Buttercups and Roses

So I was down at FenCon and was sitting in the room with guitar in hand noodling about when a chorus came to me. So I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote it down. And I was having the damnedest time making sense of what it was about.

The next day, I pulled out the piece of paper and looked at it again.

"That's buttercup, you idiot, not bottlecap!"

Oh. Ok, that's better.

"I'd think so."

I still don't know what this song is about.

"Well, if you don't know, I'm certainly not going to tell you."

Thanks. Thanks for the help.

"Any time."

My muse, it seems, not only has an annoying attitude, but lives at the wrong end of a noisy telephone line.

Eventually, I figured out what the song was supposed to be about.

(Chorus)
Cmaj7          Em7       Am7/G            Am7/Gbass
Buttercups and roses lie scattered on the ground,
        Fmaj7           Am7      Dm7             G
But for every door that closes, another portal's found.
    Cmaj7        Em7           Am7/G           Am7/Gbass
And if I had the answer to the question that I pose
        Fmaj7          Am7                 Dm7            G
Would I find it in the buttercup?  Would I find it in the rose?
     Dm7            G             Cmaj7
With buttercups and roses, no one knows.


   Cmaj7   Fmaj7        Cmaj7     Fmaj7
If I had a wish I could wish on a star,
    Cmaj7         Fmaj7           Cmaj7    Fmaj7
I'd turn back the clock and watch us from afar
      Am7                        Dm7
As we walked hand in hand on the edge of a stream
    Fm6                      Cmaj7     G7
And I could have sworn I was lost in a dream.
  Cmaj7    Fmaj7     Cmaj7        Fmaj7
I wanted a flower to tuck in your hair
   Cmaj7      Fmaj7          Cmaj7          Fmaj7
So I picked a buttercup that shone brightly there.
    Am7                         Dm7
You laughed and you smiled as I put it in place
      Fm6                     Cmaj7         Dm7     G    G7
And I still can remember each curve of your face.


On a morning much later, you came to my door
And you gave me a rose that you bought from the store.
I took it in hand and I asked you inside
And I knew from that moment our love would abide.
I told you I loved you, but you already knew
And I swear to you now what I said then was true.
I'd stay by your side for as long as I could
And you could be sure my intentions were good.

	(Bridge)
	Am7                   Fm6
	Fool that I was and a fool I must be
	    Em7                    A7
	For letting my past come between you and me
	        Dm7                       Fm6
	And the words that I spoke, I can never retrieve
	      Em7                         A7
	And I still understand why you'll never believe
	    D7/9
	Me again.
	 G7
	Again.

So we dance at a distance, forever apart,
Each of us holding one half of a heart.
And I search for some doorway that you've left ajar,
But as I approach, I find each portal's barred.
So I'll leave a buttercup outside of each door
And hope you look out and remember once more
The way that you felt when you gave me that rose
And give one last chance to a man who now knows.

(Final chorus to coda)
Dm7    Cmaj7
No one knows.
Dm7    Cmaj7
No one knows.