Sep 202013
Has any musician given a more relaxed performance than Kenny Rogers in this performance of “Ruby” with The First Edition? Beside Perry Como, that is. Has a song’s punch line ever been delivered with more restraint? Typically quiet instruments like muted guitars, tambourines, and the rhythmic tapping of a hand on an acoustic guitar body overpower Rogers’ laid-back vocal delivery. The song actually benefits from his approach. I lean forward everything he cautions Ruby not to take her love to town.
Walking that fine line between relaxed and comatose…
Don’t think I’d ever seen Kenny playing bass before.
I believe prescriptions for brown-tinted glasses in the early 70s included quaaludes.