Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town
Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town is a country song by Mel Tillis that tells the story of a war veteran's fate. The piece became a worldwide hit in 1969 thanks to Kenny Rogers .
song lyrics
The text is about a war veteran of an "idiotic war in Asia". When the song was first released by Johnny Darrell in 1967, it was believed to be related to the Vietnam War . But Tillis had actually taken the story of a veteran from World War II as a model. The veteran murdered his unfaithful wife and himself in an Extended Suicide . Tillis postponed the plot to the Korean War . In the song, the paralyzed veteran lies in bed while his wife puts on makeup to go out. He suspects that she wants to find a lover and tries to change her mind.
Interpretations
The song was released in several versions of different musical genres . The first version by Johnny Darrell from 1967 reached number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1969, Kenny Rogers and his band First Edition recorded the song in a single session. The single was a big hit and reached the UK number 1 in the charts of the New Musical Express and the second in which the BBC . It was sold there over a million times. In the US, it was number 6 on the Billboard charts. and has also been sold over a million times. The single sold more than seven million times worldwide.
In early 1976, Rogers split from his band. In 1977 he recorded the piece as a solo artist, including for his greatest hits album Ten Years Of Gold , which was later marketed in Great Britain and Ireland as The Kenny Rogers Singles Album .
More cover versions
The song was recorded by a number of other artists. Also in 1967 The Statler Brothers played the first cover ; it appeared on their album Big Country Hits . Other versions are available from Bobby Bare , Dale Hawkins , Waylon Jennings , Roger Miller and Cake, among others . Gary Holton and Casino Steels version was a number one hit in Norway in 1982. The Killers recorded a version for their album Sawdust in 2007 .
The piece has also been translated into other languages. Nana Mouskouri recorded a French version entitled Ruby, garde ton cœur ici ("Ruby, leave your heart here") for her 1970 album Dans le soleil et dans le vent . Eddy Mitchell released another French version in 1974 under the title Ruby tu reviens au pays on his album Rocking in Nashville . Also in 1970 Gerhard Wendland played a German version called Ruby, take a look over the fence . The Czech country singer Pavel Bobek released a version in 1981 entitled Oh Ruby, nechtej mi lásku brát (“Oh, Ruby, don't take my love from me”). Another cover version appeared in 1995 on compilation 55578 by the synth-pop duo Wolfsheim .
Response songs
There are at least two answers: one from the perspective of the wife, the other from the perspective of a son.
A response song entitled Billy, I've Got to Go to Town was published in 1969 by Geraldine Stevens, who had previously performed successfully under the name Dodie Stevens . It uses Ruby's melody and is arranged similarly to the Rogers version. In her song, she assures the protagonist of her love and asks him to trust her. Billy reached number 117 in the American charts.
In 1972 Bobby Womack released the album Understanding with the song Ruby Deen . The text is told from the point of view of the son, who asks his mother to respect his father and remain loyal to him.
Video
A music video , showing just a camera moving back and forth in a bedroom, was shown at the conclusion of a Huntley-Brinkley report in 1969. Chet Huntley , who co- hosted the show with David Brinkley , produced it, linking the fates of Vietnam War veterans to the song.
literature
- Rule, Ann (1999), "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town". A Rage to Kill and Other True Cases . Simon and Schuster, p. 291. ISBN 0-7434-2404-2
supporting documents
- ^ Joel Whitburn: Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2008 . Record Research, Inc, 2008, ISBN 0-89820-177-2 , p. 115.
- ^ Whitburn, p. 360
- ↑ Wolfsheim - 55578. discogs.com, accessed on October 14, 2019 .
- ↑ http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/saas/felman.pdf
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
