Posted by: David Harley | January 1, 2014

Dead Man’s Alley

A heavily re-arranged version of the ‘Cocaine Blues’/’Honey take a whiff on me’ theme. I put it together in the 1970s, but then wrote a version I liked better. However, this suddenly popped into my head and I decided I like it after all. Not too bad a demo considering I haven’t played it since the 70s, and probably never in public.

Backup:

Dead Man’s Alley (Trad. arr. Harley)

Up dead man’s alley, going down Main
Dead man’s alley, going down Main
Dead man’s alley, going down Main
Looking for a woman that use cocaine

Drop back mama, won’t you let me be
Drop back mama, let me be
Drop back mama, and let me be
Cold turkey got his claws in me

Some say the cocaine habit is bad
Some say cocaine is bad
Some say cocaine habit is bad
Stone cold turkey worst I had

Drop back mama, won’t you let me be
Drop back mama, let me be
Drop back mama, and let me be
Cold turkey got his claws in me

Never miss your water till the well run dry
Never miss your water till the well run dry
Never miss your water till the well run dry
Never miss your man till he walk on by, walk on, walk on by

Drop back mama, won’t you let me be
Drop back mama, let me be
Drop back mama, and let me be
Cold turkey got his claws in me

Coming up State Street, running down Main
Coming up State Street, running down Main
Coming up State Street, running down Main
Looking for the man who sell cocaine

Drop back mama, won’t you let me be
Drop back mama, let me be
Drop back mama, and let me be
Cold turkey got his claws in me

David Harley

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Posted in David Harley, Songs

Posted by: David Harley | December 23, 2013

A Xmas Garland

Or a little anti-Christmas medley. The solo Strat on the section was DI-ed so the recording level on the second (miked) section where the acoustic comes in is all wrong, but hey, this was just a quick mashup with Garage Band to try out the idea. One of these days I might even record it properly. :)

The words for the second section can be found here – Make Mine A Snowball – if you’re feeling that masochistic.

David Harley

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Posted in David Harley, Parodies, Songs | Tags: ,

Posted by: David Harley | November 9, 2013

How can I keep from singing

Ironically enough, given its title, an instrumental version of a 19th century hymn. I’ve been playing it a lot since I started playing serious slide guitar again. When I play it live, I sometimes go into ‘Twelve Gates to the City’, but more often I go into something far less spiritual. :) I should probably spend some more time on the recording – there’s more extraneous noise on this version than I like – but it’s going in the right direction.

Mastered:

Backup:

The hymn has its own Wikipedia page, including the first published lyrics and the verse added by Doris Plenn and sung by Pete Seeger. In fact, I first heard it on Seeger’s I Can See a New Day album, a compilation of live recordings released in 1964. The music is credited to Robert Lowrey, as published in his ‘Bright Jewels for the Sunday School’, published in 1869, but the source of the original lyrics is uncertain. The lyrics (apart from Plenn’s) included in the Wikipedia page are apparently as published in the New York Observer in 1868 under the title Always Rejoicing and attributed to ‘Pauline T.’

Earlier versions:

And another

David Harley

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Posted in David Harley, Instrumental

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