Formation
In early 1993, guitarist and singer Roine Stolt had written material for his third solo album The Flower King and sought for musicians to perform it. He had wanted to release a progressive rock-style album for a while and felt the time was right to pursue the project. The album features Stolt on vocals, guitar, bass and keyboards, Jaime Salazar on drums, and Hasse Fröberg on vocals, and was recorded in Sweden between May 1993 and January 1994.
In preparation for Stolt's concert tour to support the album's release, Stolt, Salazar, and Fröberg were joined by Stolt's brother Michael on bass and Tomas Bodin on keyboards. The five performed their first gig on 20 August 1994 at an outdoor festival in Uppsala, Stolt's hometown and the city where The Flower King was recorded. After they decided to become a full time band, they officially adopted the name The Flower Kings, named after Stolt's album. Stolt had produced a list of potential titles for the record, one of which was "The Flower King", and chose it because of its positive meaning and its reference to the hippie era of the 1960s.
Activity
After performing a series of concerts through 1994, the band entered the studio in December 1994 to record their debut album, Back in the World of Adventures. The recording process was gradual, finishing in September 1995.
In 2000, Michael Stolt was replaced by Jonas Reingold. Two years later, Salazar was replaced by Zoltan Csörsz. Daniel Gildenlöw of Pain of Salvation joined the band the same year as a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist.
Other contributors have included Hasse Bruniusson (percussion) and Ulf Wallander (saxophone).
Stolt has written the vast majority of the material the band has recorded, with Bodin contributing most of the rest. The music is best described as symphonic progressive rock, bearing a strong resemblance to the music of Yes, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, and early Genesis, with jazz fusion and blues influences. The band's lyrics are almost uniformly positive and uplifting, affirming such values as love, peace, and spirituality, and furthering their association with Yes.
Their 1999 album Flower Power contains the eighteen-section, almost 60-minute "Garden of Dreams".
In June 2007, they released The Road Back Home, a compilation of remixed songs from 1994 to 2006, plus "Little Deceiver" (a previously unreleased track) and the full version of their cover of "The Cinema Show" by Genesis.
Zoltan Csörsz was replaced by new drummer Marcus Liliequist for one album, but returned for the 2007 album, The Sum of No Evil. He was subsequently replaced by Erik Hammarström in 2008.
In 2008, Ola Heden, previously of Reingold's side project Karmakanic, joined on guitar, vocals and keyboards.
In November 2008, the band were the opening act of the Ecco Prog Fest in Moscow.
After touring in 2008, The Flower Kings were inactive for four years. Stolt felt the band had varied levels of focus in their direction and had started to feel lost. They reunited in 2011 to work on new material after Stolt felt it was the right time and sensed eagerness from the other members to work together. This marked the arrival of German drummer Felix Lehrmann. Banks of Eden, the group's eleventh album, was released in June 2012 and was recorded with analogue recording techniques and styles reminiscent of the height of vinyl records. This was followed by Desolation Rose in October 2013.
The line up of Stolt, Bodin, Reingold, Fröberg and Lehrmann played together for the last time in 2015. 2016 and 2017 saw the bandmembers busy with other engagements.
In December 2017, the first part of a career-spanning box set titled A Kingdom of Colours was released. This first box, with 10 discs, covers the period from 1995 to 2002 and includes the studio albums from Back in the World of Adventures to Unfold the Future. The second box set, titled A Kingdom of Colours 2 and covering the albums Adam & Eve through to Desolation Rose, was released in June 2018.
In September 2018, Stolt announced a new album named Manifesto of an Alchemist. The album did not feature long-time keyboardist Tomas Bodin, and as such it is credited to "Roine Stolt's The Flower King" rather than "The Flower Kings"
In August the same year Roine Stolt presented a new band called "Roine Stolt and friends play The Flower Kings". The band featured Stolt, Fröberg and Reingold with new keyboard player Zach Kamins and new drummer Mirko De Maio. Roine Stolt stated that he was done being in a group and wanted to tour as a solo artist like Roger Waters or Steven Wilson. Tomas Bodin was not a part of this group and made his displeasure quite public. The band toured with Spock’s Beard in November and December 2018 and continued to do shows in 2019, this time under the name "The Flower Kings Revisited".
