Yankee Rose
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Yankee Rose" is a popular rock song recorded by David Lee Roth, and was his first single on his 1986 first full-length album Eat'em and Smile. It was recorded as a tribute to the Statue Of Liberty in New York, as the statue was being renovated at the time.
The song was Roth's third Top-40 hit, the first two being covers of "California Girls" and "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody." It also appears as a radio tune on the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the rock station V-Rock. A cover of the song is the title song for the video game Rumble Roses and Rumble Roses XX
"Yankee Rose" is also the title of a 1920s song by Sidney Holden and Abe Frankl, and published in 1926 by Irving Berlin, Inc.
[edit] Origins of name
"Yankee Rose" also appears as the very last words in The Satanic Bible written by Anton LaVey and published in 1969 by Avon Books. On the last page of the book, about three inches below the final text, the isolated words "YANKEE ROSE" appear in all capital letters, and in slightly inkier typing. Readers have pondered the phrase’s meaning ever since, especially since LaVey never explained it, even to his death in 1997.
There have been many strange rumors over the years regarding the meaning of the words "YANKEE ROSE" in this context, including claims that they form an anagram, some other type of cryptogram, the name of a haunted ship, or even the brand name of the organ LaVey played in the circus (a period of his life where he made so many of the observations that eventually went into The Satanic Bible).
However, LaVey did record the Holden/Frankl song of the same title as part of a medley on his "Satan Takes a Holiday" album, initially released by Amarillo Records and since re-released by Reptilian Records on their Adversary label. Some say this jaunty tune was one LaVey used to end his sets in his early days of playing organ for bars and nightclubs.
LaVey once wrote about using old pop music in Satanic rituals: "I have my personal favorites which are readily identifiable with meaningful situations. Perhaps one day I will share them with you, and it will be seen that many Satanists favor the same tunes!" [citation needed]. He also talks about such music in several other writings and interviews.
It's therefore widely believed that the phrase is a reference to the song, though it's still not entirely known why LaVey decided to include the phrase in the book.
David Lee Roth's song came out around the time of the "Satanic Panic" hysteria of the 1980s, a time when many rock bands were falsely accused of practicing or promoting devil worship, or including subliminal messages on their albums. And the fact that the phrase "Yankee Rose" shows up in The Satanic Bible didn't help Roth in this regard. However, again, the use of the same words here is purely coincidental.
