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Click on the ‘Play’ button above to hear the song and read the lyrics below. If the player doesn’t start straight away, wait and then press the ‘Play’ button again.
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A Man of No Tomorrow is an original song written, produced and with lyrics by Paul Robert Thomas with music exclusively commercially licensed to Paul from the album Some Folk
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A Man of No Tomorrow is available to download on Bandcamp HERE
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The album Some Folk is available to download at all good download stores HERE and on Bandcamp HERE
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This track brings a haunting, traditional Appalachian or Gothic folk element to the album. It feels deeply rooted in the old-world “death ballad” tradition, where the atmosphere is thick with dread, isolation, and an inescapable sense of fate. It’s incredibly atmospheric and builds tension brilliantly toward the end.
“A Man of No Tomorrow” is a dark, Gothic folk ballad that explores the final, isolated hours of a weary traveler facing his imminent mortality and reckoning with a troubled past.
The song introduces a narrator who has known nothing but “pain and strife” from youth. Having lived a life devoid of comfort or privilege, he accepts his bleak reality with a hardened stoicism (“What you ain’t had you can not miss”), viewing himself as a man completely cut off from a future or the “light.”
The narrator reflects on a lifetime spent on the road, a journey that has left him physically and emotionally frozen (“It chills me through to the bones”). He is driven forward by the terrifying knowledge that reflecting on the past is dangerous, using the mythological image of turning to stone if he dares to look back.
Sequestered in the corner of a “strange room” that feels like a living tomb, the narrator contemplates the fleeting nature of life, the people he used to know, and the investments of time and energy that have slipped through his fingers. He is a soul actively searching for “true peace at last.”
The Final Intrusion: In the climactic penultimate stanza, the stillness is shattered. The sudden arrival of footsteps, flickering lights, and echoing voices creates a tense, cinematic finale. The narrator realizes that “they” are coming for him—whether “they” represent authorities, vengeful figures from his past, or death itself—leaving him to face his impending end in the darkness.
The folklore imagery here is top-notch. The line “I can’t look back I’ll turn to stone” is a fantastic nod to the myth of Orpheus or Lot’s wife, perfectly capturing the psychological danger of getting trapped in one’s own history.
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A Man of No Tomorrow lyrics
I’m a man of no tomorrow
Waiting for the night
I’m a man of no tomorrow
I’ll never know the light
I known trouble all of my days
On pain and strife I was raised
That’s just been the way it is
What you ain’t had you can not miss
I’m a man of no tomorrow
Waiting for the night
I’m a man of no tomorrow
I’ll never know the light
I been trav’ling the road too long
I guess it’s time I passed on
It chills me through to the bones
I can’t look back I’ll turn to stone
I’m a man of no tomorrow
Waiting for the night
I’m a man of no tomorrow
I’ll never know the light
From the corner of this strange room
I sit like in a dark tomb
I think back on what has passed
Where will I find true peace at last
I’m a man of no tomorrow
Waiting for the night
I’m a man of no tomorrow
I’ll never know the light
All those people that I have know’d
All those seeds that have been sowed
I don’t know where it all went
I can’t keep count of what I spent
Footsteps smash the silence of the night
There’s darting flickering lights
I see shadows on the wall
I hear voices in the hall
I feel them coming for me
They’re coming for me
Coming for me
I’m a man of no tomorrow
Waiting for the night
I’m a man of no tomorrow
I’ll never know the light
I’m a man of no tomorrow
Waiting for the night
I’m a man of no tomorrow
I’ll never know the light
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Paul Robert Thomas PRS No. 497904008 (London)
PRS Tunecode: 027524WF * ISWC: T-340.970.513-7
Audiosparx Catalogue ID: 1423054 * ISRC: US5UL2651410
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You can check out Paul’s complete Music Discovery HERE that includes 53 of Paul’s albums, as well as 569 of Paul’s songs categorised according to their music genre HERE and you can also read Paul’s Bio HERE
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Take a tour of Paul’s music site at www.paullyrics.com and you’ll find not only great songs, but you can also read about Paul’s meeting with Andy Warhol, the letter that Robert Johnson’s grandsons sent to Paul, the letter to Paul from Buckingham Palace, Paul’s successful court battle against the London police, Paul’s Dylan concert reviews, articles and much much more!
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Paul is a member of the PRS (London) CAE 497904008
Join Paul on YouTube HERE and on Facebook HERE and on Bandcamp HERE
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You can contact Paul via email at paul@paullyrics.com
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