Morton Malaise

Richard Ashcroft was appreciated by the press in the UK and the US as a great songwriter, but he gained only marginal success on American radio. The song “Rolling People” is a favorite of mine from the album Urban Hymns:

I got one more life
Can you see it wasting away?
But I got a plan
Do you understand?

The drugstore wife
I was dealing soul and other white
I won’t shake your hands
‘Cause death has no plans

But here we are the rolling people
Can’t stay for long
We gotta go

So come alive with the rolling people
Don’t ask why
We just know

I’m on a big jet plane
With my briefcase and crime in my veins
I’ll be the first to toast
To my rotten soul

But here we are the rolling people
Don’t ask why
We don’t know

So come alive with the rolling people
Don’t ask why
We just go now
Yeah

Don’t even know which way I’m going to
The lights are on and I am feeling blue
I hope you know which way I’m going to fly
Thank you for my life
I said good night, good-bye

You see me going

But here we are the rolling people
Can’t stay for long
We gotta go

So come alive with the rolling people
Don’t ask why
We don’t know now
Yeah