Name: Sale Or Return
Duration: P00H05M12S
Description: This song about rock 'n' roll casualties changed my life in a number of ways, not all of them good. But it did (along with 'Thomas Anderson') start people (including me) thinking of me as a writer rather than a performer. Not that I saw much fame and fortune either way. A remixed version of a track from one of my demo albums.

Sale Or Return

from Nobody's Song 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

This song about rock 'n' roll casualties changed my life in a number of ways, not all of them good. But it did (along with 'Thomas Anderson') start people (including me) thinking of me as a writer rather than a performer. Not that I saw much fame and fortune either way. A remixed version of a track from one of my demo albums.

lyrics

Sale or Return
Mister can I carry your bags?
We took the same road and we both paid the fare
Buddy can I carry your axe?
We started out right and I know you still care
And hey, can I carry your load?
At least you still look like you’re bound somewhere

I’ve talked to the hero who knew he was hip
Who got too heavy to loosen his grip
Who sold out his name to some strange ego trip
And I know the glass eye looking into itself
The fly blown in amber trapping dust on the shelf
Conversations that tailed into stony silence

Mister can I carry your bags?
We took the same road and we both paid the fare
Buddy can I carry your axe?
We started out right and I know you still care
And hey, can I carry your load?
At least you still look like you’re bound somewhere

I’ve seen how it is twisted out of the frame
By the mythical muse that warps and maims
A half-human soul into implacable aims
And I’ve known a hero we all knew of old
Who sold out his share of the silver and gold
And still he can’t tune out the gall in his soul

Mister can I carry your bags?
We took the same road and we both paid the fare
Buddy can I try your axe?
We started out right and I know you still care
And hey, can I carry your load?
At least you still look like you’re bound somewhere

So it’s down to the Tranny and the travelling band
But somewhere we drew blank, something better we planned
Is gone with the smithy and the shantyman
So I sat and I drank and I listened to you
Then I drank some more while the beat soaked through
But I guess I just drank off my blue suede shoes

And I know how it is kicking themes into shape
In sleep-bleeding hours between two working days
And I’m not here to say you should make that mistake
No, there’s no point in crossing the bridges we burned
But a few bands ago we talked in no terms
Of sale or return

credits

from Nobody's Song, released June 16, 2022
Words and music, guitar and vocal 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