David Harley Words & Music & Pictures &…

I recorded a version of this in the early 70s in Manchester, but never did anything with it, and I no longer have the tape. I’ve changed a couple of minor things in the lyric that mildly irritated me, but the vocal arrangement is much as I remember it, though it was originally purely acoustic and I’ll be adding some instrumentation. It’s very much a 20-something song, and I didn’t want to do a 60-something update.

Backup:

Age of the Hero

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