By The Landlord
“My parents told me I'd point to a bed of flowers and say 'Pink. Pretty,' before I knew any other words.” – Joni Mitchell
“Though there were no strong conventions, until the nineteenth century pink was certainly a very suitable color for boys.” – Grayson Perry, The Descent of Man
“Even if a person tries to be angry or aggressive in the presence of pink, he can't. The heart muscles can’t race fast enough. It’s a tranquilizing color that saps your energy. Even the color-blind are tranquilized by pink rooms.” – Alexander Schauss, American Institute for Biosocial Research
“In the German concentration camps, Jews wore yellow stars while homosexuals wore pink lambdas.” – Gore Vidal
Mercutio: "I am the very pink of courtesy.
Romeo: Pink for flower?
Mercutio: Right.
Romeo: Then my pump is well flowered.” – Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
"The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl." – Earnshaw's Infants' Department trade magazine, US, June 1918
Every colour comes, and goes, with a code.
How does that wear through culture, à la mode?
Not red, nor purple, so what is pink definably
besides its RBG, or online #FFC0CB?
The Baker-Miller code is one to make us think.
The calmest of the hues – the drunk-tank pink.
Soothing, warm, tranquil, soft, and inviting,
made to mollify, to stop in-prison fighting.
A prison with anti-fight decoration in calming Baker-Miller pink R:255, G:145, B:175
Can any colour really come with meaning,
bar cod-psychology – slippery, salmon-fishy feeling?
Pink is often tender, but is that like raw meat?
Pink can mean polite, but is that like cold feet?
Is pink strictly ‘sweet, sensitive and feminine’?
Not blood-red masculine, pumped with adrenalin?
Not so in the 1920s was that strictly true –
Tell those younger boys, dressed in not-so-blue
when fashion trends pulled towards the opposite.
Did they wear pink with pride, or feel a proper tit?
Victorian gents dressed up in full bright Empire red.
So boys in pink, as ‘little men’, is what was strongly bred.
Pink’s dawn began of course with time and tide itself,
but not the word itself – left on a scribbled coastal shelf.
Homer’s Odyssey described the sky that lingered
as the ‘child of morning’, and ‘softly lily-fingered’.
Pink was just for skin in older painted art
until the 18th-century, then pink went sharp and smart.
With yellow, black and blue, the French cried out ‘phwoarr!’
at Louis’ XIV puff-pink mistress Mme Pompadour.
Grand, sexy, sugared, and opulently vibrant,
Pink parades came with horse, big gun and elephant.
Pink was used to show-off empires near and far,
Victoria’s Prince Arthur, and dancers of Degas.
Degas’ Dancers In Pink
So then, male or female? All felt in the pink.
But the 20th century sucked things down one sink.
Pink was defined as only strictly feminine.
Pink for men confusing, a shame, and a sin.
Pink was for the wives of the suited politicians.
Pink was for their lipstick and subservient positions,
Funny Face starlets like Hepburn or Monroe,
Or shock-pink Schiaparelli, designed with Cocteau.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (ie Marilyn Monroe in pink)
Pinko became a dirty word, excuse for knife and fist,
A word for those diluted, but reddish communist.
Many were arrested in the paranoid States
as 'left-wing pinko pseudos’, pressed to confess.
And Nazis pinned pink triangles on camped homosexuals,
A blood-stained angle that aimed to be perpetual.
That’s why pink’s colour’s taken firmly up on view,
reclaimed loud and proudly by Pride and LGBTQ.
So pink’s everywhere, pink’s for me and you,
sea or skies, land or tree, Major Mitchell's Cockatoo.
Let’s seek the pink in songs, as long as it’s prominent,
in word or description, pink has to be dominant.
Pink’s in nature, pink’s in the ground,
Pink’s in flamingos, pink is profound,
Frogfish, cichlid, betta or salmon
Shrimp to pig to angry gammon.
Pink betta fish
As well the skin, other parts corporeal,
Pink’s also known for other growths more floral:
‘Common pink’ flowers? Dianthus plumarius,
To hyacinth, or many clematis various,
Hibiscus, peony, phlox or dahlia,
Mexico to India, US to Australia,
‘Rosa' in Europe, bushes of magnolia,
Cherry blossom joy in Japanese sakura!
Rose quartz gems to sapphires so bright,
corundum to rhodochrosite.
Pink sunrises, or sunsets in full,
Champagne? Barbie? Or Pepto Bismol.
Rockin! rhodochrosite
Giro d’Italia? Pink jersey leader wins.
Palermo FC home strip? Pink right down to shins.
Qatar World Cup? Pink’s the main brand on it.
For all the homophobia, that’s certainly ironic.
So I hope this intro has tonic pink for you.
It’s time to air all songs of full-blown pink-ish hue.
Like salmon, let those ideas swim. It’s time to have think.
Who will take the lead, and who is in the pink?
Qatar 2022. What a lovely gay colour scheme …
So then, someone please place your pink-related songs in comments below for deadline on Monday 11pm, and someone will pick out the prime candidates for playlists published next week.
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