B-side "Last Goodbye" Genre Country Label Mercury 73141 | Released October 1970 Length 2:28 Writer(s) Harold Reid | |
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"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.
Contents
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 and leave 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. The song is both a challenge of narrowminded religion and moralism, and a gentle celebration of love, in some ways not unlike the theme of Luke 7:36-50. 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.
In popular culture
The song is featured on the soundtrack of the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and is on the K-Rose radio station in the game.