This is the last song that Spider and Michael wrote for their band Red Wedding in 1985.
Although the band never performed it live, and broke up shortly thereafter, they did record it with their band Glass in 1986. When Michael wrote the lyrics to this song, he had no idea how profound those lyrics would become for him over the years.
It is about loss.
Spider and Michael filmed this version three weeks before Spider died from liver cancer in May of 2015. They tried to film it several times, but Michael kept crying and messing it up. Finally Michael was able to get through the song on their fourth try, but just barely.
All Michael could think about was how he was losing Spider and how they would never write songs together again.
For Michael, really and truly all the roses ARE now gone.
