With yesterday's David Byrne tracks being two of several by him with a house theme (Burning Down The House, Houses in Motion to name but two more), today we visit another songwriter who uses them as metaphor extensively – Van Der Graaf Generator frontman Peter Hammill. In this, the band's third album, H to He, Who Am the Only One (1970), he uses it as a metaphor for someone with social problems and insecurities, though while it's a very different style, there is a parallel with Byrne's ability to play with and blur the lines of reality within four walls. Houses also come up in much of Hammill's prolific solo work, but as well as his sensitive, dramatic singing on this slow, rather beautiful song he composed on the piano, David Jackson's flute also brings in that classic prog flavour in the middle eight.
There's a house with no door and I'm living there;
At nights it gets cold and the days are hard to bear inside.
There's a house with no roof, so the rain creeps in,
Falling through my head as I try to think out time.
I don't know you, you say you know me;
That may be so, there's so much that I am unsure of.
You call my name, but it sounds unreal, I forget how I feel:
My body's rejecting the cure.
There's a house with no bell but then nobody calls;
I sometimes find it hard to tell if any are alive at all outside.
There's a house with no sound; yes, it's quiet there -
There's not much point in words if there's no-one to share in time.
I've learned my lines, I know them so well,
I am ready to tell whoever will finally come in
Of the line in my mind that's cold in the night....
It doesn't seem right
When there's that little dark figure running.
There's a house with no door and there's no living there:
One day it became a wall...well I didn't really care at the time.
There's a house with no light, all the windows are sealed,
Overtaxed and strained - now nothing is revealed but time
I don't know you, you say you know me -
That may be so, there's so much that I am unsure of.
You call my name, but it sounds unreal;
I forget how I feel, my body's rejecting the cure.
Won't somebody help me?
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