Ricky Ross - This Is The Life (2002)

01 Northern Soul
02 London Come Alive
03 Rodeo Boy
04 Angel & Mercedes
05 I Sing About You
06 Nothing Cures That
07 This Is The Life
08 Threatening Rain
09 Starring Love
10 Hippy Girl
11 My Girl Going To Town
12 Looking For My Own Lone Ranger
13 The Way To Work

Northern Soul

When they come on television
To tell about their loss
And the camera finds them beaten up by grief
Do you wonder that they get up every morning
And sometimes don't believe?

When you see their eyes reminded
Of another day not shared
With a child who never  turned to say goodbye
Are you comforted by somebody you love
Or do you keep it down inside

Can you feel?, Can you

From every breaking dawn
Through to midnights ghostly toll
I thank him for the life
In your northern soul
Every time you cry
And sulk back to the fold
Through your misty eyes
I see your northern soul

When it's down to just page seven
Even on a slow-news day
Do you pause before you turn over the page?
And although there is no photograph

No tears on television
Do you find yourself reminded of their eyes?
Can you feel?
Can you?

At every roadside shrine
Where faded flowers console
I shudder for the life
Inside your northern soul

Every night you sleep
I’ll lie down on your pillow
And I feel each steady breath
From your northern soul

When every light’s gone out
And my body’s tired and old
You’ll keep my spirit young
With your northern soul

God every way it breaks
I’m bound to make it so
To turn all fear to love
With your northern soul

London Comes Alive

I was midnight walking
And daytime talking
You can see the best in me I know
I got distracted
You were broken hearted
But I still tried to follow where you’d go

And every time you wish me peace
Or take a joke with perfect ease
Or hear my doubts with sympathy
It’s like London comes alive

We both know the river
Gets stronger and longer
And crossing it’s the hardest thing to plan
You took us together
Sister and brother
And brought us safe ashore
where we now stand

And even if you’d one regret
It couldn’t spoil the best thing yet
Some special days our eyes have met
And it’s like when London cameo alive
It’s such a surprise

Any time you want, just say
Phone me up and I’ll he there
What you need to hear I’ll say
Anything

Cause every time you wish me peace
Or take a joke with perfect ease
I know you’re down on bended knee
Trying to make everything all right
Like when London comes alive

Rodeo Boy

Silver rails
And western tails
Can take you there
But they’ll leave you cold
When loves grows old
Changing points
Will spin you west
And leave the darkest hours
That you know best
All gone

The rodeo boy
Is so much heat
And so much noise
Ooh ooh ooh, ooh ooh
The rodeo boy
Is so much heat
And so much noise
It’s a different love
You can’t get enough
Bigger than us
It’s a long time curse
Can make you feel worse
Tonight

Well I’ll come clean
Stepped off that bus
And threw my hat
Made me took
Just another cowboy
In the dust

The rodeo boy
Is so much heat
And so much noise
Ooh ooh ooh, ooh ooh
The rodeo boy
Is so much heat
And so much noise
It’s a different love
You can’t get enough
Bigger than us
It’s a long time curse
Can make you feel worse
Follow the trail
Head out tonight
And break out the moonshine
Gonna make it right
Tonight

Angel & Mercedes

I’m getting into space man
everything is going up
and no one is going
down where I’m going

And I’m getting better
at knowing what’s outside looking in

Cause I
never saw what was coming round
and I
could never get my feet off of the ground

Gonna be a space man
I’m working on a space stand
talking on the radio
how I’m not coming back man

Bursting all the clouds now
looking how the world looks small

And I never saw how far there was to fall
and I am floating here far above it all

Cause Angel and Mercedes
took me where heaven is
Angel and Mercedes
took me where heaven is

I’m getting into space man
everything is going up
and no one is going
down where I’m going

I’ve been into losing
when I could have been
only choosing you

And I am far from the
world I used to know
And you can see me only
When I come out into view

Cause Angel and Mercedes
took me where heaven is
Angel and Mercedes
took me where heaven is

I Sing About You

Walking on broken stones
And listening to a foreign radio
I never knew where you’d gone
I only knew where you’re going

I sing about you
Cause nothing’s the same without you
I know what the truth is
And what your excuse is

Are you getting on where you stay
The same blue sky every day
I never saw the time you chose
And still the wonder’s growing

I sing about you
Cause nothing’s the same without you
I know what your excuse is
Sometimes I wonder.., what the use is

I wonder

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Everyone’s bleeding but me

Now I sing about you
Cause I lost the truth about you
All that surrounds me
Is everything...
I found when you were near me

I sing about you
cause nothing’s the same without you
I know what the truth is
and what your excuse is
I know.., what it is about you
That still makes me never doubt you
There’s no day without you
That wouldn’t be better
sticking together

I know
You say
Everything will go away
I know
You say everything
Everything

Nothing Cures That

I had the dream once
Of all I would have been
If I’d been loved first
Just only might have been
I’d have been so generous
And so much less mean
About your chosen one
It might have been me

But

All the mail left in the hallway
All the photographs you never took
All the gifts you never wanted
Nothing cures that
All the ways you showed forgiving
All the times I’d wished’d been me
All this hero’s love I’ve wasted
Nothing cures that

To the memory
Of love
I write this letter down
Remember me
You should see me
The way I see myself
There’s so much there to love
You’d not know me....

But

All the games I’ve played around you
All the tiny tests I’ve set
All the secrets that I’ve shown too easily
Nothing cures that
All the songs for which I couldn’t care less
All the nights I should have said no
All the the things I should have hidden
Nothing cures that,..

Is there a last one
One last night with all the sad songs
On repeat
Just the sad ones.

