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The Rolling People  The Verve

"The Rolling People" from the album _Urban Hymns_
Written by The Verve
Produced by Youth/The Verve
tabbed by Jeremy Joseph (CheshirBat@aol.com)
Intro:
A5 B5 (x4)
The opening chords sneak up on you and there's
wah pedal noises, etc. in the background.
Right after the last B5 chord:
 
 D|--------7---9-------------| with delay pedal
 A|---7/9--------------------|

Then comes the riff:
[A] [B]  
 
 E|---------------------------------|
 B|---------------------------------|
 G|--------------8------------9h7---| It's like this during the verses,
 D|----7----9---(9)--9--------9-----| with slight ad-lib variations.
 A|----7----9--------9--9--9--------|
 E|----5----7-----------7--7--------|

It helps a great deal if you have delay/echo effects,
since that's basically the key to sounding like them.
* Verse 1 *
(with riff)
Been shot...
I got one more life,
Can you see it wastin' away?
But I got a plan,
Ahh..do you understand?
(solo 1) - Played sort of distorted and bluesy
 
 E|----------------------------------|------------------------------------|
 B|----------------7-----------------|-------------------7----------------|
 G|-----------7h9--9b(11)===--9h7----|--------------7h9--9b(11)===--9h7---|
 D|-------7h9----------------------7-|--------7h8h9---------------------7-|
 A|---7h9----------------------------|--7h8h9-----------------------------|
 E|----------------------------------|------------------------------------|

Play something like this in the B blues scale with
delay on the upward run...
* Verse 2 *
(I can hardly understand Ashcroft in this verse)
With a drugstore life,
I was dealin' soda then of the white... (?!)
I don't shake no hands,
Cause then there's no fans...
*Chorus*
[B] But here we are, the Rolling People
[A] Can't stay for long, we gotta go[G] [A] [G] [A] [B]
[B] So come alive, we're the Rolling People
[A] Don't ask why, we just know...[G] [A] [G] [A] [B]
* Verse 3 *
On a big jet plane
with my briefcase and crime in my veins
I'll be the first to toast
Yeah..to my rockin' soul, yeah.
*Chorus*
[B] And here we are, the Rolling People
[A] Don't ask why, we don't know...[G] [A] [G] [A]
[B] So come alive, we're the Rolling People
[A] Don't ask why, we just know...[G] [A] [G] [A] [B]
(solo 2) - Played very clean
 
 E|---7h5-----------------------------|--7h5------------------------|
 B|-------7h5-------------------------|------7h5--------------------|
 G|-------------7---------------------|----------7h4----------------|
 D|-----------------9---7h4-----------|--------------7h4------------|
 A|--------------------------7--5-----|---------------------7-------|
 E|--------------------------------7--|------------------------7----|
 E|---7h5-----------------------------|--7h5------------------------|
 B|-------7h5-------------------------|------7h5--------------------|
 G|-------------7-------------7-------|----------7h4----------------|
 D|-----------------9-----7h9---------|--------------7h4------------|
 A|--------------------7h9------------|---------------------7-------|
 E|-----------------------------------|------------------------7----|

Play and repeat the 2nd line a few times..
*And the rest of the lyrics*:
Only the bass is playing the riff while the guitar
plays echoey notes in the B scale.
 
 E|-----------------------------------|
 B|---10-10-10---9b(10)---7-----------|
 G|--------------------------9h7------|

Tell me do you know which way I'm gonna choose..
The lights are white and I am feelin' blue..
I hope you know which way I'm gonna fly..
Thank you for my life, I said good night, goodbye...
Back to the riff, and the song gets out of control.
The "eep" part at the end of the song:
EEP, EEP eep, eep
 
 E|--11-------11-------|--7--------7--------|
 B|--14b(16)--14b(16)--|--10b(12)--10(12)---|
 G|--------------------|--------------------|

