Get all 28 David A. Harley releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Brookland Voices, The Road, In a Folkier Vein, Swan Songs, So Sound You Sleep (More Tears of Morning), Seven Years In The Sand (single), Nobody's Song, Marking Time - The 3rd Demo Album, and 20 more.
1. |
Let Me Lie Easy
02:29
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I don’t want to hear that the show must go on
I know that the world keeps on turning
But how can you ask me to rise with the lark
With this pain in my heart still burning?
Let me lie easy, let me lie late/Let me lie low, let the world wait
Let me lie easy, let me lie late/Please let me sleep till it’s over
The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn
The dogs call in vain for their master
Just give me a while to untangle my threads
And Little Boy Blue will come after
The summer’s near gone and the year’s on the wane
The harvest stands ripened and wasting
Just give me an hour to unscramble my head
And I promise I’ll not keep you waiting
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2. |
A Rainy Day Blues
02:24
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[Words and music by David A. Harley]
Some days are like a melody
But I can’t seem to hold the key
I don’t mind losing
I just wish I had a little more to lose
So I spend my day trying to keep myself amused
Sitting here picking at a rainy day blues
I don’t mind losing
I just wish I had a little more to lose
It seems the road to fortune never ends
You play God all week and golf at weekends
I don’t mind losing
I just wish I had a little more to lose
And if we quit the rat-race we could have a ball
But you know those big wheels grind so small
I don’t mind losing
I just wish I had a little more to lose
You say you love me but it seems sometimes
You stuff my mouth with kisses and my ears with lies
I don’t mind losing
I just wish I had a little more to lose
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3. |
Please
04:38
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[Words and music by David A. Harle]
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
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4. |
Quirks and Crotchets
02:52
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Quirks & Crotchets (Alan Doyle-David A. Harley)
Two lost souls living in a bedsit
Lying there back to back
She's close to weeping, he pretends he's sleeping
But he's wondering what to pack
Someone needs to say 'sorry'
But it seems that it won't be him
They want to be happy, but they'd rather be right
So the chances of that are slim
Sometimes it's OK just to let it all go
And it really doesn't matter who's right
Sometimes it's OK just to let it all go
And it really doesn't matter who's right
Two lost souls standing by the bus stop
Neither finding words to say
He's packed up his troubles in his old rucksack
But no one's smiling today
Someone needs to say 'sorry'
But neither seems to want to know
They want to be happy, but they'd rather be right
Instead of flattening the bumps in the road
Two old dears standing in the bus queue
Neither has a lot to say
He's got the shopping and she's got his arm
So it must have worked out OK
And they've learned to live with each other's quirks and crotchets
And the angry words that quickly lose their bite
They wanted to be happy, and they want to be right
But they've learned to put the past behind
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5. |
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A trace of your scent still lingers on my pillow
And raises echoes in my memory
And I believe you’re missing me almost as much as I miss you
But I wish to God that you were here with me
The sun will surely rise on another soft blue morning
And lying in your arms is where I’ll be
With sweet dreams still in my eyes, I’ll wake and kiss your hair
But it’s a long cold night while you’re not here with me
This guitar once played for keeps, but since you changed my life
This guitar just plays for you, if that’s OK?
This guitar rang bells for losers, but there’ll be no more songs of losing
Though this guitar just plays the blues while you’re away
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6. |
Her Own Way Down
02:42
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[Words and music by David A. 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
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7. |
Back In The Day
02:20
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[Words by Alison Pittaway, music by David A. Harley]
I said hello / and you cracked a smile,
I felt warm inside / just for a while.
Just two friends / back in the day,
No need for words then / [or at least it seemed that way]
We played and we laughed / as the world went spinning by
And time went faster then, / faster than we realized
There was no need for words / And no thoughts misunderstood.
You didn’t wait for an answer / And how I’d wished you would.
You’ve gone from me now, / Gone so far away.
But we were just two friends then, / Back in the day.
Oh, just two friends, / back in the day.
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8. |
This End of the 1960s
01:21
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[Words and music by David A. Harley]
Shine like a sun on this cloudy day
Reached out my arms but you’re far away
Dawn took the sunshine away
Strange how familiar a new song can be
At the trigger end of a memory
Dawn took the sunshine away
I can remember a sunny day
Could be just yesterday
Dawn took the sunshine away
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9. |
What Do I Do About You?
02:05
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I can write the first line at 2.45
And finish the song by 5 to…
I can write an opera in an hour and a half
But what do I do about you?
I can play the Minute Waltz
In 35 seconds flat
But I can’t seem to get you out of my head
So what do I do about that?
Sometimes I fly gliders or water-ski
Before making breakfast for two
From my own recipes (of course you’ve read my books?)
