Such sentiments aren’t often expressed so eloquently in rock music, let alone by a band and songwriter more known for bluesy abandon. In the end, the narrator can’t hold her back any more than he could hold back the wind, so he bids her a fond farewell: “Goodbye Ruby Tuesday/Who could hang a name on you/When you change with every new day/Still I’m gonna miss you.” Through the tears, he can see clearly now that he never could have kept her, but it hurts just the same. Indeed, if we are “dying all the time” and time is running out on all of us, maybe this girl’s way of living, spurning all attachments and moving from one paramour to the next, isn’t all that reckless after all. “She just can’t be chained/To a life where nothing’s gained/And nothing’s lost,” Jagger sings. The very first couplet lays out her worldview: “She will never say where she came from/Yesterday don’t matter if it’s gone.”Īs the song progresses, the case Ruby makes for her peripatetic behavior becomes more and more compelling. Richards manages to paint a portrait of his wayward muse in just a few short strokes. And he wisely left it in Jagger’s hands to deliver a moving vocal.Įven though the girl has left the narrator behind, his admiration for her elusiveness shines through. Given his reputation, you can understand how Keith’s recollections might be fuzzy, but it’s impossible to deny he came up with a first-rate song. Richards claimed at different times that the lyrics were based on a groupie and on his mid-60’s girlfriend Linda Keith. in 1967, has a downright gorgeous tune, aided by Jones lovely work on the recorder, proving that those things that we all had to play in grade school music could indeed have a purpose.
Yet this song, which was a #1 hit here in the U.S. Melodic ingenuity was supposed to be the domain of the Stones’ chief rival, The Beatles. That music is the second reason that “Ruby Tuesday” is such a surprise. Keith Richards actually did most of the work on the song, writing the lyrics after coming up with the music with the help of Brian Jones. Neither of which I wrote, but I always enjoy singing it.” You’d be wrong though: As Mick told Jann Wenner in 1995: “It’s just a nice melody, really.
First of all, it’s a tender ballad courtesy of The Rolling Stones, so you might expect it to be a Mick Jagger creation. “Ruby Tuesday” defies expectations in a couple of ways.
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