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My setting of a poem by W.B. Yeats. The poem and an audio version are posted here.

The Chuck BeriBeri – words & music by David Harley

Strangely, this started off as a poem called The Walsall Concerto, then started to evolve into straight rock and roll, then suddenly turned into something altogether darker…

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 are blowing higher
And we’re 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 there’s anyone at home
Maybe I’ll call you from the middle of nowhere
While 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
I need another shot of rhythm and blues

How does it feel to be proved right
When everything just fell apart?
Does it buy you sleep through long cold nights?
Does it ease your aching heart?

Score two points, scratch one lover:
You said it’s too good to be true.
Why don’t you run back to your mother?
She always knows what’s best for you.

All those black moods and jealousies,
Now you know they were justified.
She looks so happy, holding hands with someone else:
Was it worth it, being right?

Hold on to all that righteous anger
But don’t forget who set it up for her.
If she’s easier in someone else’s arms,
She might be telling you you were unfair.

Score two points, scratch one lover:
Let it ride, it’s just the gypsy’s curse.
But people tend to give you what you ask for:
Maybe you only got what you deserved

There’s a live video here.

Here are the words again, but there’s much more information about the references in the song here.

The Abbey watches my train crawling Southwards
Thoughts of Cadfael kneeling in his cell
All along the Marches line, myth and history
Prose and rhyme
But these are tales I won’t be here to tell

The hill is crouching like a cat at play
Its beacon flashing red across the plain
Once we were all friends around the Wrekin
But some will never pass this way again

Lawley and Caradoc fill my window
Facing down the Long Mynd, lost in rain
But I’m weighed down with the creaks and groans
Of all the years I’ve known
And I don’t think I’ll walk these hills again

Stokesay dreams its humble glories
Stories that will never come again
Across the Shropshire hills
The rain is blowing still
But the Marcher Lords won’t ride this way again

The royal ghosts of Catherine and Arthur
May walk the paths of Whitcliffe now and then
Housman’s ashes grace
The Cathedral of the Marches
He will not walk Ludlow’s streets again

The hill is crouching like a cat at play
Its beacon flashing red across the plain
Once we were all friends around the Wrekin
But some will never pass this way again
And I may never pass this way again

Words and Music (c) David Harley 

She’ll have to learn to make her own way down
Or learn to lean on someone else
Now her good man’s not around
She’ll have to learn to make her own way down

She’ll have to make her own way in the dark
Though I tried so hard to warn her
I always missed my mark
She’ll have to make her own way in the dark

I’ll have to find my own path through the rain
I got by without her once
I guess I can again
I’ll have to find my own path through the rain

I’m crying now, but not forever, wait and see
Though once we loved each other
And she was so good for me
Nothing lasts forever, wait and see

She’ll have to learn to make her own way down
Or learn to lean on someone else
Now her good man’s not around
She’ll have to learn to make her own way down

David Harley

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

Words & Music (c) David Harley

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