But what do I do about you?
I can make cocktails like you’ve never seen
Ask anyone – I can do
Things with an olive you’d never believe
– But what do I do about you?
I can build a cocktail with a sting like an asp
Pernod, tequila and lime
Crushed ice and soda – now it’s almost done
Buddy where’s the grenadine?
I can build furniture, drive racing cars
I’ve painted a mural or two
But I can’t seem to get you to remember my name
So what do I do about you?
What do I do about you?
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10. |
Never Look Back
02:01
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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
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11. |
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There’ll never be a better time for starting something new
I’m spending too much time alone, brooding over you
But nothing comes that easy, and I’ve got so insecure
Since the angel I was slowly learning how to trust is surely finding
Strange ways of turning long-time dreams into nightmares after all
The sun will rise and fall and the night will win again
So I’m promised with no guarantee of stars
And in my street-lit room I will sing some different tune
To the futile rusting chords of my guitar
The beggar-clown will weep as he tiptoes through my sleep
If he knows, he will not tell me where you are
In his hand he holds a candle I reach out to pluck its blossom
And it lies between the strings of my guitar
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12. |
Two Is A Silence
02:22
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Two isn’t company, three is a crowd
Two is a silence, three is too loud
Two is a silence gets harder to break
But three always leaves one left over
Three into two isn’t good for the head
It’s no problem in math, but it’s bad news in bed
And it’s one for an ace and two for a pair
But three always leaves one left over
When we’re alone somehow he’s always there
You say it’s the same when you two are the pair
So it’s one for sorrow and two for joy
But three always leaves one left over
All the shouting is over and dead
Somehow there’s nothing much else to be said
And it’s one for the money and two for the show
But three always leaves one left over
Two isn’t company, three is a crowd
Two is a silence, three is too loud
Two is a silence gets harder to break
But three always leaves one left over
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13. |
The Jailer
05:35
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[Words & music by David A. Harley]
The train will soon be leaving
And the man says 'all aboard'
But you never leave the platform
And you never cut the cord
Most days you think of leaving
But he'll always talk you round
His words will talk you into silence
And his arms will hold you down
You need so much to leave him
But there's no one you can phone
There's no ticket in your pocket
And you've no money of your own
Sometimes he tells you that you're stupid
Sometimes he tells you that you're ill
You dream of breaking free
And yet you don't believe you will
He knows just where you are
Every moment of the day
He hears the thoughts inside your head
He owns the very words you say
He says that you’re his lover
And that's all you'll ever be
But you know he's your jailer
And he'll never set you free
Sometimes he'll loosen your shackles
But you're locked inside his head
And you've never found the way
To leave his arms or leave his bed
There's nowhere you can go
And there's nothing you can say
Because he knows you'll never leave him
And that's exactly why you stay
The train will soon be leaving
And the man says 'all aboard'
But you never leave the platform
And you never pull the cord
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14. |
Can't Sleep
02:30
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[Words & music by David A. Harley]
I don't need this jangle / In my nerves / And in my head
I don't need / These lonely hours / Here in my weary bed
But I can't sleep / I can't turn her off / I can't get her out my head
The night hours / Are bleeding away / Till the light runs away with my time
The shadow fades / And I’m so afraid / And my words are refusing to rhyme
But I can't shut her up / I can't shut her off / I can't get her out of my mind
I can't shut her up / I can't shut her down / I can't get her out of my head
I can't pick her up / I can't put her down / I can't get her into my bed
I can't find the path / I can't do the math / I can't get it into my head
And I can't break it down / I can't break it up / I can't get you out of my head
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15. |
Song Without Warning
03:22
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[Words & music by David A. Harley]
This is my box of dreams, my nest of nightmares
Words and lines and verses in a cage
Fragments of conversation
Thoughts that barely made the page
Some days, I think someday I’ll write them
All the verses in vitro in this room
Someday these little birds will find the way to fly away
They won’t need me anymore and they’ll be gone
Sometimes I call myself a writer
Though I’m afraid I might have lost the paperwork
Till they tap me on the shoulder and remind me
My poetic licence hasn’t been revoked
When my last song has been written
When I’ve picked my last chord
My box of dreams will still be here
Overflowing still with orphaned words
For every song without warning
That somehow made it to be heard
There’ll still be all these scraps of recollection
Thoughts and dreams that never found their words
Sometimes I call myself a writer
Though I’m afraid I might have lost the paperwork
Till they tap me on the shoulder and remind me
My poetic licence hasn’t been revoked
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David A. Harley England, UK
David Harley is a former professional musician, administrator, IT security editor, author and researcher, and former much else that is even less impressive. He now lives in Cornwall. More info at whealalice.com
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