Month: March 2020

Remastered version with reduced instrumentation.

There’s lightning on the skyline
But I can’t hear a sound
I used to stand for something
Now I can’t find solid ground

Tom’s gone to Hilo
And Sammy’s gone to sea
But Hannah’s gone upcountry
She wouldn’t wait for me

The wind bites like a razor
When those Easterlies veer round
The moon floats high and lonesome
Peering through the clouds

Tom’s gone to Hilo
And Sammy’s gone to sea
But Hannah’s gone upcountry
She wouldn’t wait for me

Some fell where they were standing
Some are glory bound
But Hannah’s gone to the mountains
And she’s never coming down

Tom’s gone to Hilo
And Sammy’s gone to sea
But Hannah’s gone upcountry
She wouldn’t wait for me

There’s lightning on the skyline
But I can’t hear a sound
I used to stand for something
Now I can’t find solid ground

Tom’s gone to Hilo
And Johnny’s gone to sea
But Hannah’s up the country
She wouldn’t wait for me

Yes, Hannah’s gone upcountry
She won’t even write to me

Words & music (c) 2017 by David Harley

Remixed and remastered. I recorded a version of this in Manchester in the very early 70s: that tape has gone, but I don’t think the arrangement is much different, except that it has fewer harmony overlays and a Variax pretending to be a 12-string.

Backup:

Deep down I know I should forget you
Get out with my ego intact
My head knows the end of the game
Is historical fact

But my heart never quite seems to make it
I can’t seem to learn to let go
It’s a one-way ticket to nowhere
But where else to go?

I took someone else to a party
In hopes of a two-way high
And stayed for a while in search
Of an alibi

Slipped out for some air and some distance
Got to thinking and wondering and then
I wasn’t surprised to get back and find
She’d gone home with somebody else

Now I lie on my bed, my mind racing
Watching dawn seeping in from the East
And the Age of the Hero is over
I can let go of that game at least

And I wait for the future to tell me
Whether angels are still to be found
And I’m trying hard not to stop hoping
That there’s still enough love to go round

Words and music by David Harley
© 1973

Backup:

Please let me go on dreaming
Don’t make me wake to find her gone
But it’s all right waking in the darkness
To find her still here in my arms

And the nightmares come and go but in the afterglow
The pain spills out across the sheets
If this is all a dream please let me go on dreaming

Please let us go on dreaming
Sleep away the bitterness that poisoned our lives
Help us go on believing / Tuning out the threats And the lies

Please hold back the daybreak
Let there be no more lonely dawns
Or else let tomorrow last for ever
Dreaming of the night before

Words & Music by David Harley
© 1977

Something a little more experimental than usual. Well, more synth and dissonance, anyway. Underneath, there’s quite a simple song. But then, I’m a simple person…

Words & Music by David Harley, copyright 1975. Guitar, vocals, synth by DH.

Backup:

 

We have ourselves and the moment/and can’t that be enough?
After all, we are adults/and we say that we’re in love

Surely there’s a guardian angel/to forgive us this one sin
But you lie by my side taking care not to break/this fragile web of limbs

And you never look back when you leave me/I know looking back after you
But we bleed when we slash at each other/& I’d say that was love, wouldn’t you?

And I’m sick of the ache in my mind/when you try to smile and don’t know the way
I think sometimes when I look at us both/you could almost teach me to pray

David Harley

Words & Music (c) David Harley

backup:

Someday I’ll make it pay
Cop for Nirvana my own sweet way
Give my feet a holiday
Sit in the sand
Strike up the band

One night I’ll get it right
Spread my wings for a solo flight
Snooze all day, blues all night
Pick a few strings
While my lady sings

Hanging around while the deals go down
I believe I’ve paid my dues
But some sweet day I’ll pay my way
On a sea and sunlight cruise

One time it’ll work out fine
I’ll lay back easy and relax my mind
Trip out legally on music and wine
And you