Song Spotlight: Hey Ruth

Over the next couple weeks, I'll be spotlighting songs from the Onward To Yesterday CD. Today's track is the opener on the album.

Hey Ruth was originally written for Song Fight!, an online songwriting competition. They provide the title, you provide the song (with a 7-10 day deadline). This was one of those wide-open titles; I'm not sure what led me in this particular direction, but the first draft of the song was written more or less front-to back, almost stream-of-consciousness style. A little structural tidying, and the result is a poppy number that seemed destined for the Permanent Record album. I wasn't happy enough with the recording to include it though, so it sat until the Onward To Yesterday sessions in late '09. Things went better this time around, and the song made for a good first track on the album.


Hey Ruth

Hey Ruth, I know you probably didn’t want me to wake you,
But I wasn’t really sure if you were sleeping or dead
Hey Ruth, ‘cause when you sit there barely breathing, what the
Hell am I supposed to do, you got me going out of my head
Hey Ruth, well do you think the boss’ll notice that you’re
Sleeping in your cubicle alone there at the end of the hall
Hey Ruth, with all the meetings and the quotas, do you ever
Stop to think about the reason that you do it at all

I remember when you started back in ‘93
I saw you filing and I knew you were the one for me
I asked you out but you were married to the industry
You traded what you had for what you thought you ought to be

Hey Ruth, if anybody could have seen you twenty years ago
They never would have guessed that you would end up this way
Hey Ruth, They’d probably wonder where the fire went that
Used to light your eyes before you signed up for your permanent stay
Hey Ruth - I’m only trying to survive and I can tell you that
It makes it better just to know that you’ve got a friend
Hey Ruth - I don’t know what it is that drives you but
What good is it to get there just to find yourself alone in the end

You worked your way through all the corporate insanity
To get promoted just to satisfy your vanity
Now you’re the president in charge of all calamities
They moved your desk right underneath the sword of Damocles

I remember when you started back in ‘93
I saw you filing and I knew you were the one for me
I asked you out but you were married to the industry
You traded what you had for what you thought you ought to be

Hey Ruth, I know you probably didn’t want me to wake you,
But I wasn’t really sure if you were sleeping or dead
Hey Ruth, ‘cause when you sit there barely breathing, what the
Hell am I supposed to do, you got me going out of my head
Hey Ruth, I know you probably didn’t want me to wake you,
But I wasn’t really sure if you were sleeping or dead
Hey Ruth, ‘cause when you sit there barely breathing, what the
Hell am I supposed to do, you got me going out of my head

This song (and the rest of Onward To Yesterday) can be heard on the 'MP3' page on this web site.