Category: David Harley

One of my earliest songs, written in the late 60s (though it’s been through a few changes since then: haven’t we all?)

backup:

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

This may well be the first song I ever wrote that I can still remember all through, though it’s changed a lot since 1969. It contains some of the original lines, but the tune has changed completely.

This demo is an interpretation of a song I learned many years ago from Michael Cooney by way of banjo player Merrion Wood. Oddly enough, Bert Jansch also recorded a slightly similar ‘Weeping Willow Blues’, and both used 12-string for their recordings. Just to be awkward, I play it slide. :)

The ‘Sometimes I think you’re too sweet to die…’ verse is also associated with Rabbit Brown’s ‘James Alley Blues’, widely known through Judy Roderick’s rewrite ‘Born in the Country’.

David Harley
Small Blue-Green World