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Roses Red Roses

from Cowboy and the Stranger by Terry Allen

supported by
Rachel
Rachel thumbnail
Gary Grainger
Gary Grainger thumbnail
/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $2 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • CS-PoB-054
    Cassette + Digital Album

    + Transparent red cassette with deluxe six-panel, full-color J-card featuring Allen's artwork from the exhibition and track-by-track liner notes.
    + Limited to 500 copies.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Cowboy and the Stranger via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • Terry Allen T-shirt: "Just Like Moby Dick"
    T-Shirt/Apparel

    Just Like Moby Dick.

    Our second Terry Allen t-shirt, the cetacean sequel to "Today's Rainbow Is Tomorrow's Tamale," features—for the first time ever, as far as anyone remembers—an original drawing by Terry himself, of a sperm whale triumvirate, scarred and freshly harpooned "Just Like Moby Dick," to commemorate the masterly 2020 Panhandle Mystery Band album of the same title.

    Screenprinted by hand, in two oceanic blues, by our eco-friendly focused friends at Print Natural in Philadelphia, these 100% cotton, pre-shrunk, fine jersey short-sleeved t-shirts (BELLA+CANVAS) are available in Vintage White—slightly off-white, the true Mellvillian Whiteness of the Whale hue—sizes XS through XL, in a very limited edition.

    Wear while listening to the Panhandle Mystery Band, partying in any port of call with Queequeg and Tashtego, and keep sailin' on through.

    www.paradiseofbachelors.com/terry-allen
    www.paradiseofbachelors.com/pob-055
    terryallen.bandcamp.com/album/just-like-moby-dick     ... more

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  • Terry Allen T-shirt: "Today's Rainbow is Tomorrow's Tamale."
    T-Shirt/Apparel

    N.B. THESE SHIRTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE ONLY VIA OUR WEBSITE: paradiseofbachelors.com/shop/pobmerch-004/

    We print these shirts in small, limited batches, so reserve yours today.

    Today's rainbow is tomorrow's tamale.

    Is there any more potent and perfect koan? Not for our money here at PoB. In celebration of our deluxe, definitive reissues of Terry Allen's "Juarez" (1975, PoB-26) and "Lubbock (on everything)" (1979, PoB-27), we are proud to present the Terry Allen Tamale T-shirt—as far as we know, the first such item to exist in the wold, and long overdue—featuring the immortal line from Juarez and the cover of that abiding masterpiece of music and visual art on the front, with the PoB logo tastefully deployed on the back.

    Available in White or Slate, sizes XS through XL, these 100% cotton, fine jersey short-sleeved t-shirts (Los Angeles Apparel or BELLA+CANVAS) are screenprinted by hand by the eco-friendly Philadelphia outfit Print Natural, in a limited edition. Perceptive fashionistas will recognize this as the second installment in our grand tradition of apparel featuring hirsute smoking men.

    www.paradiseofbachelors.com/terry-allen
    terryallen.bandcamp.com     ... more

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  • Full Digital Discography

    8
    releases

    Get all 8 Terry Allen releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Cowboy and the Stranger, Gonna California, Bloodlines, Smokin the Dummy, Just Like Moby Dick, Pedal Steal + Four Corners, Lubbock (on everything), and Juarez. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $57.60 USD or more (20% OFF)

     

lyrics

CHORUS

Red Roses…Red Roses
Girl of Mystery
Her hair hangs down yellow
But her skin is Shawnee

She lives in Caliche pits
Outside of town
And fires her long rifle
At the sun going down

1
Her story is tragic
A sad one…but true
How just as a small child
She was captured by the Sioux
Then they made her a slave queen
To the Oglala Chief
Who forced her to do things
Beyond all belief
But the Cavalry came, charged
And killed as they went
Shooting and looting
And burning the tents
And Roses Red Roses
The slave of a brave
Was released from her torture
But never quite saved
Because after the battle
They took her to the fort
Where they bathed her and pinched her
And had her for sport
Then the chicken bird Colonel
Took her home with him
And all that had happened
Happened all over again

CHORUS

2
Yes the Colonel was a savage
Worse than the Sioux
And he drove her half-crazy
With the things that he’d do
So one night while sleeping
With her in his bed
She pulled his iron pistol
And bashed in his head
She ran through the valleys
Over mountains, across plains
She hid in dark caves
During the snows and the rains
And the dogs came Howlin
Sniffing for her scent
But they never could smell
Where the Red Roses went

INSTRUMENTAL

3
So she went down to Dallas
To beg for some food
But the cowgirls got ugly
Were hostile and rude
Lucky…she met Feathers
The Red Queen of Sin
Who clothed her and fed her
and took her right in
To the big house called Hot Horn
Behind a saloon
Where her face was all painted
To match her new room
And Feathers…her first friend
Introduced her to men
And what always had happened
Had happened again
But she rolled and she tumbled
Drank rosey red wine
And what once was her torture
Now seemed to be fine
She made lots of money
And spent it on thrills
Taking red wine to whiskey
and from whiskey to pills

CHORUS

4
Then from somewhere in Texas
In rode a strange man
All dressed in black leather
With a grace in his hands
His guns were blue silver
His pale lip was curled
And he stopped at the Hot Horn
For the wild Indian girl
Red Roses was now famous
A legend in the West
And men who knew the good ones
Knew her as the best
So the stranger was smiling
When he took her warm hand
Introducing himself
As the Sun Shining man
And he wined her, he dined her
He played with her knee
And charmed her with card tricks
Into submitting for free
And she did it…she did it
Because he was the one
The first one to make her
Burn as hot as the sun

CHORUS

5
So the three years that followed
Were a wonderful bliss
And Red Roses stopped sharing
Her wild Indian kiss
And her Sunshine became marshal
The best man in town
And news of their marriage
Spread for miles all around
But Feathers her best friend
Was wicked at heart
She’d temped Sunshine
Right from the start
And on the day of the wedding
The two were found dead
Locked bloody together
In Feathers brass bed
And Roses Red Roses
Was not to be found
Only her tear drops
Left stains on the ground
Where…in sorrow and hatred
She’d blown them apart
Disappearing forever
With a thorn in her heart

CHORUS

6
So…many years passed
And nothing was heard
Of Red Roses that flower
Not even a word
She’d vanished for always
Or so it did seem
Like all that had happened
Was just a sad dream
Then…from out of the desert
A wagon came to town
And the driver…a monster!
Spilled out on the ground
Shuffling and snorting
Toothless and yellow it spit
But crawled back in the wagon
And drove it to the pits
And it lived there a wreckage
All wasted and near rot
Screaming out at the sun shine
A shooting a shot
Like the red sun was the reason
For all darkness on the ground
And had to be shot dead
Before it went down

INSTRUMENTAL

Then one day was silent
Most unlike the rest
And the sunshine rolled freely
Into the West
And the monster had vanished
All but its clothes
Where found wilted inside
Was a dying red rose

CHORUS

credits

from Cowboy and the Stranger, released March 15, 2024

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Terry Allen Santa Fe, New Mexico

Legendary Texan artist Terry Allen occupies a unique position straddling the frontiers of country music and conceptual art; he has worked with everyone from Guy Clark to David Byrne to Lucinda Williams to Bruce Nauman, and his artwork resides in museums worldwide.
paradiseofbachelors.com/terry-allen ... more

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