Quote:
Originally Posted by phenomshel
LOL like most folk music, I think there's about 20 different sets of lyrics to Yellow Rose....SNIP...
After doing some research, I think "my" set of lyrics is later in origin than Stitchawl's.
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This song, done by the Mitch Miller group, actually pushed Bill Haley's 'Rock Around the Clock' out of the #1 position on the charts in 1955 when it came out. Of course, that was another 'different version' than either of ours!
Here is the version considered to be the 'original,' a hand-written manuscript from 1832 now in the University of Texas archives.
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There's a yellow rose in Texas, that I am going to see,
No other darky [sic] knows her, no darky only me
She cryed [sic] so when I left her it like to broke my heart,
And if I ever find her, we nevermore will part.
She's the sweetest rose of color this darky ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds,they sparkle like the dew;
You may talk about your Dearest May, and sing of Rosa Lee,
But the Yellow Rose of Texas beats the belles of Tennessee.
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The song is based on a Texas legend from the days of the Texas War of Independence. According to the legend, a woman named Emily D. West — a mulatto, and hence, the song's reference to her being "yellow" — who was seized by Mexican forces during the looting of Galveston seduced General Antonio López de Santa Anna, President of Mexico and commander of the Mexican forces. The legend credits her supposed seduction with lowering the guard of the Mexican army and facilitating the Texan victory in the Battle of San Jacinto waged in 1836 near present-day Houston. Santa Anna's opponent was General Sam Houston, who won the battle literally in minutes, and with almost no casualties.
................. All this according to Wikipedia.................
I luvs music!
Stitchawl