Ruby Don´t Take Your Love To Town Kenny Rogers Cover w/ Electric Guitar

(c)1966 Words & Music by Mel Tillis. Gitter tuned up half step, key of B.
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You´ve painted up your lips an´ rolled an´ curled your tinted hair
Oh Ruby, are you contemplating goin´ out somewhere?
The shadow on the wall tells me the sun is goin´ down
Oh Ruby.. don´t take your love to town.

Well, it wasn´t me that started that old crazy asian war
But I was proud to go and do my patriotic chore
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´m not around
Oh, Ruby.. don´t take your love to town.

She´s leavin´ now ´cause I just heard the slammin´ of the door
The way I know I´ve heard it slam one hundred times before
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.
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check this version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yAWhQt2KEg&feature=g-u
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tillis based the song on a couple who lived near his family in Florida. In real life, the man was wounded in Germany in World War 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 in the song to the Korean War, and left out the life ending: the man killed her in a murder-suicide. In the song, the man says he would killer if he could move to get his gun.
This was originally recorded by Johnny Darrell, whose version was a Country hit in 1967. Rogers had the biggest hit with the song, but it was also recorded by Waylon Jennings and Roger Miller.
A lot of controversy surrounded this song when it became a hit for Kenny Rogers in 1969, as the Vietnam War was raging and the song was often assumed to be about a man who came home crippled from that war. Rogers would perform the song in a jovial manner, and the crowd would often clap and sing along, so to some it was seen as disrespectful to veterans. In a 1970 interview with Beat Instrumental, Rogers defended the song, saying: "Look, we don't see ourselves as politicians, even if a lot of pop groups think they are in the running for a Presidential nomination. We are there, primarily, to entertain. Now if we can entertain by providing thought-provoking songs, then that's all to the good. But the guys who said 'Ruby' was about Vietnam were way off target -- it was about Korea. But whatever the message, and however you interpret it, fact is that we wouldn't have looked at it if it hadn't been a GOOD song. Just wanna make good records, that's all."
Leonard Nimoy did an awesomely bizarre version of this song too.
[http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2113]

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[Gingerjake2]

OMG! You're just full of surprises! I love this. I listened & then hit replay right away...gonna share this one with friends. =)

Thanks so much for always posting such great songs... ♪

[Sunambra]

Great version