This Is Not My Beautiful House! (Or Is It?)
Background: In 2025, Josh Ritter’s album, Sermon on the Rocks, turned 10. I’ve always loved the album, but until a few years ago, I didn’t realize why. The reason why I dig it so much, in addition to it being full of great songwriting, is that its theme deals with the push and pull of getting out of your element, and eventually, the pull of coming back home. This album came out during my first year in Memphis, so I think subconsciously, I saw myself in a lot of the characters. In our last blog, we looked at songs where the narrator intentionally gets out of their hometown to try to find themselves. In this blog, we will look at narrators who come home – in the first three songs, they don’t like what they see and in the second three, they do.
“(Nothing But) Flowers” by Talking Heads
Lyrically: “(Nothing But) Flowers” follows the theme of Talking Heads’ final album, Naked, which sees the main characters in the songs being stripped of life as they knew it. In this one, the narrator is talking about all the changes in his neighborhood. It starts out talking about how beautiful the place was, comparing himself and his love interest to Adam and Eve, but then laments the fact that “The cars run on gasoline.” In other words, their life was simple until people came in and changed everything, but they’re still trying to live their same lives even with the change, yet so much of that is out of their control.
The choruses give details of what has changed. The first one says, “This was a factory, now there are mountains and rivers… There was a shopping mall, now it’s all covered in flowers,” before adding, “If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower.” This puts an exclamation mark on the line from earlier, where he says, “We caught a rattlesnake, now we have something for dinner.” In the second chorus, he laments the fact that a Pizza Hut is now covered with daisies, and also says, “I miss the honkytonks, Dairy Queens and 7-Elevens,” and in the third verse, he reveals they may have been pushed out after all: “We used to microwave, now we just eat nuts and berries.”
Melodically: The song uses C, Em, and F in the intro, played four times. The song is written in C major, so this is a I, iii, IV pattern, followed by C, Em, F, Dm, and G, the I, iii, IV, ii, V chords. This pattern gets repeated twice. B and Em then get played twice (the VII and iii chords), before ending on C, Em, F, and G, the I, iii, IV, and V chords. The chorus then uses C, G, F, and C, followed by G, F, C, G, F, and C. This is a I, V, IV, I, V, IV, V, IV, I pattern. The chorus ends with G, A, D, G, A, and D, and with that part changing to D major, this is a IV, V, I, IV, V, I pattern. There is a mysterious, “woe as us” element to this song, and normally I associate that with chords like the II-V, but interestingly, only one section ends on the V. What this does is provide a mysterious feeling in the one part, but then it gives us a melodic counterpoint, so we feel like it hasn’t resolved, even though the chord has.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, chorus format. I didn’t mention this in the lyrics section, but the second verse reveals that the narrator “Fell in love with a highway” and then saw it slip away from him. With each part of the song, a little more is revealed. This wasn’t just a resident, it was someone who had interest in how the place should look, and it was taken from him. This helps explain why he talks about living so simply but is so bent out of shape by a shopping mall being gone. There’s just a mysteriousness to the song, but each part reveals a little bit more as to how the narrator and his love interest got there, got to a place they don’t even recognize anymore.
You wanna listen to “(Nothing But) Flowers”? You got it, you got it. It’s embedded below!
2. “My Father’s House” by Bruce Springsteen
Lyrically: “My Father’s House” sees the narrator telling us about a dream he had. In the dream, he was a child again, lost in the forest, and kept running, “As (he) heard the wind whistling through the trees and ghostly voices ran through the fields.” Finally, he came out of the forest and saw his father’s house, the home he was trying to get to, and when he finally got there, he saw his father and hugged him, which made him feel better about the scratches he got from the trees. The narrator then wakes up, goes to where his father lives, but after he knocked on the door, a literally unfamiliar woman answers, and when he asks where his father is (and gives her his father’s name), the woman informs him, “I’m sorry, son, but nobody by that name lives here anymore.”
I’m not sure of the exact details of Bruce Springsteen’s troubles with his father, but many of the themes on the parent album, Nebraska, were inspired by that trauma. When Bruce got professional help, he told his psychiatrist that he would sometimes drive to his father’s old house, even though he knew his father had moved to California years ago. He said he was trying to right past wrongs, and his psychiatrist told him, “Well, you can’t,” and that might have inspired the unhappy ending, rather than his father saying all was forgiven.
Melodically/Structurally: The intro uses D, A, and D, while the verses use D, A, and D, G, D, alternating between the two progressions. With the song written in D major, this is a I, V, I progression in the intro and a I, V, I, IV, I pattern in the verses. The harmonica solo uses the D, A, D pattern from the intro. Melodically, the song contains a hard driving guitar and heavily affected drums, and I’m just kidding, this was famously recorded on Springsteen’s 4 track in his apartment, and although Columbia wanted him to re-record the songs with the E Street Band, The Boss refused to compromise his artistic integrity, and the only instruments you can hear on the track are his guitar and harmonica. Structurally, the song contains all verses, of which there are seven. In the lyric section, I alluded to the fact that the song ends with his interaction with the woman who now lives in his father’s old house, but the last verse serves as somewhat of an epilogue, with the narrator coming to the conclusion that their “Sins lie unatoned.”
