Ruby: Good Song or Bad Song?
This is just the kind of sordid country music narrative from the 70s that I find so fascinating: Kenny Rogers and the First Edition’s hit Ruby. We had this record when I was little.
Like other songs of that decade, it tells the sad tale of a soldier who fought in Vietnam, and what that does to his life and his marriage. The lyric is very evocative, and I enjoy the emphatic pauses, but the melody? Meh.
What say you: good song or bad song?
I think this is a good song because it is reality, life. Also it is a catchy tune.
Kenny Rogers had a knack for capturing the blinkered and warped reality of a certain type of midwestern hick. If that is your reality, then Kenny Rogers’ music will interest you. If that isn’t your reality (maybe you are not American, or maybe you actually like people) – he is irrelevant.