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Bed of Rose's
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Wikipedia article
"'Bed of Rose's'" is a song written by Harold Reid, and recorded by American country music group The Statler Brothers. It was released in October 1970 as the first single and title track from the album 'Bed of Rose's'. The song reached its popularity peak in the winter of 1971, eventually reaching the Top 10 of the 'Billboard' Hot Country Singles chart, peaking at number nine. It also reached #58 on the 'Billboard' Hot 100 and #51 on the Australian Singles Chart ('Go-Set'). A cover version by Irish singer/songwriter Daniel O'Donnell was also recorded for his 1990 album 'Daniel O'Donnell - Favourites'. Tanya Tucker also recorded a slightly modified version of it, included on her 1974 Columbia album, 'Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone),' and again for 'The Best Of Tanya Tucker,' released in 1982 under MCA records.
Content
A young orphaned man in a small town (possibly modeled after the Statlers' hometown of Staunton, Virginia) has for some reason become shunned by the "polite" members of society, and is forced to beg in the streets. His life improves when a streetwalker named Rose, nearly twice his age, takes him in; he becomes her lover. The song juxtaposes the hypocrisy of the nominally Christian townspeople who would "...go to church but left me in the street" and their envy of Rose who "managed a late evening business / like most of the town wished they could do", with the care and tender love that evolves between the two outcasts. In the female version, the young man is replaced by a younger girl, in the same situation, who, the song insinuates, Rose teaches her business to. The song is both a challenge of narrowminded religion and moralism, and a gentle celebration of love. The title of "Bed of Rose's" is, like some of the other Statler Brothers' works, a play on words - in this case on the common English idiom "bed of roses", which means an easy and pleasant life.
Chart performance
References
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