You can listen to “My Father’s House” below.
3. “Messing with the Settings” by Craig Finn
Lyrically: In a previous blog, we talked about “Lanyards” by The Hold Steady, and if I didn’t say it then, I’ll say it now: Craig Finn (the lead singer of the band) is one of the best songwriters from Minnesota, and just one of the best songwriters. “Messing with the Settings” is a Craig Finn solo cut, and sees the narrator going back to his hometown, or at least it recounts a time when he went back and interacted with someone from his hometown. She would always tell the narrator that she didn’t see herself there forever, and unlike the aforementioned Hold Steady song we discussed, the narrator is the only one who’s truly stuck. He mentions how they’d “Map out where (they’d) been by the scars on their skin” but later mentions that he was “Still showing up to modern history while she was trying to hold onto her baby.” The title comes in because Rachel, his friend, “Always suggested messing with the settings,” or in other words, trying to change your own situation so as not to get complacent. Because at some point in the song, each of them says, “Sundown I feel like I’m riding a train I’m not on,” but Rachel is the only one who takes the time to do something about it. I love the lyrical contrast of the narrator’s fascination with modern history, because that in and of itself is a bit of an oxymoron, but history obviously deals with learning about the past. So the narrator’s fascination with the past is evident here, as he refuses to change and/or learn from the past, the way Rachel is, by being consumed with her baby, the present, and the future.
Melodically/Structurally: The song is written in the key of A major, and uses the chords A, E, and F#m, played twice in the chorus. This is a I, V, vi progression. The verses use A, E, Bm, and D, A I, V, ii, IV pattern, followed by A, E, F#m, and G, a I, V, vi, VII pattern, all of which gets repeated throughout the verses. Instrumentally, song contains some programming at the beginning, followed by some piano and guitar. In the last part of the song there’s also violin.
Structurally, it follows a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus format. The song is the exact same length as “Tangled Up in Blue” (5:43, for those of you who don’t have that memorized), and although this song has a chorus and not a hook like “Tangled” does, having a big long chorus in there would have been overkill. More than overkill, it would have just been straight up unnecessary, because the verses are so wordy. It’s more of a conclusion, a resignation, rather than an emphasis. Because all of the venting happens in the verses, and the chorus is just kind of the person talking, sighing and saying, “Sundown I feel like I’m riding a train I’m not on.”
You can listen to “Messing with the Settings” below.
4. “Homecoming” by Josh Ritter
Lyrically: In a previous blog (By the Numbers), we talked about “Thirteen” by Big Star, and how no matter how old you are, no matter how bitter you might be, when you hear that song, you’re immediately transported back to when you were that age. Josh Ritter’s “Homecoming” has the exact same feel. It’s a slow build, but the reason we are able to be immediately transported is because the narrator has the same hesitations we do as listeners who know too much about life. He addresses this: “Even me, yes, yes, y’all, who’s been alone so long. I’m comin’ home.” The second verse sees him talking about an old flame: “The nights are getting longer, the air is getting crisp. I first tasted the universe on a night like this. A box of wine, an alibi, and the fire in her eyes,” and she later says, “Just give me your bad self and I can move the world.” In addition to this person, he also mentions how this town “Had (his) heart” and how it still has his heart, saying to his love interest later (who he has reunited with), “We were never far from nowhere,” meaning life got in the way, but all it took was one trip and they were back. The end of the song sees him singing out, “I’m homecoming, homecoming. Homecoming, homecoming.” The first time I saw Josh Ritter live, I basically went in cold, only knowing one song of his (which he didn’t play). But this was the song he played right before the encore, and its simplicity allowed me to sing along and feel part of the crowd of dedicated fans, who know all his songs from even his EPs, not just his full-length albums. I only bring this up because again, the idea behind this song is to invite everybody in, and it does so masterfully.
Melodically: The song is written in the key of C major and uses a simple I, V, IV pattern of C, G, and F throughout the whole song, except the bridge, which uses F, G, Am, and F, a IV, V, vi, IV, V pattern. The middle 8’s cadence, the way he sings, “Just get a little bit higher, get a little tongue-tied,” has a cool walk up to it, hence the IV, V, vi choice, and ending on the V, creating a sense of suspense before heading into the last verse, starting on the I chord, is just terrific. This is necessary because the last word of the middle 8 is “But…” so it has to dive into some sort of resolve, which is a repeat of the first verse.
I mentioned when we talked about “The Curse” by Josh Ritter in our mysticism blog that his piano player is a guy named Sam Kassirer. Sam’s work on this track is similarly awesome, as piano is the first instrument (other than a pad of some sort) that you hear, and the main one you hear throughout the entire song. Fun fact: Sam also produced the last song we talked about in this blog, “Messing with the Settings”. In addition to the piano, there is also drums and bass.
Structurally: There are three verses, followed by a chorus (him repeating “Homecoming” six times), followed by another verse, a middle 8, another verse, and then the ending where he keeps repeating “Homecoming”. Also in the last chorus/ending, there are background vocals that keep adding, “Don’t go away now” and I love the vagueness of that line, because it’s not clear if he’s talking to himself, to the other person, or to the feeling – maybe it’s all three. Again, the slow build of the song is terrific.
