From the recording Between the Wars
Lyrics
Yellow Rose Hotel
m.litton
I love Texas when it’s hot, Lord, and dusty
And that gusty ol’ wind comes blowin’ out of hell
I follow my memory on a high lonesome journey
To a long ago evening at the Yellow Rose Hotel
She wore a dress colored yellow
In the pale moonlight she glowed
As the wind played a reel through the pastures and hills
I held her close…down at the ol’ Yellow Rose
(chorus): Where she lay in the shadows awaiting
Like a dream that fades at dawn
Then we made love as the neon flower glowed
And that neon flower was the bright yellow rose
And it’s bloomed in my dreams ever since that night
I love Texas but a young man must wander
Though his love he may plunder on a dream he cannot find
I left her in Amarillo, took a harvest flotilla
North through the Dakotas across the Canadian line
Ah but love left alone will only wither
Like the clover will die in the cold
When my letters returned unopened I yearned for her so
Down at the ol’ Yellow Rose
(chorus)
I love Texas when the blizzards drift the ditches
And the thistles and fences glisten in the sun
I’ve seen tomorrow laying like a woman’s sorrow
She’s waiting in the shadows, fading as I come
I gambled and lost her down a highway
Passed my last chance so long ago
I was fuel for the fire
Now I’m the ash where that one ember glows
Down at the ol’ Yellow Rose
Where she lay in the shadows awaiting…