Yet, the first RPM chart to kick off a year that the English critic Jon Savage describes as 'the year the decade exploded" is by a country group, Virginia's Statler Brothers. With the exception of crossover star Roy Orbison, there hadn't been a country single on top of the Canadian charts for years (Skeeter Davis' marvelous "The End of the World" being perhaps the last that can even be considered country-ish) In fact, the creation of the RPM Country Tracks chart in the autumn of 1964 seemed to be an acknowledgement how irrelevant C&W had become to mainstream pop listeners.
But the unpacking isn't done. Even more surprising is how "Flowers on the Wall" seemed to fail as a country single while it thrived on RPM's flagship listing. The same week it topped the pop charts it failed to even crack the country Top 10, missing out on a spot to such legendary numbers as Skip Evans' "Freckles Freckles", Artie MacLaren's "Lost Love" and the one and only Bert Cuff with "Isle of Newfoundland". And I get it: country fans are very protective of their favourite genre. If the vast majority of them weren't so damn right wing they'd probably get into fits over bands and artists selling out just as much as earnest indie rock fans do. If "Flowers on the Wall" had suddenly become popular with high school and university students with increasingly long hair who believed in peace then I can imagine their natural fanbase spurning them - even if they wouldn't for long.
Then there's the fact that "Flowers on the Wall" is more like an early version of what would soon become known as 'country-rock' than pure country. Folk listeners could've dug this (along with a character from a famous film mentioned just below, it's easy to imagine The Big Lebowski's Dude "doing a J" or enjoying several White Russians or "oat sodas" to The Statler Brothers) and that fantastic chorus about "countin' flowers on the wall, that don't bother me at all" would've appealed to your classic sixties' stoner. Though the Statlers do have tremendous C&W-style harmonies, they seem far too laid back and playful to really fit in to Nashville's mainstream. And, yet, they didn't have to resort to pretending to be a bunch of phony baloney outlaws either.
"Flowers on the Wall" is perhaps best known to my generation for its brief appearance in the 1994 classic Pulp Fiction. Bruce Willis' Butch has just left his apartment having rescued his priceless wristwatch that his girlfriend left behind while also having shot his nemesis Vincent Vega to death following a short staredown. While he should be in a state of frenzy, his demeanor is calm and he sings along with the Statlers as they're "smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo" just as he's about to encounter the crime boss he betrayed. To Butch, this is meant to symbolize his carefree attitude in spite of the danger around him. Now that he has the watch that his ancestors suffered greatly to preserve and that he too has gone through an awful lot to get back, he isn't bothered by what's about to befall him. If the song is indeed about prison as Kurt Vonnegut theorized then Butch is ready to face it and not have it kill his spirit.
If it isn't about spending time in the joint, then perhaps it's about lacking the motivation to do much with oneself (again, right up the Dude's alley). As an anthem of laziness, it's right up there with The Beatles' "I'm Only Sleeping" (along with, it must be said, an awful lot of John Lennon numbers, both with his famous band and as a solo artist), The Beach Boys' "Busy Doin' Nothing" and Belle and Sebastian's "A Summer Wasting". While teenagers who severely lack motivation will provide excuse upon excuse for not doing their homework, not cleaning their room and not doing anything with their lives, these grown men had the answer: having shit all to do is the dream, not something to avoid or apologize for.
Score: 8
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