“In my mid-20s I moved to London: it wasn’t necessarily intended as a permanent move, but somehow or other I stayed there for 25 years: single, married (twice), a parent, a clerk, a wood machinist, a systems administrator, and much else. This is the version as first recorded in 1983: the arrangement is less adventurous than the more recent recording (2021), but my voice was in better shape in those days“.
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Lyrics
Coasting (1983)
The nights pass slowly, but they pass:
The days are paper-thin.
Life goes on much as usual:
Some games I lose, some I win.
Sometimes I feel that I’m sleepwalking
Through the streets of this grey city,
But then, it’s only been a month or two.
It’s not the first time that I’ve coasted
Through the routine chores of living
And I’ll make it this time too
After you…
Today I walked in sunlight though the wind blew cold
Through my coat:
I thought about the coming spring, and I swear somewhere
I felt a twinge of hope.
I don’t expect to hear from you. I guess that’s how it should be:
There’s no point in chasing dreams that won’t come true.
It’s not the first time that I’ve coasted through the aftermath of loving
And I’ll make it this time too
After you…
Sometimes I take a weekend walk by these muddy city shores
And old man river talks to me
But I can’t quite understand: my feet stay locked to the dry land
So he drifts on with the seasons out to sea
The weeks pass slowly but they pass
And I drift from phase to phase.
I’m sick of wishing you were here to help me
Through these bleak and restless days.
Sometimes I think I’m waking into another nightmare,
But it passes, as these feelings often do.
It’s not the first time I’ve been lonely, nor the first time I’ve been left,
And I’ll make it this time too
After you…
credits
Vocal, guitar, words & music by David Harley.
David A. Harley 1949 – 2025
TRAVEL WORDS 
I really like this song Jude 🥰
He rerecorded it more recently slightly different, but I prefer this version.
That’s a beautiful song, Jude.
Thanks Lynette.
As a Londoner, it has always been hard for me to imagine how strange and disconcerting that city must be for new arrivals who are overwhelmed by its size, and the fact that it is so unforgiving. I get a sense of that from David’s lyrics.
Best wishes, Pete. x
Yes, coming from rural Shropshire it must have been very different. Plus a couple of disastrous relationships.
I echo what beetlypete said. As a Londoner it’s easy to forget how alienating the city can feel to someone newly arrived there but this captures that feeling perfectly.
As a Yorkshire lass I was desperate to get a job in London in the 1970s but despite several interviews I didn’t make it. It seemed so exciting compared to Wakefield.
Melancholy again – but hopeful.
Always melancholic, except for the blues and traditional folk songs, but some of those are quite tragic.
A wood machinist? Sounds interesting. I guess I was the opposite- I loved the city at first sight and would have been happy to stay, were circumstances different xx
The wood machinist job cost him part of his thumb!
Ouch!
Melancholy and evocative.
Sad relationships, far from home, sometimes his life story crept into his songwriting, but often it was just based on what he observed in other people.
I like this , evocative indeed
A nice tune I thought.