Down to the River (Harley)

If I get around to a commercial recording, I’ll probably tighten up the lyric. But doesn’t sound too bad considering it was recorded in the 80s on lo-tech gear.

I won’t go down to the river
Anyway not yet
There’s too much to do and the water’s cold
And I don’t want my feet wet
I don’t want my feet wet

I won’t go down to the river
I guess I really should
But the sand’s so warm between my toes
And you know it feels so good
I know it does me good

Come on down to the river
It can’t do you harm
You’ve got to learn sometime to sink or swim
And the sun will keep you warm
The sun will keep you warm

I won’t go down to the river
You know I can’t go down
The water’s so still, the sides so steep
I’m scared that I might drown
So scared that I might drown

Come on down to the river
The road’s so hard and rough
If you keep your head and your hands are clean
Surely you can’t drown in love?
You can’t drown in love

I can’t go down to the river
I surely can’t go down
My soul is parched but my body aches
And I just know I’ll drown
I know I’ll surely drown

Come on down to the river
It tastes so sweet and cold
Come on down before it gets too late
And wash the dust out of your soul
The dust out of your soul

We’ve got to get on down to the river
We have to learn to trust
Got to wash away all the doubt and fear
Before the whole damn’ world dries up
Before the world dries up

 

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

This is a song that has been published as a poem at least once. I haven’t recorded it before because rangewise, it’s a bit of a stretch, but I do think it’s a decent tune.

backup:

The Old Man Laughs (Harley)

The old man laughs and the room is that much warmer
for memory puts his one-bar fire to shame
huddled in the afterglow of a younger sun
that burned with a sweeter flame.

He smiles to recall the fertile spring
when the rain on his flesh was soft and warm:
the grass burst into tall green flames
and he held a thousand stars in his arms.

The old man laughs remembering how he chose
a harvest moon to light his lullabies
and offered into fruitful nights
the rose that blossomed behind his eyes.

He smiles, recalling autumn nights
golden leaves and golden days
when the fledglings tried their wings
and flew into the Southern haze.

The old man laughs….

I tend to regard my songs as fiction, albeit sometimes taking their starting point from my own experience or that of people around me. This one, though, actually sounds closer than is comfortable to how I often felt in my mid-20s: not the best time of my life…

Backup copy:

The best days (Harley)

Sometimes I miss those other places where my lifestyle has been forged
I might even miss this town when I’ve moved on
Though I’m just turned 24, right now I’m feeling so much more
When I get this weary feeling that the best days are gone
The best days are gone

Other times I felt so low and wanted what was lost
Are hidden in a mist of golden days
But mostly I was happy, though I didn’t know it then
Such strange tricks that hindsight plays
Tricks that hindsight plays

Nothing’s as it seems to be, there’s no one I can trust
I want to wake and find myself a million years away
And more than once or twice when just living wore me down
I’ve wished I had the nerve to split and drift with the highway
And drift with the highway

There are names that I remember, many more that I forget
All the girls I never had, too many that I lost
One or two could make me cry at midnight all alone
But when you go I think I’ll miss you most
And now you’re gone, Lord knows I miss you most

 

Words by Alison Pittaway, tune by me.  All rights reserved.

backup/alternative take:

 

 

Birds made homeless today
The tree fellers came to take their prey
Diggers ripping up the earth
Concrete laid down for what it’s worth
From nowhere to nowhere

Green belt turned grey – why should they care?
Tainted money buys land laid bare
Shifting soil, uprooting pines
Laying down more railway lines
From nowhere to nowhere

Villages and fields torn in two
Holes in the hearts of me and you
Earth and rubble shifted load by load
Traffic chaos on the roads
From nowhere to nowhere

Meadows buried under bricks and dust
Lost to the profiteers and money lust
No more time to have our say
No time to see what went astray
From somewhere to nowhere

Nowhere to nowhere
Nowhere to nowhere

 

Backup:

With the words as I more or less sing them now, and better mastered.

The Chuck Berry-Beri

I don’t feel very much like dancing
No song worth singing but the blues
I used to feel like some kind of sex bomb
Till you absconded with the fuse
I think I need a holiday
So I’m out here on a midnight cruise
I’ve got the Chuck Berry-beri
Got to get a shot of rhythm and blues

I guess there’s no time left for loving
Looking into your backyard
Dissatisfaction guaranteed
But back to you was just a step too far
The waves were blowing higher
We were shaking at the end of the cruise
It’s a fascinating rhythm
But I need a shot of rhythm and blues

I thought I saw your nightlight flicker
But I don’t think that anyone’s at home
I’ll call you with the news from nowhere
When I’m stranded by the side of the road
I still need a holiday
But I can’t afford another midnight cruise
Still I can’t break the habit
Need another shot of rhythm and blues

David Harley