Allison Moorer - Ruby Jewel Was Here lyrics

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 ba*tard 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 d**h 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 who*e 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