This Is The Life

You’re unchanging
I’m unchangeable
That’s a difference
We have to recognise
Some folks never row
Their ways seem like paradise
But inside we all know
That this is the life

You’re the greatest
Thing I’ve ever seen
You make my eyes bleed
And others turn to green
Make the road open
The future all gold
Make my world spin
When I open the door

This is the life
You’d better get used to
You know you don’t choose it, but
This is the life
This is the life
Anything goes
Oh if anything goes
You can wave it away

This thing won’t come back again
And take me round
And let me see
What was I thinking about
Cause now is the time
For you to see me
We can walk away, darling
Or we can say

This s the life
The best thing yet
You’d better not change
Cause this is the life
This is the life
Anything goes
Oh if everything goes
You can wave it away

Threatening Rain

I could be the lover you want me to be
I could be the queen of the Northern sea
Make you all the money you'd ever need
Drive you in car that could take you far

So that I could do without you
I could do without you

Tomorrow they say it's the end of the world
So go out and find some other girl
Who knows? These things can sometimes work
You might be surprised  I don't feel hurt

Or that I could do without you
I could do without you

They say the sea is high
And the clouds are darkening the sky
I've been out today
All I found was threatening rain

So do we go out now and tell the folks
Or is it time for unfunny jokes
When you know love, you know the most
That what you had is long time lost

And I can do without you
I can do without you

Starring Love

You take a man who's on his last life
A simple soul nobody knows him
What does it matter if he lives or dies

Or a woman who's lost everything
Her only son, hoped for, not living
Is there anybody listening?

This is the picture that should be starring love
Starring love, starring love
I get the story when it's starring love
Starring love, starring love

Did you see them on the way down
His eyes all gone her memory fading
Is there any kind of way back?

Do you know him with his face down
Do you seem him when he's coming and going?
Do you see him when he's out there?

This is the picture that should be starring love
Starring love, starring love
I get the story when it's starring love
Starring love, starring love

It breaks you up thinking about it
All the beatings and the taunts and noise and all the...
All the love going and given
It's all love

This is the picture that should be starring love
Starring love, starring love
I get the story when it's starring love
Starring love, starring love

This is the picture that should be starring love
Starring love, starring love
I get the story when it's starring love
Starring love, starring love

It's not the coming and the going
Of the thing that keeps you young most
Everyone knows it's going to cost
I'm going to call you up
And tell you how I'm feeling
Since we lost you you'll never know

Hippy Girl

Hippy girl
Please don't change a thing
Change isn't everything
And dreaming is something - hippy girl

There's a curse in this world
That money brings
And a big idea
That fame is everything
You're far and away now
Richer than kings and queens
You know love
And you give everyone

Hippy girl
Please don't change a thing
Wear your hat girl and your friendship rings
Hippy girl
Blue-eyes-sallow-skin
You look ahead now
Not at fashions whims - hippy girl

You're from a different planet
That must be tough to leave
The planet of mercy
The planet of make-believe
One day I took you
To a castle so high
We got through the bridge
You said this is the happiest day
Of my life

Hippy girl please don't change a thing
Change isn't everything
And dreaming is something hippy girl

I'm away with your
I'm away in your
I'm away to your world

I'm away with your
I'm away in your
I'm away to your world

Hippy girl
Jump on into the pool
Don't let anyone tell you 
You need  rules
Hippy girl
I'll  smoke your pipe
Of peace outside your tent
We'll watch the smoke rings go
Up in the wind - hippy girl
Up and into this wind - hippy girl

My Girl Going To Town

God of warm words
And good things
God of change
God of broken chains
And rusty rails in sidings

God of the saints
And nearly departed
Come down and love the living
Before they go
Tell us a joke...

My girl going to town
She dresses down
She still wears that tiny ring

My girl going to town
Takes the late train
Oh it won't rain, she says

God of good times
Dry, happy, sunshine days
God of sand castles
And holidays
In motor cars

That take you days here and there
How long till we get there?
Fast asleep after tears
That gently change the colour
Of your brown skin

My girl going to town
Spends the days on her own
Says the summer nights are warm

My girl going to town
Is it her I'm worried for?
Are you coming home

Looking For My Own Lone Ranger

I'm looking for my own lone ranger
Don't want to follow yours anymore
Don't want to be the lonely Tonto in the picture
Staring out across horizons like before

You've got to have your own lone ranger 
Somebody riding out just for you
Cause the nights grow long and I'm not that strong
And I'm just too...

Miles away it was miles away 
I last heard your voice out on the breeze
Now coyotes bark and the sky's so dark
And I need somebody rescuin' me

Somebody like my own lone ranger 
To come riding out of nowhere just for me
Someone to take the reins and circle all the wagons
And start the fire for our cowboy jamboree

You've got to have your own lone ranger
Somebody watching out just for you
Till the stars go in and I can breathe again
And I can ride out on my own

The Way To Work

I don't want to have to want you
Taunt you or haunt you
I don't want risk you
Just to kiss you then miss you

I don't want to have to leave you home
I don't want to spend the night alone

But I'll keep myself hanging on
The songs you played as the night went on
On the way to work

I don't want to have to wake you
Break you and not take you
I don't want to be the wrong man
The last man or your romance

I want to take you in the car
And all these streetlights
To be our stars

And all the songs on the radio
Could be playing just for you
On the way to work

Lowly men and working boys
Painted girls on buses
Full of heat and noise

Just to be like one of them
But we're so far gone it's not the same
Lets pretend just the same
That we're  on the way to work
We're on the way to work

I want to be like one of them
I want to be like one of them