“Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town”
“Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” is a song written by Mel Tillis, which was made world famous by Kenny Rogers (First Edition in 1969). The song is about a disabled, dying veteran of “that old crazy Asian war” (The Korean War), who begs his lover not to cheat on him. Tillis based the song on a couple that lived near his family in Florida. In real life, the man was wounded in Germany in WorldWar II and sent to recuperate in England. There he married a nurse who took care of him at the hospital. The two of them moved to Florida shortly afterward, but he had periodic return trips to the hospital as problems with his wounds kept flaring up. His wife saw another man as the veteran lay in the hospital. Tillis changed the war to the more recent Korean War in the song, and departed from the ending that happened in real life: the man killed his wife in murder-suicide. This is however alluded to in the song, with the singer avowing, “If I could move I’d get my gun and put her in the ground.”
“Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” Lyrics
You’ve painted up your lips
And 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
It wasn’t me that started that old crazy Asian war
But I was proud to go and do my patriotic chore
And yes, it’s true that I’m not the man I used to be
Oh, Ruby… I still need some company
It’s hard to love a man whose legs are bent and paralysed
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 not around
Oh Ruby, don’t take your love to town
She’s leaving now ’cause I just heard the slamming of the door
The way I know I’ve heard it slam some 1oo times before
And if I could move I’d get my gun and put her in the ground
Oh Ruby, don’t take your love to town
Oh Ruby.. For god’s sake turn around
