House of Rain

House of Rain Edit.mp3 1.4MB
Copyright 1998 Dan Phillips, all rights reserved

When I first moved into my house, there was a Waldorf elementary school on the other side of the fence. (It's since been converted to a public school.) The kids would hang out and play and sing in the morning, and sometimes when I stepped outside they would talk to me.

One day, they were hanging on the fence, four or five of them squeezed together in a row, and one of them said, "Hey Mister! Your house is like rain!" I turned and looked at the house's pale blue paint, and thought, yes, it is.

This mp3 clip is edited for faster download, and fades out after the first chorus.

House of Rain - Lyrics

©1998 Dan Phillips

I need steady and strong walls around me
I need stable and firm foundations
I need friends around; I need solid ground
but nothing stays, nothing's still at all

Chorus:

When I live in a house of rain
with the waves in the window pane
all the world is a water stain
when I live in a house of rain

It shivers and shakes in the weather
and the waves all crash together
so the form won't hold; and the flood is cold
and nothing stays, nothing's still at all

Chorus

Water falls in knotted sheets
no hand can smooth or straighten
it wraps me in its tangled cloth
and leaves me to awaken

I soak till my head is so heavy
and my swollen steps unsteady
in the flash of flood, and the thick of mud
nothing stays, nothing's still at all

Chorus