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i'd heard the song around but never paid much attention to it. most people, even in texas, tend to know the line "the yellow rose of texas" but none of the rest of the song. at the farmhouse there was a tissue box with the lyrics of the chorus printed on it. "she's the sweetest rose of color this soldier ever knew her eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew you can talk about your deartest may or sing of rosa lee but the yellow rose of texas beats the belles of tennessee" i started picking out on guitar based on vague memories of the melody. when i got home, i started looking around the internet for the rest of the words of the song. this led me to some history about i didn't know. i found out on wikipedia that the "yellow rose" was, in its original published version, a minstrel tune (white men in black face) and the word "soldier" was originally "dark(e)y". the yellow rose in the song is a woman named emily west morgan - a mulatto (high yellow) woman who played a part, in a way that is difficult to separate fact from fiction, in the texas revolution. according to the handbook of texas, the first version of the song might have been written sometime after 1836 by a slave of sam houston while he (sam) was the first president of the republic of texas. now i find the song interesting. |
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there's a gentlemen's club in north central Austin, not terribly far from my house, called The Yellow Rose. i have XXXL size t-shirt from that establishment that says on the front "Keep Austin Topless". |
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