https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8DTO6frax4
Oh, the mud splattered victims
Have to pay out all along the ancient highway
Torn between half-truth and victimisation
Fighting back with counter attacks
Its when that rough God goes riding
When the rough God goes gliding
And then rough God goes riding
Riding on in
I was flabbergasted by the headlines
People in glasshouses throwing stones
Gaping wounds that will never heal
Now theyre moaning like a dog in a manger
Its when that rough God goes riding
And then the rough God goes gliding
Therell be nobody hiding
When that rough God comes riding on in
And its a matter of survival
When youre born with your back against the wall
Wont somebody hand me a Bible?
Wont you give me that number to call?
When that rough God goes riding
And then that rough God goes gliding
Theyll be nobody hiding
When that rough God goes riding on in
Riding on in
When that rough God goes riding
When that rough God goes gliding
Therell be nobody hiding
When that rough God goes riding on in
Riding on in
Therell be no more heroes
Theyll be reduced to zero
When that rough God goes riding
Riding on in, riding on in
Riding on in, riding on in
„Rough God Goes Riding“ is the opening song on the album, The Healing Game by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. The song reached #168 on the UK charts. One of the B-sides of the single, the alternative version of „The Healing Game„, appears on all three editions of Morrison’s 2007 compilation album Still on Top – The Greatest Hits. The other B-side „At the End of the Day“ was released as a bonus track on the 2008 reissue of The Healing Game.
According to biographer Clinton Heylin this song: „signalled a return to the religious and spiritual preoccupations that had driven Morrison’s work throughout the eighties, the image of the Rough God being derived from Robin Williamson’s ‚Mr. Thomas‘ — recorded by Morrison for Inarticulate — in which ‚the rough God goes riding with his shears‘, a reference to the avenging Messiah who shall return to wreak final judgement on Man.“
Greil Marcus wrote that „The deep burr of Morrison’s voice buries the words, which cease to matter; you might not hear them until the tenth time you play the album, or long after that. ‚It’s when that rough god goes riding,‘ he sings, drawing the words both from Yeats and down in his chest, and you might never know it’s the Angel of Death that has you in its embrace.“
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpPSBzGEklE