Born Ruth Alston Weston on 30th January 1928 in Portsmouth, Virginia, she attended I. C. Norcom High School, a historically black high school. Brown's father was a dockhand who directed the local church choir, but the young Ruth showed more of an interest in singing at USO shows and nightclubs. She was inspired by Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. In 1945, Brown ran away from her home in Portsmouth along with a trumpeter, Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married, to sing in bars and clubs. She then spent a month with Lucky Millinder's orchestra, but was fired after she brought drinks to the band for free, and was left stranded in Washington, D.C.
Blanche Calloway, Cab Calloway's sister, also a bandleader, arranged a gig for Brown at a Washington nightclub called Crystal Caverns and soon became her manager. Willis Conover, a Voice of America disc jockey, caught her act and recommended her to Atlantic Records bosses, Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson. Brown was unable to audition as planned though, because of a serious car accident that resulted in a nine-month hospital stay. In 1948, however, Ertegün and Abramson drove to Washington from New York City to hear her sing in the club. Although her repertoire was mostly popular ballads, Ertegün convinced her to switch to rhythm and blues. His productions for her, however, retained her pop style, with clean, fresh arrangements and the singing spot on the beat with little of the usual blues singer's embroidery.
In her first audition, in 1949, she sang "So Long", which became a hit. This was followed by "Teardrops from My Eyes" in 1950; written by Rudy Toombs, it was the first upbeat major hit for Ruth Brown, establishing her as an important figure in R&B. Recorded for Atlantic Records in New York City in September 1950, and released in October, it was on Billboard's List of number-one R&B hits (United States) for eleven weeks. The huge hit earned her the nickname "Miss Rhythm", and within a few months Ruth Brown became the acknowledged queen of R&B.
She followed up this hit with "I'll Wait for You" (1951), "I Know" (1951), "5-10-15 Hours" (1953), "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (1953), "Oh What a Dream" (1954), "Mambo Baby" (1954), and "Don't Deceive Me" (1960). She also became known as "Little Miss Rhythm" and "the girl with the teardrop in her voice". In all, she was on the R&B charts for 149 weeks from 1949 to 1955, with sixteen top-ten blues records including five number ones, and became Atlantic's most popular artist, earning Atlantic records the proper name of "The House that Ruth Built".
During the 1960s, Brown faded from public view to become a housewife and mother, and only returned to music in 1975 at the urging of Redd Foxx, followed by a series of comic acting gigs, including roles in the sitcom Hello, Larry and the John Waters film Hairspray as local DJ Motormouth Maybelle, as well as Broadway appearances in Amen Corner and Black and Blue, which earned her a Tony Award for her performance and a Grammy award for her album Blues on Broadway, featuring hits from the show.
Brown's fight for musicians' rights and royalties in 1987 led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. She was inducted as a Pioneer Award recipient in its first year, 1989. In 1993, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as "The Queen Mother of the Blues".
She has become an iconic symbol to many black women for later generations, where she is also a favourite artist and inspiration for later blues artists such as Bonnie Raitt. Brown recorded and sang along with fellow rhythm and blues performer Charles Brown, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and toured with Raitt on Raitt's tour in the late 1990s, "Road Tested". Her 1995 autobiography, Miss Rhythm, won the Gleason Award for music journalism.
Brown died in a Las Vegas-area hospital on 17th November 2006, from complications following a heart attack and stroke she suffered after surgery in October 2006. A memorial concert for her was held on 22nd January 2007 at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York.
I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town
Ruth Brown Lyrics
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I'm gonna move baby, way out on the outskirts of town
You see I don't need no-body, always hangin' 'round
Let me tell you honey, we gonna move away from here
I don't need no iceman, I'm gonna, get you a Frigidaire
When we move, way out on the outskirts of town
Whoa, you see we won't need no-body, always hangin' 'round
If we have a dozen children, you know they AW-LL-all better look like me
When we move, way back 'a town
Whoa-oh-oh-oh, we won't need no-body, always hanging around
We don't need nobody baby, AW-LL-always hanging 'round
Hangin' 'round
Hangin' 'round
The lyrics to Ruth Brown's song I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town express the singer's desire to escape the constant intrusion of people in her life. She plans to move to the outskirts of town where she and her partner will not be bothered by unwanted visitors. The opening lines of the song state, "I'm gonna move baby, way out on the outskirts of town, I'm gonna move baby, way out on the outskirts of town, You see I don't need nobody, always hangin' round." This makes it clear that the singer is tired of the attention she is receiving.
As the lyrics progress, the singer notes that she will move away from her current location to avoid people meddling in her business. She sings, "Let me tell you honey, we gonna move away from here, I don't need no iceman, I'm gonna get you a Frigidaire." This line suggests that the singer will become self-sufficient in her new home, no longer relying on outsiders for assistance.
The final verse is a jab at people who have been meddling in her life. She sings, "It may seem funny honey, funny as can be, If we have a dozen children, you know they all better look like me." This line could be interpreted as implying that the people who have been hanging around are not trustworthy, and that the singer does not want them to influence her family. Overall, the song shows a desire for independence and a sense of control over one's own life.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm gonna move baby, way out on the outskirts of town
I plan to relocate to the suburbs in the near future
You see I don't need no-body, always hangin' 'round
I am tired of people constantly being around me, and I desire to be left alone
Let me tell you honey, we gonna move away from here
My intention is to move from this area
I don't need no iceman, I'm gonna, get you a Frigidaire
We don't require the services of an iceman; instead, we are going to purchase a Frigidaire refrigerator
When we move, way out on the outskirts of town
After we relocate to the suburbs, we won't need anyone bothering us
It may seem funny honey, funny as can be
This idea might seem amusing to you
If we have a dozen children, you know they AW-LL-all better look like me
If we have twelve kids, they better resemble me, especially if we move to a less diverse area
When we move, way back 'a town
Once we move to the outskirts, we will leave the city behind us.
We don't need nobody baby, AW-LL-always hanging 'round
We don't require anyone to be constantly near us or interfering with our lives.
Hangin' 'round
People being present in our lives and space when not warranted.
Writer(s): ROY JORDAN, WILLIAM WESTLEY WELDON
Contributed by Sebastian C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.