"Lavender" is a song by the British
neo-progressive rock
Neo-progressive rock (also known as neo-prog) is a subgenre of progressive rock which developed in the UK in the early 1980s. The genre's most popular band, Marillion, achieved mainstream success in the decade. Several bands from the genre have c ...
band
Marillion. It was released as the second
single from their 1985
UK number one
The UK Singles Chart is a weekly record chart which for most of its history was based on single sales from Sunday to Saturday in the United Kingdom. Since July 2014 it has also incorporated streaming data, and from 10 July 2015 has been based o ...
concept album ''
Misplaced Childhood''. The follow-up to the UK number two hit "
Kayleigh", the song was their second Top Five UK hit, entering the chart on 7 September 1985, reaching number five and staying on the chart for nine weeks.
[David Roberts ''British Hit Singles and Albums'', Guinness World Records Limited] None of the group's subsequent songs have reached the Top Five and "Lavender" remains their second highest-charting song. As with all Marillion albums and singles between 1982 and 1988, the cover art was created by
Mark Wilkinson
Mark Wilkinson (born 3 October 1952) is an English illustrator. He is best known for the detailed surrealistic cover art he created for a number of British bands.
Wilkinson's breakthrough came through his association with the neo-progressive r ...
.
Inspiration and composition
The song features a number of verses that are reminiscent of the folk song "
Lavender's Blue
"Lavender's Blue" (also called "Lavender Blue") is an English folk song and nursery rhyme from the 17th century. Its Roud Folk Song Index number is 3483. It has been recorded in various forms and some pop versions have been hits in the U.S. and ...
". The song forms part of the concept of the ''Misplaced Childhood'' album. Like "Kayleigh" it is a love song, but whereas "Kayleigh" was about the failure of an adult relationship, "Lavender" recalls the innocence of childhood:
The childhood theme also brought up the idea of utilising an old children's song and "Lavender" was an obvious contender as one of the original pop songs of its time.
The opening lines "I was walking in the park dreaming of a spark, when I heard the sprinklers whisper, shimmer in the haze of summer lawns" deliberately recall the title track of Mitchell's album ''
The Hissing of Summer Lawns
''The Hissing of Summer Lawns'' is the seventh studio album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released in 1975. The sessions featured backing from members of the jazz groups the L.A. Express and the Jazz Crusaders.
The lead singl ...
''.
Unusually for a rock song from the mid-1980s, "Lavender" features a traditional
grand piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
rather than an electronic keyboard or
electric piano. In the
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
, keyboardist Mark Kelly is seen playing a
Bechstein but the original sleeve notes of the ''Misplaced Childhood'' album state that a
Bösendorfer
Bösendorfer (L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH) is an Austrian piano manufacturer and, since 2008, a wholly owned subsidiary of Yamaha Corporation. Bösendorfer is unusual in that it produces 97- and 92- key models in addition to instrum ...
was used for the recording.
On the album ''Misplaced Childhood'', "Lavender" is a short track of barely two and a half minutes, forming part of a longer suite that continues into the likewise multi-portioned track "Bitter Suite", which repeats Lavender's musical
motif at the end. In order to be suitable for a single release, the track therefore needed to be re-arranged and extended. As a result, the 7" version is significantly longer than the album version (3:40 as opposed to 2:27), whereas the 12" version – entitled "Lavender Blue" – is 4:18.
Legacy
The song features on several Marillion compilation albums, including ''
A Singles Collection'' (1992), ''
The Best of Both Worlds'' (1997) and ''
The Best of Marillion
''The Best of Marillion'' is a compilation album from the band Marillion. The songs come from both the Fish era and Steve Hogarth era of the band. It was released in mainland Europe only.The Singles '82–88'
''The Singles '82–88 is a three-CD box set containing the first twelve singles by the British neo-progressive rock band Marillion, all from the period they were fronted by Fish. It was released by EMI Records on 16 October 2009. The musical co ...
'').
The song was used in the first episode of
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...