A Louse Is Not A Home NOTATION: Modifications to the nominal chord by indication of the string (1 is high E) and fret. Examples: E(3-0) would be Em. Em(2-3) would be Em7. Included also in square brackets some corrections to the lyrics from the lyric book. [structure 1:] D# F Gm D# D D# F Gm D# D Sometimes it's very scary here; sometimes it's very sad; D# Gm D# F Gm D# F Gm D# D sometimes I think I'll disappear; be_times I think I have. [struct 2:] D# F Gm D# D There's a line snaking down my mirror: D# F Gm D# D splintered glass distorts my face, D# Gm D# F Gm and though the light is strong and strange D# F Gm D# D it can't illuminate the musty corners of this place. D# F Gm D# D There is a lofty, lonely, Lohengrenic castle in the clouds - D# F Gm D# D [yes and ]I draw my murky meanings there, D# Gm D# F Gm but seven years' dark luck is just around the corner D# F Gm D# D and in the shadows lurks the spectre of Despair. Dm A cracked mirror mid the drapes of the landing: C split image, labored understanding - A# A Dm I'm only trying to find a place to hide my home... [trumpet-like:] Dm C Dm Dm C Dm Dm C D [Bass-Drums:] ( G Am C Am, G Am C D Am [twice, with different timings] ) x 2 [struct 4:] G Am C Am I've lived in houses composed of glass G Am C Dm Am where every movement is charted, G Am C Am but now the monitor screens are dark G Am C Dm Am and I can't tell if silent eyes are there. [same as previous (struct 4)] My words are spiders upon the page, they spin out faith, hope and reason - but are they meet and just, or only dust ... C Dm A gathering about my chair? [struct 3:] A# A Sometimes I get the feeling that there's Dm someone else there : Dm The faceless watcher [he] makes me uneasy, C I can feel him through the floorboards, and His presence is creepy - A# A Dm He informs me that I shall be expelled... [same] What is that but out of and into : [I] don't know the nature of the door that I'd go through, [I] don't know the nature of the nature that I am inside... [struct 4] I've lived in houses of brick and lead where all emotion is sacred, and if you want to devour the fruit you must first sniff at the fragrance [struct 4 (same tune and chords, with more intermediate notes played)] and lay your body before the shrine with poems and posies and papers - or, if you catch the ruse, you'll have to choose to stay, a monk, or leave, a vagrant. [struct 3] What is this place you call home? Is it a sermon or a confession? Is it the chalice that you use for protection? Is it really only somewhere you can stay? Is it a rule-book or a lecture? Is it a beating at the hands of your Protector? Does the idol have feet of clay? Dm Home is what you make it, so my friends all say, C Bm [(not:) but] [dont't you know] I rarely see their homes in these dark days. Dm Some of them are snails and carry houses on their backs; C Bm others live in monuments which, one day, will be racks - Dm C A# (G A A#) I keep my home in place with sellotape and tin-tacks, A# Am Dm but I still feel there's some other Force here: F Em(4-0) He who cracks the mirrors and moves the walls Dm keeps staring through the eye-slits of the portraits in my hall; F Em(4-0) He ravages my library and taps the telephone - Dm I've never actually seen Him, but I know He's in my home D# F and if he goes away, Gm D# D I can't stay here either. D# F Gm D# D D# ... I believe - er - I think - well, I don't know... [Here, I only catch notes, not the chords] I only live in one room at a time, but all of the walls are ears, [and] all the windows, eyes : Everything else is foreign, 'Home' is my wordless chant: mmmmmaah! Give it a chance! [struct 4 (same tune and chords, but just notes played)] I am surrounded by flesh and bone, I am a temple of living, I am a hermit, I am a drone, and I am boning out a place to be. [struct 4 (same tune and chords, but just notes played)] With secret garlands about my head unearthly silence is broken: the room is growing dark, and in the stark light I can see a face I know - A# A Dm could this be the guy who never shows the cracked mirror what he's feeling, C merely mumbles prayers to the ground where he's kneeling : A# "Home is home is home is home is [(not:) home is] A Dm [house is house is house is] home is me!" Dm All you people looking for your houses, C don't throw your weight around, you might break your glasses A# A Dm and if you do, you know you just can't see Dm and then how are you to find the dawning of the day? C Bm - Day is just a word I use to keep the dark at bay, Dm and people are imaginary, nothing else exists C except the room I'm sitting in, Bm and, of course, the all-pervading mist - Dm C A# (Em C) Dm sometimes I wonder if even that's real... D# F Em D# D Maybe I should de-louse this place; D# F Em D# D Maybe I should de-place this louse; D# Gm D# F Gm Maybe I'll maybe my life away D# F Gm D# D in the confines of this silent house. D# F Gm D# D D# F Gm D# D Sometimes it's very scary here; sometimes it's very sad; D# Gm D# F Gm D# F Gm D# ... D sometimes I think I'll disappear; sometimes I think... [Worth/Ross-on-Wye, 1972] Chord transcription by Jose Javier Glaria, 17/10/97. modified by Dagmar Klein on 8/6/1999.