\"Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town\" is a song written by Mel Tillis about a paralyzed veteran of a \"crazy Asian war\" (given the time of its release, widely assumed—but never explicitly stated—to be the Vietnam War) who either lies helplessly in bed or sits helplessly in his wheelchair as his wife \"paints [herself] up\" to go out for the evening without him; he believes she is going in search of a lover, and as he hears the door slam behind her, he pleads for her to reconsider. The song was made famous by Kenny Rogers and The First Edition in 1969.
An answer song to \"Ruby,\" entitled \"Billy, I've Got to Go to Town,\" was released in 1969 by Geraldine Stevens, who had previously recorded successfully under the name Dodie Stevens. Sung to the same melody with an arrangement quite similar to the First Edition version, \"Billy\" peaked at #117 pop, #57 country. In Stevens's song, Ruby affirms her love for her disabled husband, who is named \"Billy\" in her song whereas in \"Ruby,\" he is not named, and she pleads in turn for her man to have faith in her fidelity and her commitment to him, even in his paralyzed condition.
