Name: Hands of the Craftsman
Duration: P00H05M33S
Description: From the 1980s revue "Nice...if you can get it" - previously released on 'Hands of the Craftsman' (of course).

Hands of the Craftsman

from Strictly Off The Record by David A. Harley

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

£1 GBP or more
Buy the Full Digital Album
Full Digital Discography

28

releases

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. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

£98.48 GBP or more (35% OFF)

about

From the 1980s revue "Nice...if you can get it" - previously released on 'Hands of the Craftsman' (of course).

lyrics

Minutes ago as God measures time
Something manlike emerged from primordial slime:
Ever since, Mother Nature has been on the run
From a hand with four fingers and opposable thumb.
That hand learned to grip, then it learned to make
Flint into a weapon, then a tool to shape,
To build and to kill, and around then it learned
To strike sparks to bring fire and lighten man’s world.

The hands of the craftsman have moulded our world
From the first stone axe to the first steam drill
To the harvester, laser, and silicon chip
But the hands of the craftsman are losing their grip.

The years roll on swift with the birth of the wheel
Man learned to work bronze, then iron and steel:
The bow drill, the pole lathe, the compass, the lock
The lens, the sextant, the lantern, the clock,
Castings and mouldings, extrusions and pressings
The bandsaw, the dropforge, the milling machine.
The tools and the skills have changed through the centuries
The crafts and the knowledge, if seldom the dreams.

The builder could turn his hand to most trades
Masonry, joinery, plumbing and all.
The engineer trained on a score of machines
Now it’s often just one – he’s in luck if it’s more.
Modularization's the name of the game
It means that they put you on just one machine,
One or two operations on just the one part
It’s efficient, but de-skilling’s what it means.

One day we’re skilled men, the next, operators
The next, no-one knows if we’ll be there at all.
The art passes into the programmer’s hands
Tomorrow, machines will service themselves…
The glazier, the bellfounder, printers and knappers
Dyers and weavers, some are already lost:
Prefabrication will see out the tiler
As the thatcher before him learned to his cost.

The paviour, the saddler, the cooper, the wheelwright
Fitters and grinders and turners and smiths,
We all take our turn in the pattern of process
And one by one, we’re taking our leave

credits

from Strictly Off The Record, released October 10, 2021
Words, music, vocal and guitar by David A. Harley

license

about

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