(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