Ruth was born in David City, Nebraska. Her mother died when she was 5, and her father left her with her grandparents, George and Hannah Etting, who owned a roller mill. Her father remarried and moved away, seldom visiting his daughter. When she was 17 she moved to Chicago to attend art school, and got a job designing costumes at a night club. One night the tenor got sick and since she was the only one who could sing low enough, she took his place, and landed a job in the chorus. By 1918 she was one of the club's featured vocalists. It was there she met Moe "The Gimp" Snyder, a wanna-be gangster who took over management of Ruth's career and married her in 1922.
After her New York sucess, she moved to Los Angeles and had roles in a number of films including Roman Scandals with Eddie Cantor. There are conflicting stories about the scandal that virtually ended her career. The marriage between Ms. Etting and The Gimp was virtually loveless from the beginning, and he was a demanding and controlling manager who would not let other men near his wife. They were divorced in 1937. While in Los Angeles she began spending time with Myrl Alderman, a pianist who had played with her earlier in her career. In 1938, The Gimp forced his way into Ruth's house, and shot Alderman, wounding him. The subsequent trial put a halt to her career, although she did make some appearances in 1947. Ruth and Myrl married and retired to Colorado Springs, where she died in 1978. The academy award nominated movie version of her life story, Love me or Leave Me, with Jimmy Cagney and Doris Day, was apparently highly fictionalized.
There’s A Lull In My Life
Ruth Etting Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's just a void and empty space
When you are not in my embrace
Oh, there's a lull In my life
The moment that you go away
There is no night, there is no day
The clock stops ticking
The world stops turning
That keeps burning, burning
Oh, oh, oh
There's a lull In my life
No matter how I may pretend
I know that you alone can end
The lyrics of "There's a Lull In My Life" express the feeling of emptiness that one feels when someone special is not around. The first two lines, "Oh, there's a lull in my life/It's just a void and empty space" immediately set the tone for the song. The singer is indicating that they feel incomplete, as if something valuable is missing. They then continue in the next few lines to explain that this feeling arises only when the loved one is not around. "When you are not in my embrace/The moment that you go away/There is no night, there is no day" emphasizes how all their thoughts and actions revolve around their loved one.
The most intriguing aspect of the song is how the chorus describes the physical and emotional effects of the absence of the loved one: "The clock stops ticking/The world stops turning/Everything stops but the flame in my heart/That keeps burning, burning." This indicates that the singer's entire world revolves around the presence of the loved one. The absence of the loved one has far-reaching implications on the singer's life, affecting everything from the flow of time to the perception of day and night. The lyrics of "There's a Lull In My Life" are a powerful testament to the emotional impact the presence or absence of someone special can have on a person.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh, there's a lull in my life
The absence of your presence makes me feel empty and unfulfilled.
It's just a void and empty space
My life feels incomplete without you and I feel an emptiness inside.
When you are not in my embrace
When I am not holding you, I feel like I am missing a vital part of myself.
Oh, there's a lull In my life
The absence of your presence makes me feel empty and unfulfilled.
The moment that you go away
As soon as you leave, everything else around me seems to lose its meaning and purpose.
There is no night, there is no day
Without you, time loses its meaning and everything blurs together into a monotonous existence.
The clock stops ticking
Even time itself seems to stand still when I am without you.
The world stops turning
The everyday chaos of the world seems insignificant when compared to the void left by your absence.
Everything stops but the flame in my heart
Despite everything else seeming to come to a standstill, my love for you continues to burn brightly.
That keeps burning, burning
My love for you is constant and unchanging, burning just as brightly even in the times when you are not with me.
Oh, oh, oh
Emphasizes the emotional impact of the love and loss the singer is feeling in the absence of the person they love.
There's a lull In my life
The absence of your presence makes me feel empty and unfulfilled.
No matter how I may pretend
Even if I try to deceive myself into thinking otherwise, the feeling of emptiness remains without you.
I know that you alone can end
Only you have the ability to fill this void and bring meaning back into my life.
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
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