Posted on 03/23/2020 5:25:02 PM PDT by Twotone
Mark is feeling a little under the weather today, so in lieu of a brand new Song of the Week we thought we'd re-publish his thoughts on a boffo global hit of the Sixties. This essay first appeared a little over two years ago to mark the passing of Mel Tillis. We reprise it now to mark the passing of Kenny Rogers. This story starts with Mel and ends with Kenny, the man who gave Mel's song its most perfect expression:
The Vietnam War cast, as they say, long shadows. It left, as they also say, deep scars in the American psyche. And among those shadows and scars is the fact that every so often I find that, unbidden, a line of lyric pops up into my head - such as:
And the wants and the needs of a woman your age, Ruby, I realize...
Also:
And if I could move I'd get my gun and put her in the ground...
The Sixties gave us the occasional pro-Vietnam hit ("Ballad of the Green Berets") and anti-Vietnam hit ("I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag"), but "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" has endured beyond either, and has a character all its own:
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
The Giants of country are leaving: Roger Miller, Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers. We were blessed to listen to songs with stories instead of random noise.
There have been a lot of “Lucille” songs.
I had an Aunt named Lucille that I could tell my Mother never liked. She was pretty and two of her 3 daughters were gorgeous.
There was really nothing wrong with her except she wasn’t very generous. Still when a Lucille song came on we would all laugh.
The Dixie Chicks et al. can't hold a candle to these great artists.
RIP Kenny. Thanks for the music.
Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes?
I guess the only good Lucille was the semi-hollow Gibson that BB King played...
Nobody. Near as I can tell, current country artists only wanna do songs about pickup trucks and getting laid...
That there is some hurtin’ that won’t heal.
The dude abides.
There have been a lot of good country singers but none to compare with Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, Jimmy Rogers or Johnny Cash.
If they had live longer, Johnny Horton and Jim Reeves would have been up there too.
just dropped in (to see what condition my condition was in)
...
Glen Campbell played guitar on the studio version.
Listening to that song I’d never guess that Rogers and Campbell were the main performers.
Thanks for posting this, I LOVE this song!
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