*** GEt Out Of My House Annotated lryics PART I ***

[rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)]

GET OUT OF MY HOUSE ANNOTATED LRYICS 

        by Ron Hill, Andrew Marvick (IED), and Doug Alan.

        Compiled and edited by Ron Hill



*       ALTHOUGH YOU'VE OFTEN WRITTEN ROMANTIC SONGS - "BABOOSHKA", 
"WUTHERING HEIGHTS", "THE WEDDING LIST" [ROMANTIC??] - THEY'VE NEVER 
BEEN HAPPY BOY-MEETS-GIRL-AND-LIVES-HAPPILY-EVER-AFTER AFFAIRS.  IS 
THAT BECAUSE OF SOME PRIVATE PERVERSITY?
        KATE: For me that's how real situations are.  Whenever I've 
experienced a relationship, or the people around me have, it's always 
ended up being incredibly complicated because that's the way human 
beings are.  Nothing is simple, it always ends up being something else 
or dying and that's what I find so interesting - the drive behind human 
beings and the way they get screwed up.
          (1982, Melody Maker) 

        KATE: The song is called "Get Out of My House," and it's all 
about the human as a house.  The idea is that as more experiences 
actually get to you, you start learning how to defend yourself from 
them.  The human can be seen as a house where you start putting up 
shutters at the windows and locking the doors - not letting in certain 
things.  I think a lot of people are like this - they don't hear what 
they don't want to hear, don't see what they don't want to see.  It is 
like a house, where the windows are the eyes and the ears, and you 
don't let people in.  That's sad because as they grow older people 
should open up more.  But they do the opposite because, I suppose, they 
do get bruised and cluttered.  Which brings me back to myself; yes, I 
have had to decide what I will let in and what I'll have to exclude.   
(1982, Company)

        KATE: The Shining is the only book I've read that has 
frightened me.  While reading it I swamped[???] around in its snowy 
imagery and avoided visiting certain floors of the big, cold hotel, 
empty for the winter. As in Alien, the central characters are isolated, 
miles (or light years) away from anyone or anything, but there is 
something in the place with them.  They're not sure what, but it isn't 
very nice.
        The setting for this song continues the theme - the house which 
is really a human being, has been shut up - locked and bolted, to stop 
any outside forces from entering.  (1982, KBC 12)

 
           ("Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw!")

 When you left, the door was
      (slamming!)
 You paused in the doorway
      (slamming!)
 As though a thought stole you away.
      (slamming!)
 I watched the world pull you away.
      (Lock it!)

        In this first section the only section where the other 
character is show as leaving as apposed to persuing, so this first 
section could be describing the actual breakup of the relationship that 
caused the character to "lock her house."

        KATE: The person has been hurt and has decided to keep 
everybody out.  (1982, KBC 12)


 So I run into the hall,
      (Lock it!)
 Into the corridor.
      (Lock it!)
 There's a door in the house
      (slamming).
 I hear the lift descending.
      (slamming!)
 I hear it hit the landing,
      (slamming!)
 See the hackles on the cat
      (standing).

        KATE: ...but the thing has got into the house upstairs.  It's 
descending in the lift, and now it approaches the door of the room that 
you're hiding in.   (1982, KBC 12)


 With my key I
      (lock it).
 With my key I
      (lock it up).
 With my key I
      (lock it).
 With my key I
      (lock it up).


      I am the concierge chez-moi, honey.
      Won't letcha in for love, nor money.
           ("Let me in!")
      My home, my joy.
      I'm barred and bolted and I
           (Won't let you in).
           (Get out of my house!)
        