You can listen to “Homecoming” below.
5. “Turning Home” by David Nail
Lyrically: Unlike Josh Ritter’s “Homecoming,” there’s a little bit more pushback from the narrator in the first verse, beyond a simple “I’ve been away for so long” line. He mentions how he usually just keeps driving past his hometown when he passes it, but he concludes at the end of the first verse that “Picture postcard memories always make for good company.” Then the similarities with “Homecoming” start to kick in. He knows he’s far from home, but he says that even though that’s the case, it’s still a part of him, and there are a lot of things that keep him “Turning home.” He mentions football games, where the stands were packed, how he used to play in the marching band, getting drunk after the games (but he doesn’t explicitly say this, he says, “When no one could walk a line too straight.”) What’s interesting is that unlike the Josh song, he alludes to “Glory days I can’t relive,” including his high school sweetheart who “stole his heart on the old gym floor.”
Interestingly, when I was coming up with songs for this blog, I thought of “I Go Back” by Kenny Chesney. I ultimately decided against it, because he wasn’t physically going back to his hometown. But as luck would have it, this song happened to be written by Kenny Chesney with Scooter Carusoe (who wrote “Anything But Mine,” a terrific song which Kenny cut on his When the Sun Goes Down album).
Melodically: “Turning Home” is written in the key of F major, but is played with the capo on the third fret. Relative to the capo, the intro uses D, G, D, Asus4, D, G, D, Asus4, and D, which is a I, IV, I, V, I, IV, I, V, I pattern. The verses then use Bm, G, D, A, D, Bm, G, D, A, Bm, a vi, IV, I, V, I, vi, IV, I, V, vi pattern, followed by D, A, Bm, D, G, A, Bm, A, D, G, and A, which is a I, V, vi, I, IV, V, vi, V, I, IV, V pattern. The chorus then uses D, F#, Bm, D, G, Gm, D, F#, Bm, D, G, A, D, G, Bm, Asus4, and A. This is a I, III, vi, I, IV, iv, I, III, vi, I, IV, V, I, IV, vi, V pattern.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, interlude, verse, chorus format. Of note, each chorus changes slightly. The first chorus talks about his love of the town, the second verse talks about love of his friends, and the last chorus talks about the love of his high school sweetheart (who is his wife now). It’s a great hybrid song in that regard, as it discusses vignettes of the same person, albeit not a cohesive story per se.
You can listen to “Turning Home” below.
6. “One Man Wrecking Machine” by Guster
Lyrically: In the last of our songs about nostalgic trips home, this one bridges the gap between the two themes of things being just how you remember and things being completely different, as the narrator in this song builds a time machine to change what didn’t happen when he was there. The first verse says, “I built a time machine, gonna see the homecoming queen. Take her to the Christmas dance, maybe now I’ll get in her pants.” The second verse sees him at his high school friends, where they head up to “Lookout Point” and “Pass around a skinny joint.” and then the chorus reveals his goal to “Pull apart, and put it back together,” as well as “Relive my adolescent dreams.” The third verse sees him at his parents’ house, telling himself one day this will all make sense. This is interesting because it kind of shows that the other things he says he wants to go back and change, he realizes in this last verse that he doesn’t need to change the past, because his future will be good and provide clarity. And yet once he comes back to the present tense, he’s back to feeling weird about everything.
Melodically: The song’s verses use the chords A, E, D, played twice, followed by Bm and E, also played twice. With the song written in the key of A major, this is a I, V, IV, ii, V progression. The chorus uses A, E, D, A, played three times, except the last time out, they throw in an extra E after the D. This is a I, V, IV, I pattern, with the E being the V chord. Instrumentally, the song uses acoustic, electric, and bass guitar, as well as drums and other percussion. The simplicity of the arrangement matches the simplicity of the nostalgia, so a big booming chorus with a bunch of changes and instrumentation isn’t necessary. With that said, it’s strange to me that the verses end on the I chord, especially the last one, because there’s melodic closure without being lyrical closure. This of course is because the pattern forms a perfect cadence.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, verse, chorus, solo, verse, chorus format. It’s a cool choice to have two verses in a row, because you have his mini-goal in time traveling (to see the homecoming queen), followed by kind of a “Well, while I’m here,” and then you see his bigger goal of changing his past, so it makes sense that part of that would be hanging with his friends. The third verse tells us that didn’t give him what he wanted, hence why he’s back at his parents’ house to regroup, re-establish his goal, and then the last verse shows us that he didn’t quite get there by visiting the past. Yet the singing of the chorus again tells us he’s not giving up on that goal.
You can listen to “One Man Wrecking Machine” below. In a previous blog, I talked about “Boston” by Augustana, and may or may not have mentioned that that song was one we would listen to when I worked for my cousins’ cookie company in high school. This is another song that was on repeat, probably in the Summer of 2007. It’s a different way of telling the story, but it also gets at the same emotions as the other songs we looked at.
