Hey Ruth

This is the opening track on Onward To Yesterday, and like a good many of the songs on the album, it takes its title from Song Fight (http://www.songfight.org/). At Song Fight, a title is posted, and you've got ten days (usually) to write a song for that title. With a title like Hey Ruth, one could write almost anything. I ended up with a fanciful tale of unrequited office romance. This song, and a song by NH musical mainstay Linden Mazurka, are the only ones I know of that mention the sword of Damocles.


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 all the others on the album) can be heard on the music player thing over there on the right. :)