Best of luck.. This song kicks so much ass I had to figure it out,
and I figured I might as well tab it so anyone else can to play it.
I'm sure there's some mistakes as always due to
laziness or typos, but if you can hear a wrong note than you
can probably figure out what it's supposed to be!
[-----]  
Now I've seen quite a few tabs for this song but none of them go past the
solo about four minutes into the song. Because of the six overdubbed
guitars this is a hard song to tab and I have tried to work out the last
two minutes of the song by taking the main guitar parts and converting them
so that they are played by one guitar. The song uses heavy distortion ,
with lots of compression and sustain with about 450 ms of delay . You may
not be able to hear these guitar parts as they are buried deep in the song,
but enough of me this is the song-
Tuning: Standard
Scale: McCabe plays the Bluescale in B
Capo: None
Guitar: Les Paul Standard
Effects: Boss Compressor, Boss Superoverdrive, Marshall Drivemaster, Alesis
Quadraverb, Roland Space Echo, Watkins Copycat, Roland GP8.
(I use the 2 Boss and Marshall pedals with a Boss Delay and a Jim Dunlop
Crybaby)
Chords:
A= 577655
B= 799877
E5= x79977
D5= x57755
G=355433
 
 riff1= e------------------------------------------
 b -----------------------------------------
 g -------------- 7 -9 9 9 11 11 9p7 -------
 d -/9 9-7h8h9h -----------------------9----
 a------------------------------------------
 e -----------------------------------------
 riff2= e-------------------------------------------------
 b-------------------------------------------------
 g-------------------------------------------------
 d-9---7h9 7 9 7----7h9 7 9 7 7 7 7 7-----------
 a--7h9----------7h9-------------------9 9 9-----
 e-------------------------------------------------
 riff3= e----------------------------------------------------------
 b--------------------------------------10 10 10 10-12 12---
 g------------------------------7 9 11----------------------
 d-/9---------------7h9 7 9 7 9-----------------------------
 a----7h9-7 9 7 9 ------------------------------------------ e----------------------------------------------------------
 riff4= e-----------------------------------------------------
 b-12p10---------------------------------------------
 g -------11 9 11 9-----------------------------------
 d-------------------12 9 12 9------------12---------
 a------------------------------12 9 12---------------
 e-----------------------------------------------------

Those are the four main riffs which are mostly improvises with slight
variations each time they are played. (Riff4 is played with the distortion off).
Now the structure-
Intro- Starts with some delayed tapping and scraping with a wah pedal, four overdubs.
Then A to B quickly four times.
Verse- A, B, E5, D5
I've got one more life
Can you see it wasting away?
But I've got a plan
Do you understand? Riff 1 x2
The Drugstore wife
I was dealing soda and other life
I won't shake your hands
'Cause death has no fans
 
 - - -- - - - - - 

But her[B]e we are the Rolling people
[A]Can't stay for long
G riff2
We've gotta go
[B]So come alive we're the rolling people
[A]Don't ask why
G Riff3 Then back to verse chords with riff 1 played twice.
We don't know now, yeah
 
 - - - - - - - - -

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

Chorus repeats
 
 - - - - - - - - 

Riff4 played 8 times then vocals come in (continue playing riff 4)-
[B]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 you're gonna die
Thank you for my life, I say goodnight, goodbye.
Slide up the sixth string with plectrum then return to verse chords for four bars
 
 - - - - - - - - -- 

Chorus repeats
 
 - - - - - - - - - 

After riff 3 is the solo-
 
 e----------------------------------------------------
 b-/12 12 12-10--10-----------------------------------
 g--------------------11--11p9------------------------
 d-------------------------------12p9-12-9-----9------
 a-------------------------------------------------12-
 e----------------------------------------------------

This is played four times with variations each time then the part that may people do not tab-
 
 e--------------------------------------------------------------------
 b-12p10-------------------10-12--------------------------------10-12-
 g-----11-9b11-7-9b11--11 ---------------------7-7-9-9-11-11----------
 d-------------------------------------/12-------9--------------------
 a---------------------------------9h12-------------------------------
 e--------------------------------------------------------------------

With Wah pedal
 
 e----------------------------------------------------------
 b----------------------------------------------------------
 g -------------------9h11-----------------7-9-------------
 d------7h9------9h11------7h9-7-9-7-9------------------
 a--7h9----7h9---------------------------------7-9--------
 e----------------------------------------------------------

Continue with improvised licks in blues scale. Stress the notes the more Ashcroft stresses his voice. After about thirty seconds the song starts to calm down and strong bends on the third string are used which are sustained with a wah pedal. then some strange phasing effect follows with this lick
 
 e-------------------------------------
 b-------------------12---------------
 g---9-9-11-11-11-------------------x2
 d-------------------------------------
 a-------------------------------------
 e-------------------------------------

Then this lick played four times before ending the song with the verse chords and a wah pedal
 
 e------------------
 b---12-12-10-10-
 g------------------
 d------------------
 a------------------
 e------------------

The verse chords are played five times and then they fade into the end of the song.
Please mail me with comments or requests for other Verve songs and I will send them personally to you. My address is SMccarthy1@compuserve.com
See ya!!

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