Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town

Common card · No. 304375

"Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" is a song written by Mel Tillis about a paralyzed veteran who lies helplessly as his wife "paints up" to go out for the evening without him; he believes that she is going in search of a lover. As he hears the door slam behind her, he claims that he would murder her if he could move to get his gun, and pleads for her to reconsider. The line in the song about a "crazy Asian war" and the time of the song's release led to the interpretation that the song was about a veteran of the Vietnam War, although Tillis has said that he wrote the song about a veteran of World War II. "Ruby" was first recorded by Waylon Jennings in 1966. Johnny Darrell reached number nine on the country charts with the song in 1967, and Kenny Rogers and the First Edition released it in 1969. Tillis's own version appeared on his 1967 album "Life's That Way" (re-released as "Life Turned Her That Way").

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