She was called a scarlet woman by the people Who would go to church but left me in the street With no parents of my own,I never had a home And an eighteen year old boy has got to eat
She found me outside one Sunday morning Taking 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 roses that I lay on Where I was taught to be a man This bed of roses where I'm living Is the only kind of love I understand
She was a handsome woman just thirty-four Who was spoken to in town by very few She managed a late evening business Like most of the town wished they could do
And I learned all the things that a man should know From a woman not approved of I suppose But she died knowing that I really loved her Off life's bramble bush,I picked a rose