"Harry Lime" is the 3rd single from the forthcoming EP: YOU DOUBLE-CROSSED MY MIND, which will be released on BandCamp September 1st, and the official album-release show will be in the Blue Room in CitySpace (former Easthampton Town Hall), Easthampton, MA.
Excerpt from the liner notes:
The seed for this project was planted with “Harry Lime.” I wrote this song for a gig on April 27th, 2012, when we played before one of my favorite movies, The Third Man (1949), at Pothole Pictures in Shelburne Falls, MA. Graham Greene wrote the novella The Third Man and the screenplay at the same time. The film stars Joseph Cotten as American novelist Holly Martins, who comes to Vienna to accept a job offer from his friend, Harry Lime, played by Welles. However, upon arriving, he discovers Lime has died in suspicious circumstances. In the process of investigating his friend’s death, he discovers some very surprising things about his friend—not least of which is that Lime isn’t dead. Cotten met Welles in 1934, joined his Mercury Theater Company, and later starred in many of Welles’ films. In Citizen Kane, he played Jedediah Leland, the best friend of the title character, Charles Foster Kane, played by Welles.
(SPOILER ALERT) Although Harry Lime died at the end of The Third Man, the suave con man lived on in The Adventures of Harry Lime, a British radio series produced in 1951 and ’52 and later broadcast in the US as The Lives of Harry Lime. In this prequel series, Welles reprised his role and narrates Lime’s various schemes and misadventures leading up to his fateful end in a sewer beneath Vienna. Not only does Welles voice the title character, he also apparently wrote several scripts, perhaps as many as six of the fifty-two episodes. However, in a move that could’ve come straight from Harry Lime’s playbook, evidence suggests that some, if not all, of the episodes Welles was paid for were actually written by ghostwriters… at least one of whom he didn’t pay.
Whoever the writers for The Adventures of Harry Lime were, the quality of the writing is consistently strong and the storylines flesh out and enrich Lime’s colorful backstory with indelible wit and aplomb. Each episode is entertaining and engrossing, from “the shot that killed Harry Lime” and The Third Man’s timeless zither theme by Anton Karas, to Lime’s closing monologue. The voice of Welles is the heart and soul of the series, whether delivering clever quips, flowery compliments to his intended victims, or wry commentary as narrator. His “delivery is so sublime I wish I could live inside it.” While the radio series’ tone is lighter and Lime’s crimes are less repugnant than in The Third Man, it still flirts with moral ambiguity in a way that is totally unique among the radio dramas of the era.
The second verse references “Slow Boat To China,” which is an especially memorable episode, but the entire series can (and should!) be enjoyed at archive.org. “Harry Lime” borrows generously from the radio series, sampling Karas’ theme and clips of various voice actors, culled and skillfully stitched together by James.
lyrics
Harry Lime, Harry Lime, you’ve double-crossed my mind.
You’re so sharp in your suit and tie, your scotch close beside them.
Harry Lime, Harry Lime, you’ve double-crossed my mind.
On a rogue’s holiday in Haiti or Helsinki
always ready for a “business opportunity.”
On the lam in Brazil, Prague, or Bombay
living large in Jakarta on just your prospects.
Harry Lime, Harry Lime, you’ve double-crossed my mind.
You come off as so kind, endlessly obliging.
Your delivery is so sublime I wish I could live inside it.
Harry Lime, Harry Lime, you’ve double-crossed my mind.
Slow boat to China, ends up in Hawaii
chasing stolen jewels to an island beauty.
She said: “Money won’t make you happy.”
You said: “No, but I like to have it around
so I can choose the type of misery that’s most agreeable to me.”
Harry Lime, Harry Lime, you’ve double crossed my mind.
You come off as so kind, but you’re endlessly conniving
and when at last you stab them in the back, the hilt is always gilt and ivory.
Harry Lime, Harry Lime, you’ve double-crossed my mind.
Daniel Hales: guitar, uke, percussion, vocals
James Lowe: synths, percussion, audio samples
Recorded @ Algorhythm Studio, Greenfield, MA
& Lowe End Studio, Florence, MA
Produced, recorded, and mixed by Daniel Hales and James Lowe
Mastered by Mark Alan Miller @ Radio Valkyrie, Holyoke, MA
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