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Ruby And Carlos by James McMurtry
Ruby And Carlos
G Cadd9 F# x2
G Cadd9 F# G Cadd9 F#
Ruby said "You're gettin' us in a world of hurt, Down below the Mason-Dumbass line the food gets worse.
Cadd9 F# G Cadd9 Em F#
I can't go back to Tennessee that NASCAR country's not for me, Go on...if you think you must."
G Cadd9 F# x2
Carlos packed his drums up in the dark of night, Ruby's standing just outside the front porch light
Cadd9 F# G Cadd9 Em F#
Chain-smoking Camel straights the sky off to the east got gray, And he rolled off in a cloud of dust.
Cadd9. F# G Cadd9
And the gray colt knickered at the gate, She said "You're right it's getting late.
Em F#
You and me got work to do, we can't be burning daylight too."
Cadd9. F# G Cadd9 Em F#
She took down the long lead rope, and stayed off that slippery slope
G Cadd9 F# x2
The aspen trees were turning gold up top, The talk was buzzin 'round the beauty shop
Cadd9. F# G Cadd9
"Wasn't he barely half her age?, Well that's just how they do now days
Em F#
We should all had been so lucky."
G Cadd9 F# x2
By spring she'd had the run of the free born men, Ruby turned 50 in a sheep camp tent
Cadd9. F# G Cadd9
Her body still could rock all night, but her heart was closed and locked up tight
E F#
Potato fields all muddy and brown, the gossip long since quieted down
Cadd9 F# G Cadd9
And after one more Coggins test, Pouring coffee for the county vet
Em F#
Pictures on the ice box door, of Carlos in the first Gulf War
Cadd9 F#
Black-eyed brown and youthful face, smiling back from a Saudi base
Cadd9 F# G Cadd9
And then Carlos on the big bay mare, Heavier now and longer hair
Em F#
Looking past the saddle shed, From way on back inside his head
Cadd9 F# G Cadd9
And the old vet said, "One day, Rube, that colt will break an egg in you
Em F#
Now and then one comes along you just can't ride." And he went on home.
Cadd9 F# G Cadd9
And the storm door didn't catch, It blew back hard as she struck a match
Em F#
But she cupped it just in time??. And she sent that ash tray
Cadd9 F# G \ F# \ Em
And holding back the flood, Just don't do no good
Cadd9 F# G \ F# \ Em
You can't unclench your teeth, To howl the way you should
Cadd9 F# G \ F# \ Em
So you curl your lips around, The taste, the tears, and the hollow sound
Cadd9 F#
That no one owns but you, No one owns but you
Cadd9 F# Em F# Cadd9 F#
G Cadd9 F# x2
Carlos took the road gig and he saw it through, He rode the tour bus while the singer flew
Cadd9 F# Em F#
Managed out of music row, Carlos never saw the studio, Session guys had that all sewn up.
G Cadd9 F# x2
He looks out the window and it starts to sleet, Laying on a friend's couch on Nevada Street
Cadd9 F# G Cadd9
Lately he's been staying high, Sick all winter and they don't know why
Em F#
They don't know why or they just won't say, They don't talk much down at the V.A.
Cadd9 F# G Cadd9
And Ruby's in his thoughts sometimes, What thoughts can get out past the wine
Em F#
He feels her fingers on his brow, And right then he misses how
Cadd9 F#
She looked in that gray morning light, She never shaved like they all do now
Cadd9 F#
He sees it all behind his eyes, and his hands go searching but they come up dry
Cadd9 F#
And half way in that wakin' dream, Carlos lets the land line ring
G Cadd9
He never guessed it was Ruby calling, The pin in her hip from the gray colt falling
Em F#
Figure eight in a lazy lope, Stumbled on that slippery slope
Cadd9 F# G \ F# \ Em
And holding back the flood, Just don't do no good
Cadd9 F# G \ F# \ Em
You can't unclench your teeth, To howl the way you should
Cadd9 F# G \ F# \ Em
So you curl your lips around, The taste, the tears, and the hollow sound
Cadd9 F#
That no one owns but you, No one owns but you
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