WIL DARCANGELO: Music
5. The Rose
(WIL DARCANGELO)
music and lyrics by Amanda McBroom
Like millions, I have loved this song since it was first released in the late 70's. I never imagined singing it for myself once day. As with "My Funny Valentine" I'd recorded an earlier version of this song for another project. Both versions have been in the gospel style. I love the implications of treating this lyric with a quasi-religious sensibility. I've performed this song at one of my annual holiday concerts as a winter solstice piece as well albeit more straightforwardly. But the gospel suits me. And the lyric is definitely the gospel truth in my eyes.
THE ROSE
Some say love it is a river
That drowns the tender reed
Some say love it is a razor
That leaves your soul to bleed
Some say love it is a hunger
An endless aching need
I say love it is a flower
And you are its only seed
It’s the heart afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance
And it’s the dream afraid of waking
That never takes a chance
It’s the one who can’t be taken
Who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dying
That never learns to live
When the night has been to lonely
And the road has never seemed so long
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong
Just remember that in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun’s love
In the springtime becomes the rose.