Even though credited as a Jagger/Richards song, Bill Wyman states in Rolling with the Stones that the lyrics were completely written by Richards with help from Brian Jones on the musical composition. Jones played the recorder (it sounds like a flute) on this song, while Bill Wyman plucked notes on a large double-bass while Richards played it with a bow. Jack Nitzsche played piano. Keith Richards said of "Ruby Tuesday": "That's one of those things - some chick you've broken up with. And all you've got left is the piano and the guitar and a pair of panties. And it's goodbye you know. And so it just comes out of that. And after that you just build on it. It's one of those songs that are easiest to write because you're really right there and you really sort of mean it. And for a songwriter, hey break his heart and he'll come up with a good song." Ity was reportedly written about Linda Keith, one of Richards’ exes. She’d broken up with him, moved on to Jimi Hendrix, and gotten into drugs. Eventually, Richards went to see Keith’s parents to warn them that she was going down a bad path, and they forced her to move back in with them, under court order. Richards’ intervention did not manage to win Linda Keith’s heart back. (In his book Life, Richards says that Keith did just fine without him, that she went on to raise a family and to move to New Orleans.) This was supposed to be the B-side of "Let's Spend The Night Together," but many radio stations shied away from that one due to the sexual implications, so they played "Ruby Tuesday" instead, helping make it a hit.