moby-"Flowers"

ferrarifan23thefirst | December 08, 2007
Moby - Flower (gone is 60 seconds intro)

Video Summary:
This is a sound file of Moby's "Flowers". This song includes a samplying from a trio of vocalist singing an African American children's game song. That song is included in Alan Lomax's CD "Sounds of The South". The words to this song are often erroneously given as "Bring Sally Up" instead of "Green Sally Up".

Here's a posting of the lyrics with the "Bring Sally Up/Bring Sally Down" lines:

ClueyCluelessOne - Thought i would post the actual lyrics i dont know what moe88mohammed88 is on about

Lyrics:

Bring sally up

And bring sally down

Lift and squat

Gotta tear the ground

Old miss lucy's dead and gone

Left me here to weep and moan

If you hate it fold your arms

If you love it clap your hands

Here are two comments that I wrote in response to those lyrics being posted:

azizip17-@ClueyCluelessOne Actually, the first two lines are "green Sally up"/"green Sally down". This is a sampling of an old African American children's game song that was included in Alan Lomax's "Sounds Of The South" record. There's a You Tube "video" of this sound file under the name "Green Sally Up". Imo, "green" is an adjective for a young, innocent girl, from the description of "green (unripened) corn. Google Cocojams for more information about this African American childen's song.

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azizip17-Why is this song called "Flowers"? One possibility is that Moby was aware of the connection between the Green Color Up game song & old versions of Ring Around The Rosies, Here's one example: Ring around a rosey, pocket full o' posies,
Light bread, Sweet bread, Squat! /Guess who she told me, tralalalala/Mister Red was her lover, tralalalala/If you love him, hug him! /If you hate him, stomp!

The Cocojams's link is http://www.cocojams.com/content/text-analysis-green-sally

Click http://www.jambalayah.com/node/309 to find the sound file for that African American game song.

Also, click this website about Moby's song "Flowers" that mentions my theory about the meaning of that song's lyrics: http://everything2.com/title/FLOWER