[Red Badger]

"Reuben James"

Songwriters: Barry Etris, Alex Harvey

Reuben James In my song you'll live again

And the phrases that I rhyme

Are just the footsteps out of time

From the time when I knew you

Reuben James

Reuben James, all the folks around Madison County Cussed your name

Just a no-account, sharecropping colored man

Who'd steal anything he can

And everybody laid the blame on Reuben James

Chorus:

Reuben James, for you still walk the furrowed fields of my mind

Faded shirt, your weathered brow

Your calloused hands upon the plow

I loved you then and I love you now, Reuben James

Flora Grey, the gossip of Madison County died with child

And although your skin was black

You were the one that didn't turn your back

On the hungry white child with no name Reuben James

Reuben James, with your mind on my soul

And a Bible in your right hand

You said turn the other cheek

For there's a better world awaiting for the meek

In my mind these words remain from Reuben James

Reuben James one dark cloudy day they brought you from the field

Until your lonely pinebox came

Or Unto your lonely pinebox came

Just a preacher and me in the rain

Just to sing one last refrain for Reuben James

[gundog]

Another 45 I used to listen to.

[Little Ray]

I thought it was
“What were their names?
What were their names?
Did you have a friend
on the good Reuben James?”

[Bringbackthedraft]

Reuben James ............. I always thought that was a Destroyer (Escort??) that was sunk/damaged in the Atlantic escorting a Convoy to England. Before we entered WW II.

[libertylover]

Good article except for this corrected mistake: he and his family lived alongside Black black people

[Wuli]

Thanks. It’s a piece of music history I am now happy to know.