Scorpions - Ruby Tuesday

In January 2007 I started the Music in Review. It was an indirect way to say hello to my friends. I wanted to talk to my old friends but I did not feel comfortable rambling on about myself. I wanted there to more to the dialogue then simple attention seeking. There has always been one topic I am always excited to engage, and that is, obviously, music. So an emailing list with an individual song as the subject was my solution and I named it the Music in Review. Six years have passed, and in that time I have written ninety-nine “Music in Reviews,” five short essays, and one love letter. I love you Sara Quin.

The first Music in Review was a prototype. I was unsure whether I wanted to talk about a movie or a song. In the end I thought the great movie “Children of Men” would be a nice segue to introduce “Ruby Tuesday.” You see a really lame version of “Ruby Tuesday” is played in “Children of Men.” A cover so bad it was cringe worthy, and, well that was it; that was my introduction. Even though it was a somewhat weak review most of my friends found it charming and I felt it was a good creative writing exercise. Also I liked writing music reviews.

I have seen a lot of people start a blog, or mailing lists, or some kind of creative writing project, and utterly fail to create more than a few respectable offerings to their imagination. But I stuck with it, and after six years, I can, in all humility, say I have created something to be proud of. Every month I wrote a new review, two years and two months ago I started writing two a month, and I wrote three that last two months. Like clockwork I have written about my love of music, and hey, some of these are pretty good; well I think so anyway.

This is it, number one-hundred, and yeah, it feels kind of special.

It all started with The Rolling Stones – Ruby Tuesday, I feel it only fitting I should come back to that song. Late 2011 The Scorpions released a celebration (cover/compilation) album titled “Comeblack” and amongst the seven cover songs there is “Ruby Tuesday.”

I call “Comeblack” a celebration album because I lack an official term. “Comeblack” is half cover songs and half rerecorded versions of classic Scorpions songs, like “No one Like You,” and “Wind of Change.” This is similar to Helloween’s “Unarmed” or Uriah Heep’s “Celebration” albums, which, I love. I bought Uriah Heep – Celebration first, hence the use of the term.

In 2010 The Scorpions announced their final tour with the release of their final album “Sting in the Tail,” and I cannot help but suspect that “Comeblack” is a very direct follow up. There is a very reoccurring theme through “Sting in the Tail” about looking forward to the future, not uncommon for The Scorpions, but when they sing that the best is yet to come, I think the sentiment goes beyond a humble declaration that others will carrying on what Scorpions began. I believe the joy of life for our friends The Scorpions will only grow in the coming years. Somehow, at least in my mind, this ties in directly to them covering “Ruby Tuesday.”

“Ruby Tuesday” is not just a song about a whimsical girl, it is about the message that she brings.

“There’s no time to lose, I heard her say,
Catch your dreams before, they slip away.”

The emotion behind such words is not very commanding, more foreboding. We have a limited amount of time to live and our dreams, so many of which are so impossible, can only be realized within these brief moments between birth and death. It would be a sad song, if it was not so cheerful, if it were not so beautiful, because, running after our dreams, that alone is spectacular, and I know, you know, we’ve only just begun.

The Scorpions cover songs like “Tin Soldiers” and “Children of the Revolution” incredibly well, but “Ruby Tuesday,” perhaps just because I love the song so much, is the prize on “Comeblack.” The song fits them like a glove, almost like fate demanded they cover this song before they retire. When you look at songs like “Wind of Change” and “The Best is Yet to Come,” “Ruby Tuesday” just fits alongside them perfectly. Klaus Meine, who so often sang about the bright future ahead, is the perfect candidate to sing “Ruby Tuesday” in place of Mick Jagger. I do not know the man but I highly suspect that Meine feels a personal connection with “Ruby Tuesday,” and even if he does not, I feel a personal connection between him and this song. Meine is a good dude, you can just tell, and “Ruby Tuesday” is an uplifting song that puts a smile on your face.

Here’s to another one-hundred reviews.

Until next year, keep on rocking in the free world.

- Colin Kelly

P.S.

Also, I know, you know, the best is yet to come: