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My sister Jennie says this is her favorite song of mine (can’t imagine why); “Desert Ruby” is my sepia-toned blues-twang-punkabilly metaphysical impression of Los Angeles and Southern California—a giant, magnetic place where the clowns, drifters, grifters, poets, and mystics endure, surrounded by B-movie canyons and graffiti muerte. It is a place where I feel the beauty and ugliness of civilization and somehow love them both. “Desert Ruby” is a metaphor for the human soul.
I started the song in 1979, during a freaky, dirty four-day bus ride from Tampa to San Francisco. We had a long stopover in L.A. I was very tired and having dreams about James Dean, T.S. Eliot, and George Gershwin getting into a car wreck on Sunset Strip. I’d also just discovered the writing of Raymond Chandler, whose written impressions of L.A. exude the smell of warm California sage.
A year later, I was visiting L.A and saw some fruit crates someone was using to store a record collection. Along the side of one crate I could see some art with the brand name “Desert Ruby.” At least one book has been done on “fruit crate art”—a genre often dismissed as disposable “commercial art”—and don’t forget that Maxfield Parrish worked in this arena. (In 1994, Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson touched on this for the Orange Crate Art music project.)
If you know much about L.A., you’ll catch allusions (in order of appearance) to the death of George “Superman” Reeves, N.A.S.A satellite photographs, earthquakes, trailer parks in deserts, Dustbowl migrations, surfers hitchhiking to Malibu, fast food, junk tech, Aimee Semple MacPherson, and a sense of everyone who goes to California (especially Hollywood) to be “found.” Only God can find you.
The first two lines were jump-started by my musician friend Jeff Lloyd. One day he ranted, “Did you ever see those heat-generated N.A.S.A. satellite photos of Los Angeles? The city looks like a giant scab at night.” I thought about the sad, strange, and ironic death of George Reeves … how Superman was a just another “fallen sinner” and, if he could fly, this is what he would have seen before plummeting to earth.
The lines “hang ten across the meridian, last wave washing the feet of an Indian” relate to the artwork of James Earle Fraser. Besides being the designer of the famed “Indian nickel,” Fraser specialized in (what is now iconic) “American Indian art.” His “End of the Trail” image was used as cover art on the legendary 1971 Beach Boys album, SURF'S UP.
The final chord structure of the song is loosely inspired by “Shapes of Things” by The Yardbirds. It also occurred to me that the song would make a good music video. I borrowed a book on script writing from Tod Booth and did my own. In 1980, I sent the script to ex-Monkee Mike Nesmith at Pacific Arts Video (they never responded). How would I know that, years later, I’d be performing with a different ex-Monkee?
The song was first recorded in 1980 as a one-man band demo (complete with my lousy drumming). A full-band version with Ron Davis on drums was done in 1987 and used on my 1988 Yellow House album. An acoustic live broadcast was issued on Snapshots in 2002. In 2007, I retrieved the missing multitrack recording of the Ron Davis takes and remixed it for Grateful (which is the version you should listen to today!) ("Desert Ruby" is available on Johnny's Grateful CD at iTunes and CD Baby.)
1. Shot down quicker than Baby Kryptonite
Miscast scab photographed in flight
Brown sky in the lens of a satellite
Lookin’ for a Desert Ruby (2x)
2. Flavored rations I wouldn’t give to Moses
Favorite stations, cathode is with us
Slammin’ the door in your face I should’ve left you alone in my place
So you could find the Desert Ruby (2x)
(refrain) Wrote a letter to Ma and Pa
Tellin’ them things that really aren’t
My pool upon the rooftop W
ill soon be found in Utah
Why should I throw my Ruby to the surf?
Why should I throw my Ruby?
3. OK, where we live the dome in sensurround
Caffeine and starch piped in from the ground
This glass will crack when I throw that stone around
Cuz I found that Desert Ruby
Yeah I found that Desert Ruby
4. Bold night life perfect for the dread
What else for pedestrians to do
Hitchhikers in shorts headed for the sunset
To see the eye of Desert Ruby (2X)
(refrain) Wrote a letter to ma and pa
Tellin’ them things that really are
Hang ten across the meridian
Last wave washing the feet of an Indian
Sometimes I feel my Ruby belongs to the lost angel
Tanned in the surf and found by some stranger
Feelin’ quite prestigious, feelin’ might fine
Singing ‘bout my Jesus down at Hollywood and Vine
(after 40 days in the desert)
Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large"San Francisco, California
"Johnny is a virtuoso"--Brian Wilson
"Pop music with a conscience.”--Goldmine
“the Harry Houdini of rock and roll.”--
Spotlight. Listen to Johnny's fast-paced mix of old school soul, psychedelia, punk/new wave, & classic pop/rock. Singer-songwriter in his own right, he was also a sideman for Davy Jones and The Monkees + performed with David Cassidy, Al Stewart, Buddy & Julie Miller, & others....more
Beyondo is beyond good, launching pop and jazz off into a fun and fascinating imaginarium, as if Miles Davis, Todd Rundgren and Brian Wilson went on a wacky space trip. Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large"
supported by 4 fans who also own “Desert Ruby (Yellow House Canyon Mix)”
I do like this version better than the "earlier" one. I also like "Crash Course in the Blues" The rest is good too. I'm not sure about "She Hangs Out"....it's growing on me! ;-) Dianne M
Tom Heyman documents life in San Francisco circa 2023, refusing to succumb to easy characterization & instead capturing the city’s nuance. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 22, 2023
