She was called a scarlet woman by the people

Who would go to church but left me in the streets

With no parents of my own I never had a home

But an eighteen year old boy has got to eat

She found me outside one Sunday morning

Begging money from a man I didn't know

She took me in and wiped away my childhood

A woman of the streets this lady Rose

[Chorus]

This bed of Rose's that I lay on

Where I was taught to be a man

This bed of Rose's where I'm livin'

Is the only kind of life I'll understand

She was a handsome woman just thirty-five

Who was spoken to in town by very few

She managed a late evening business

Like most of the town wished they could do

I learned all the things that a man should know

From a woman not approved of I suppose

But she died knowing someone really loved her

Of life's bramble bush I picked a rose

This bed of Rose's that I lay on

Where I was taught to be a man

This bed of Rose's where I'm livin'

Is the only kind of life I'll understand

This bed of Rose's that I lay on

Where I was taught to be a man

This bed of Rose's where I'm livin'

Is the only kind of life I'll understand