We've Got Tonight

When I heard that Kenny Rogers was going to be on American Idol this week, I had to break out my Kenny Rogers Twenty Greatest Hits cd. As much as I love Kenny, I must admit that there are some really bad songs on this cd. But plenty of great ones too! Mostly, it's funny to hear songs that you loved as a kid through adult ears. Some highlights:

• "Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town" -- this song does not disappoint. I love the sort of staccato guitar-strumming. It turns out that this song is about an apparently impotent Vietnam vet on his death bed whose wife is stepping out on him. (I'm pretty sure I didn't understand at least part of that when I was little.) Sad! This was clearly written pre-Viagra.
• "The Gambler" -- a classic. Forget Doyle Brunson, this is still the first and last word on poker in my book. It's just lucky that Kenny got to talk to this guy the night he died.
• "Coward of the County" -- this song teaches the important moral lesson that if your wife is gang-raped you should go to a bar and beat up the people who did it. And, also, it's probably sort of your fault for being such a wuss all this time. For some reason, I always thought the characters in this song were Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher.