SLS: Ruby

You’ve painted up your lips
Rolled and curled your tinted hair
Ruby, are you contemplating
Going out somewhere?
The shadow on the wall
Tells me the sun is going down
Oh, Ruby
Don’t take your love to town

Jim Adams continues his Song Lyric Sunday series by asking for songs about scars, illness, or injury. The song I chose doesn’t specifically mention any of those words, but I think you’ll agree it fits the theme. It’s about a paralyzed man who got hurt in a war and is watching as his wife gets all dolled up for a night on the town while leaving him home by himself. He is angry, believing she’s looking for a lover, and he says he still needs some company, even if he isn’t the man he used to be. We feel sorry for him, but we don’t know the whole story, only his point of view. Maybe he was a jerk to his wife before he went to war, who knows? I present “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town,” written by Mel Tillis and first recorded by Waylon Jennings in 1966.

It’s hard to love a man
Whose legs are bent and paralyzed
And the wants and the needs of a woman your age
Ruby, I realize
But it won’t be long
I’ve heard them say until I’m not around
Oh, Ruby
Don’t take your love to town

Various artists have covered the song, including Kenny Rogers and the First Edition in 1969. His version became an international hit, reaching No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 6 in the US on Billboard Hot 100. Rogers re-recorded Ruby when he went solo and the song appears on his 1977 greatest hits album, Ten Years of Gold. People often believe that the song references the Vietnam War, but Tillis said he had a WWII veteran in mind when he wrote it. Ruby has been a hit in other languages as well. It illustrates the universal theme most people can relate to: you’re frozen helplessly as the person you love ignores you and walks away to be with someone else.

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