        KATE:  They plant a "concierge" at the front door to stop any 
determined callers from passing...  (1982, KBC 12)

        KATE: The idea with that song is that the house is actually a 
human being who's been hurt and he's just locking all the doors and not 
letting anyone in.  The person is so determined not to let anyone in 
that one of his personalities is a concierge who sits in the door, and 
says "you're not coming in here" - like real mamma.   (1982, Melody 
Maker) 

     Concierge is the French title of a live-in building-attendant or 
manager--an ancient profession in Europe, usually associated with 
correspondingly ancient old women (though men can also be called 
"concierges"). "Chez-moi" means "at my house", or "at my place." So the 
line in implies that the house's spirit (this is really that of the 
house itself--as Kate once explained--which has developed a kind of 
human consciousness over the years) is fiercely protecting its solitude 
from the invading force (the male personality cooing "Let me in!"): 
"I'm the manager in my own house, honey."
        Interestingly, Kate describe the "concierge" as "one of his 
personalities".  The "his" may imply that the male/female angle of the 
song is not as important to Kate as the overall theme.  Note that the 
protagonist is definately described as a woman later in the song. 
        Another interesting thing about the description "one of his 
personalities" is that it implies that the other "voices" Kate uses in 
the song may be other "personalities" of the woman.  Kate is known to 
have been influenced early on by the philospher Gurdjieff, who held 
each man had numerous "personalities", and this song may reflect that 
influence.

        KATE: I am absolutely fascinated by the states that people 
throw and put on.  And, you know, I think that that is the most 
fascinating thing there is to write about really, the way that people 
just distort things and the things they think and the things they do.  
And it's really fun for me if I can find an area of the personality 
that is slightly exaggerated or distorted and, if I feel I can identify 
with it enough, then try to cast a person as perfectly as I can in 
terms of that particular character trait, especially if I don't really 
show those kinds of things myself. Take anger for instance: it's really 
fun to write from the point of view of someone who's really angry, like 
in "Get Out of My House" on the last album.  Because I very rarely show 
anger, although obviously I do sometimes feel it.   (1985, Musician)

           No stranger's feet
           Will enter me.
           (Get out of my house!)
           I wash the panes,
           (Get out of my house!)
           I clean the stains away.
           (Get out of my house!)

        "No stranger's feet" on the level of the metaphor for the 
house, presumably means the person other walking into the house.  On a 
more literal level, a" foot" is a measurement in poetry, and this could 
be saying that "your words will not enter me".  Others have read "feet" 
as meaning "sexual organs", as in "you will not have intercourse with 
me."
        "Wash the panes" has been read by some to mean crying.

 This house is as old as I am.
      (Slamming.)
 This house knows all I have done.
      (Slamming.)
 They come with their weather hanging 'round them,
      (Slamming.)
 But can't knock my door down!
      (Slamming.)

 With my key I
      (lock it).
 With my key I
      (lock it).

 This house is full of m-m-my mess.
      (Slamming.)
 This house is full of m-m-mistakes.
      (Slamming.)
 This house is full of m-m-madness.
      (Slamming.)
 This house is full of, full of, full of fight!
      (Slam it.)

 With my keeper I
      (clean up).
 With my keeper I
      (clean it all up).
 With my keeper I
      (clean up).
 With my keeper I
      (clean it all up).

        It's interesting how "key" has now become "keeper", perhaps 
implying that the energy that had one protected the protagonist, is now 
"keeping" her. 

      I am the concierge chez-moi, honey.
      Won't letcha in for love, nor money.
           ("It's cold out here!")

        The voice on "It's cold out here!" sounds like Paddy doing one 
of his Irish-y voices. 

      My home, my joy.
      I'm barred and bolted and I
           (Get out of my house!)
           (Won't let you in).

           (Get out of my house!)
            No stranger's feet
           (Get out of my house!)
            Will enter me.
           (Get out of my house!)
            I wash the panes.
           (Get out of my house!)
            I clean the stains.
           (Get out of my house!)
           (Get out of my house!)
           (Get out of my house!)
           (Get out of my house!)
 Won't enter me.
           (Get out of my house!)
           (Get out of my house!)
           (Get out of my house!)
           (Get out of my house!)
 Yeah! Won't let you in!
           (Get out of my house!)
           (Get out of my house!)
      "Let me in!

        KATE: ...and now it approaches the door of the room that you're 
hiding in.  (1982, KBC 12)

      "Woman let me in!
       Let me bring in the memories!
       Woman let me in!
       Let me bring in the Devil Dreams!"


---
rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
NetRunner's Paradise BBS, San Diego CA