In July 2019, "Revisited" was removed from the band name, making it clear that this line up was now "The Flower Kings". The band went on to release the double albums Waiting for Miracles in 2019 and Islands in 2020, the latter having been recorded entirely remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 24 March 2021, Roine Stolt announced two big projects. The Flower Kings are working on a brand new album "in the same innocence" of Stardust We Are. On 19 April 2021, Roine officially teases that Stardust We Are is getting a brand new vinyl remaster.
On April 8th 2022, InsideOut and Roine Stolt announced that Back in the World of Adventures and Retropolis were getting "remastered and partly remixed". The release date for both was placed on May 27th 2022. Also Stardust We Are and Flower Power are getting remixes and remastered in June.
Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flower_Kings
Studio albums
The Flower King (1994)
Back in the World of Adventures (1995)
Retropolis (1996)
Stardust We Are (1997)
Flower Power (1999)
Space Revolver (2000)
The Rainmaker (2001)
Unfold the Future (2002)
Adam & Eve (2004)
Paradox Hotel (2006)
The Sum of No Evil (2007)
Banks of Eden (2012)
Desolation Rose (2013)
Manifesto of an Alchemist (2018)
Waiting for Miracles (2019)
Islands (2020)
By Royal Decree (2022)
One More Time
The Flower Kings Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Restless, hear my words are bouncing back, it seems they found no home
I'm still here after all of this
Walk away with dignity and we'll remember what it used to be
Play that song just one more time
We'll bring back memories of kingdoms in the sun
I'll paint from memory your face, my love
Is this the time of grand illusion, war and endless fights?
I watch them all from here - you know it's killing me
Now there is a new pope every year and borders don't hold true
Take me back in time – what's a honest man to do?
Play that song just one more time
We'll bring back memories of kingdoms in the sun
I'll paint from memory your face, my love
Time and place for everyone under the sun
Now no more words from this old pen and no more speech to follow
Said and done, now fast approach the 1900
One last round, a toast to us, I won't look back
Now change we must, move on...
Play that song just one more time
We'll bring back memories of kingdoms in the sun
I'll paint from memory your face, my love
The lyrics to The Flower Kings' song One More Time seem to be centered around the idea of nostalgia and moving on from the past. The beginning of the song suggests that this may be the end of something significant, but it's unclear whether it's the end of a relationship, a chapter of life, or something else entirely. The singer seems to reflect on the past and how it has brought them to where they are now, but there is a restlessness and sense of displacement as they realize that they can never go back to those times.
The chorus of the song, "Play that song just one more time," reflects the desire to relive those moments and memories that have now become a distant past. The "kingdoms in the sun" seem to represent a time of happiness and contentment that the singer wants to bring back. They long to paint their lover's face from memory, suggesting that this is someone who they may miss.
Line by Line Meaning
It's the beginning of the end - or just the end of the beginning... now pending
Uncertainty about whether this is really the end of something or the start of something new
Restless, hear my words are bouncing back, it seems they found no home
Feeling restless because communication efforts are failing
I'm still here after all of this
Surviving despite circumstances
Walk away with dignity and we'll remember what it used to be
Leaving a situation with respect and positive memories
Play that song just one more time
Asking to relive a moment through music
We'll bring back memories of kingdoms in the sun
The music will conjure images of a joyful past
I'll paint from memory your face, my love
Recreating a mental image of a lost love
Is this the time of grand illusion, war and endless fights?
Questioning whether this is a era of deception and conflict
I watch them all from here - you know it's killing me
Observing strife and suffering from a distance and it's painful
Now there is a new pope every year and borders don't hold true
The world is changing rapidly with religious and political shifts
Take me back in time – what's a honest man to do?
Wishing for a simpler time and struggling with conflicting values
Time and place for everyone under the sun
Believing that everyone has their own destiny and opportunities
Now no more words from this old pen and no more speech to follow
Expressing the end of a productive era
Said and done, now fast approach the 1900
Acknowledging a particular era's progression
One last round, a toast to us, I won't look back
Celebrating the past and ignoring regrets
Now change we must, move on...
Admitting the need for growth and evolution
Contributed by Natalie I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.