Backup:
With my guitar
I have built a wall
Of alibis
To shield my emptiness
And drive away the shadows
Of faces
I try to forget
I tried to write you a song
But the words got in my way
Just a wounded sky
Bleeding moonbeams
audio capture:
Backup:
There’s no future in singing the blues
I guess I’ll leave, I’ve got nothing to lose
Wearing out my shoes, walking away from you
And if I can’t walk, I guess I’ll fly – bye-bye…
I went down to the depot, looked up on the board
It said “good times here, but better down the road”
Wearing out my shoes, walking away from you
And if I can’t walk, I guess I’ll fly – bye-bye…
I’m going down to the crossroads, my cap in my hand
Looking for a woman that’s looking for a man
And wearing out my shoes, walking away from you
And if I can’t walk, I guess I’ll fly – bye-bye…
Words & music (c) David Harley
backup:
Wounded hearts and guilty pleasures
Walking home too late at night
Ecstatic pain and hidden treasure
Gardens in the early morning light
Ghostly in the morning light
Wanting you was all too easy
Having you was mostly pain
Yet I’m here at your back door
To make that same mistake again
That same mistake again
We never were so close to heaven
Hopes of paradise deferred
We may not meet again this side of heaven
Hoping for more would be absurd
More would be absurd
Words & Music (c) David Harley
Backup:
Alternative version:
Backup:
I went down to see my lady
But someone spread the news all over town
I said “I don’t mind what you call me
But won’t you keep your sweet voice down?”
Might have been old white lightning
Might have been old sloe gin
Might have been brandy and it might have been Scotch
But it’s really done me in
[break]
If I go back to see my lady
I hope she won’t have all my cases packed
I need an ice pack for my aching head
Not an ice pick for my back
Might have been old Sal Stacey
Might have been Lucy-Lyn
It might have been Lisa or it might have been Liz
But she really did me in
Alternative version found on an old work tape, including the elusive third verse but no lead break has been added yet:
I went down to see my lady
But someone spread the news all over town
I said ‘I don’t mind what you call me,
But won’t you keep your sweet voice down?’
Might have been old white lightning
Might have been old sloe gin
Might have been barley, or it might have been malt
But it’s really done me in
If I go back to see my lady
I know just where she’s at
She’s got an ice-pack for my aching head
And an ice-pick for my back
Might have been old Sal Stacey
Might have been Lucy-Lynne
Might have been Lisa, might have been Liz
But she really did me in
I think I’ll steer my feet to the river
Marking time to the thump in my head
I think I might just die of too much wine
And it’ll save you changing the bed
Might have been smack or cocaine
Petrol or paraffin
Might have been Bostik or North Sea gas
But I swear it’s done me in
Words & Music (c) David Harley
Backup:
Pretty much made up as I went along, so I’ll probably be doing more work on it.
When the Next Wave Breaks
I’m nothing but a ripple
A stone thrown in the sea
When the next wave breaks
You can’t tell where I’ve been
There’s a change in the weather
There’s a restless angry sea
There’s no changing you
But there’s surely been a change in me
I’ll take that lonesome highway
By the light of a lonesome moon
You know the sooner you start crying
The sooner I’ll be gone
When the sun is going down
And the moon begins to rise
I’ll be so far down the road
There’s no shadow left behind
There might be just one woman
Could make me want to stay
If you were her, my bag
Would not be packed today
Somewhat unexpectedly, Wainwright takes on the Great American Songbook. And actually does a good job.
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III – I’d Rather Lead A Band (Thirty Tigers)
David Harley
A guitar solo I used to play a lot when I was living in London, though I think I was living in Bracknell when I wrote it. Actually, this version has some sections that suggest I was intending to come back to it and add a second guitar, which explains why it’s so much longer (too long!) than when I played it out in the wild. But clearly I haven’t. Yet.
The title has nothing to do with Bert Jansch, by the way. I’m flattered when people tell me what I do reminds them of him, but I don’t really see a resemblance, though I did listen a lot to his first album when I first started to learn the guitar. But if anything, I was more influenced by John Renbourn. And there are bits here that sound as if I was trying to be both of them at once. But to get back to the point, the title refers to the fact that for much of my life I was known as Bert rather than as Dave or David.
Played on a cheap and cheerful Kimbara acoustic – actually, it was a very decent little guitar – and recorded on domestic equipment.
alternative version:
Backup:
David Harley
I’ve heard too many gorgeously sung versions of this to add my own indifferent vocals to the pot, but I do want to include it in a recording project, so this is a sketch for an instrumental version. It needs work, of course – it’s much too busy at the moment – but I think there are possibilities here. It fits because I’m planning to include a couple of my own Yeats settings. However, the well-known melody used here doesn’t need replacing by any tune of mine. 🙂
Backup:
After I wrote a review of the CD ‘A Shropshire Lad’ (by Michael Raven and Joan Mills), in which I specifically mentioned that Michael had set When I Was One and Twenty to the tune better known as Brigg Fair, I had a thought. I mentioned in passing in that article that the theme of the poem is not dissimilar to that of the Yeats poem (based on an imperfectly remembered folk song) Down By The Salley Gardens. The Yeats poem was published in 1889, and A Shropshire Lad was published in 1896, so it’s very likely that Housman knew the Yeats poem, though for all I know, he may have written his own poem before he came upon Salley Gardens. I’m not sure it matters all that much: I’m not doing a PhD thesis. 🙂
Down by the salley gardens
my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens
with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy,
as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish,
with her would not agree.
In a field by the river
my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder
she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy,
as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish,
and now am full of tears.
Anyway, a quick turn around the fretboard demonstrates that the melody Maids of Mourne Shore, the one most commonly associated with Down By The Salley Gardens since Hughes used it for his setting in 1909, would also work with When I was One and Twenty. As would any of the other tunes associated with or set to the Yeats poem, I guess. Oddly enough, the melody to The Rambling Boys of Pleasure, usually assumed to be the song that Yeats was trying to recreate, probably wouldn’t work so well, at any rate without some modification to accommodate the length of the lines. According to the music historian A.V. Butcher, Butterworth‘s setting to One and Twenty was related to a folk melody, but which one is unknown. Certainly the setting doesn’t ring any bells with me.
David Harley
Words copyright David Harley 1981 (I think). As it’s a Talking Blues, there ain’t no tune. Duh. Published in the early 1980s in Folk London, and included a hat tip to Steve Bell’s cartoon series Maggie’s Farm. Included here for historical interest: I’m not likely to perform it again in this form.
If you’ve got those Monday morning blues
Lend me an ear and you can’t lose
Don’t run the rat-race till you drop down dead
Take a working vacation in the country instead
Down on Maggie’s Farm
Cleaning out the cowsheds
Up to your neck in BS
Lads if you’ve the urge to roam
Why stay on the dole at home?
Prove your manhood, score with girls
Join the army and see the world
Like Caterham, Aldershot
Downtown Belfast, Greenham Common
If you’re sixteen with nothing to do
We’ve got Youth Training Schemes for you
(not to be confused with Opportunities)
Starting out on a great career
Sticking labels on bottles of beer
And when your six months are up
You can tell ’em all about it
Down at the labour…
But if you’re getting past your prime
You’ve earned yourself some undertime
Step aside for a younger man
Enjoy retirement while you can
After all, life begins at … 35
And remember
3 1/2 million (it says here)
Can’t be wrong
Wheal Alice Music 