Allison Moorer - Ruby Jewel Was Here

(Allison Moorer/Doyle Primm)





In nineteen and double-aught


A harlot who was hot to trot


Gave a fine little bijou to the world


With a blacksmith for a makeshift doc


In a cathouse far from Camelot


Her gold mine brought to bed a baby girl


When the child screamed from life's first slap


The bawd said kid get used to that


You'll never meet a day that isn't cruel


Then she wrapped her babe in a petticoat


Grabbed a bottle and made a toast


Here's to my gorgeous bastard Ruby Jewel


And the man at the piano played a tune


And everybody sang and danced in the saloon


Except Ruby, no not Ruby, Ruby Jewel


Reared among the guttersnipe


While her mama puffed the Chinese pipe


The salad days for Ruby didn't last


Forced to work and pay her dues


Inside that poor man's Moulin Rouge


The snot-nosed kid had to grow up fast


Night and day she'd toil and sweat


While brothel patrons placed their bets


On who would be the first to break her in


Then one night the madam screams


Ruby get to room thirteen


There's someone there who thinks you're quite a gem


And the man at the piano played a tune


And everybody sang and danced in the saloon


Except Ruby no not Ruby Ruby Jewel


In done up hair and a borrowed dress


She climbed the stares scared to death


Said a prayer and tip-toed through the door


But on deaf ears her prayer fell


Cause through her tears she stared at hell


Standing there in nothing but his drawers


She recognized the whiskered chin


Bloodshot eyes and foul-mouthed grin


He was the man who wore the silver star


She tried to turn around and run


But he pulled out his big six gun


And said whore you won't get very far


And the man at the piano played a tune


And everybody sang and danced in the saloon


Except Ruby, no not Ruby, Ruby Jewel


Ruby Jewel woke up in bed


A crimson pool between her legs


Naked as the day that she was born


But lying there next to him


Made her wish she hadn't been


If this was all that living had in store


Making sure he was asleep


She quietly got to her feet


Found his gun and aimed it 'tween his eyes


She kept it there 'til he came to


So he could stare down the barrel too


Pulled the trigger once and watched him die


And the man at the piano played a tune


And everybody sang and danced in the saloon


Except Ruby no not Ruby Ruby Jewel


On a rainy night in nineteen-twelve


Locked inside the town's new jail


Ruby carved a message in the stone


When morning came hacks led her out


In ankle chains right through the crowd


Who waited in the mud to watch the show


They walked her up the gallows steps


But the rope around her neck


Dropped the trap as all the watchers cheered


But on the wall of her cell


In a tiny scrawl and misspelled


Were the words Ruby Jewel Was Here


And the man at the piano played a tune


And everybody sang and danced in the saloon


Except Ruby, no not Ruby, Ruby Jewel