Where the Wild Roses Grow

by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

From the album: B-Sides & Rarities

Track 31 of 56 on B-Sides & Rarities (2005).

Duration: 3:46

B-Sides & Rarities cover art

Lyrics for Where the Wild Roses Grow

They call me the Wild Rose But my name was Elisa Day Why they call me that I do not know For my name was Elisa Day From the first day I saw her I knew she was the one She stared at my eyes and smiled For her lips were the colour of the roses That grew down the river All bloody and wild When he knocked on my door and entered the room My trembling subsided in his sure embrace He would be my first man, and with a careful hand He wiped at the tears that ran down my face They call me the Wild Rose But my name was Elisa Day Why they call me that I do not know For my name was Elisa Day On the second day I brought her a flower She was more beautiful than any woman I've seen I said, "Do you know where the wild roses grow So sweet and scarlet and free?" On the second day he came with a single red rose He said: "Give me your loss and your sorrow!" I nodded my head As I lay on the bed "If I show you the roses will you follow?" They call me the Wild Rose But my name was Elisa Day Why they call me that I do not know For my name was Elisa Day On the third day he took me to the river He showed me the roses, and we kissed And the last thing I heard was a muttered word As he knelt above me with a rock in his fist On the last day I took her where the wild roses grow She lay on the bank, the wind light as a thief As I kissed her goodbye, said "All beauty must die" And lent down and planted a rose between her teeth They call me the Wild Rose But my name was Elisa Day Why they call me that I do not know For my name was Elisa Day

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More from B-Sides & Rarities

  1. Deanna
  2. The Mercy Seat
  3. City of Refuge
  4. The Moon Is in the Gutter
  5. The Six Strings That Drew Blood
  6. Rye Whiskey
  7. Running Scared
  8. Black Betty
  9. Scum
  10. The Girl at the Bottom of My Glass
  11. The Train Song
  12. Cocks ’n’ Asses
  13. Blue Bird
  14. Helpless
  15. God’s Hotel
  16. (I’ll Love You) Till the End of the World
  17. Cassiel’s Song
  18. Tower of Song
  19. What Can I Give You?
  20. What a Wonderful World
  21. Rainy Night in Soho
  22. Lucy (version #2)
  23. Jack the Ripper
  24. Sail Away
  25. There’s No Night Out in the Jail
  26. That’s What Jazz Is to Me
  27. The Willow Garden
  28. The Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrane
  29. King Kong Kitchee Kitchee Ki-Mi-O
  30. Knoxville Girl
  31. Where the Wild Roses Grow
  32. O’Malley’s Bar, Part 1
  33. O’Malley’s Bar, Part 2
  34. O’Malley’s Bar, Part 3
  35. Time Jesum Transeuntum et Non Riverentum
  36. O’Malley’s Bar (reprise)
  37. Red Right Hand
  38. Little Empty Boat
  39. Right Now I’m A‐Roaming
  40. Come Into My Sleep
  41. Black Hair (band version)
  42. Babe, I Got You Bad
  43. Sheep May Safely Graze
  44. Opium Tea
  45. Grief Came Riding
  46. Bless His Ever Loving Heart
  47. Good Good Day
  48. Little Janey’s Gone
  49. I Feel So Good
  50. Shoot Me Down
  51. Swing Low
  52. Little Ghost Song
  53. Everything Must Converge
  54. Nocturama
  55. She’s Leaving You
  56. Under This Moon