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