Good afternoon, it’s Sunday again and time for Jim Adams Song Lyric Sunday. This week the theme is to find a song about children or families suggested by Nancy aka The Sicilian Storyteller.
Below is a photo of the house I grew up in, it’s the one with the brown gate. It’s been is no longer the family home, it’s been sold and modernised but it’s basically the same.
Winter icicles on the windows inside and out.
No central heating so we froze without a doubt.
The living room was cosy because there was a fire.
Summer was different the windows and doors open wide
The garden was full of veg and blackberries and mud we’d trail inside!
Christmas time was special hanging up the glitter
Mum baking in the kitchen Dad and the boys drinking a sneaky pint of bitter.
There were so many of us yet no one was ever turned away
Whoever turned up was welcome, relative , friend, waifs or stray.
Dad had an office in the front room each night he’d do his Union work.
There were only three bedrooms all packed to overflowing.
It could be very hectic because the family did not stop growing.
Four generations. So many memories, too many to share
Sadly the house is sold and closed to us though it is still there.
Since being married we have moved four times, from Brentford to Hayes, London to Devon, from Devon to Berkshire and from a medium house to our present home.
To be honest it’s not the building it’s the people isn’t it..
The song I chose Our House by Madness applies to my childhood home and the homes I have made with hubby and our children and grandchildren. It’s all about family 💜 and my first choice song is all about my childhood family as well as the family I have with hubby.
“Our House” is a song by the English ska and pop band Madness and was written by second lead vocalist Chas Smash and guitarist Chris Foreman. It was released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, The Rise & Fall, on 12 November 1982. The song charted within the top ten in several countries, and it was the band’s biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100. It won the category Best Pop Song at the May 1983 Ivor Novello Awards. Information from Wikipedia
Father wears his Sunday best
Mother’s tired, she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister’s sighing in her sleep
Brother’s got a date to keep
He can’t hang around
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our
Our house it has a crowd
There’s always something happening
And it’s usually quite loud
Our mum, she’s so house-proud
Nothing ever slows her down
And a mess is not allowed
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house (Something tells you)
(That you’ve got to move away from it) In the middle of our
Father gets up late for work
Mother has to iron his shirt
Then she sends the kids to school
Sees them off with a small kiss (Ah, ah, ah, ah)
She’s the one they’re going to miss
In lots of ways
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our
I remember way back then
When everything was true and when
We would have such a very good time
Such a fine time, such a happy time
And I remember how we’d play
Simply waste the day away
Then we’d say nothing would come between us
Two dreamers
Father wears his Sunday best
Mother’s tired she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister’s sighing in her sleep
Brother’s got a date to keep
He can’t hang around
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our
Our house, was our castle and our keep
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, that was where we used to sleep
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Graham Mcpherson / Michael Barson / Cathal Joseph Smyth / Lee Jay Thompson / Daniel Mark Woodgate / Christopher John Foreman / Mark William Bedford.
*****
Below a little poem I wrote about parenting.
Parenting
A job too big to to take
So many mistakes to make
Back breaking when they are small
Heart breaking when they grow tall.
You can only do your best
You can only nurture and fate will do the rest.
© willowdot21.
*****
My second song is :Teach Your Children” is a song written by Graham Nash in 1968 when he was a member of the Hollies. Although it was never recorded by that group in a studio, the Hollies did record it live in 1983. After the song was initially recorded for the album Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1969, a much more enhanced version of the song was recorded for the album Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, released in 1970. As a single, the song peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts that year. On the Easy Listening chart, it peaked at No. 28. In Canada, “Teach Your Children” reached No. 8. Reviewing the song, Cash Box commented on the “incredible soft harmony luster” and “delicately composed material.”Billboard called it “a smooth country-flavored ballad that should prove an even bigger hit on the charts [than ‘Woodstock‘].” Stephen Stills gave the song its “country swing”, replacing the “Henry VIII” style of Nash’s original demo.
Nash, who is also an accomplished photographer and collector of photographs, associated the song’s message with a famous 1962 photo by Diane Arbus, Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, shortly after writing the song. The image, which depicts a child with an angry expression holding the toy weapon, prompted Nash to reflect on the societal implications of messages given to children about war and other issues. Information from Wikipedia I have chosen to play my favourite version 💜
You, who are on the road
Must have a code you try to live by
And so become yourself
Becauste the past is just a goodbye
… Teach your children well
Their father’s hell did slowly go by
Feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s the one you’ll know by
… Don’t you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you
… And you, of tender years
Can’t know the fears your elders grew by
Help them with your youth
They seek the truth before they can die
… Teach your parents well
Their children’s hell will slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s the one you’ll know by
… Don’t you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you
… Don’t you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you
… Ooh, and know they love you
And know they love you, yeah
And know they love you
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Graham William Nash
Teach Your Children lyrics © Nash Notes
*****
As it happens Crosby Stills and Nash also rewrote and recorded a song called Our House. You can also be parents to cats,dogs any animal.
“Our House” is a song written by British singer-songwriter Graham Nash and recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on their album Déjà Vu (1970). The single reached No. 30 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 20 on the Cash Box Top 100. The song, “an ode to countercultural domestic bliss”, was written while Nash was living with Joni Mitchell, recording both Crosby, Stills & Nash and Déjà Vu.
The song originated from a domestic event that took place while Graham Nash was living with Joni Mitchell (and her two cats) in her house in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, after they had gone out for breakfast and had bought an inexpensive vase on Ventura Boulevard. Nash wrote the song in an hour, on Mitchell’s piano.
In October 2013, in an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, Nash elaborated:
Well, it’s an ordinary moment. What happened is that Joni [Mitchell] and I – I don’t know whether you know anything about Los Angeles, but on Ventura Boulevard in the Valley, there’s a very famous deli called Art’s Deli. And we’d been to breakfast there. We’re going to get into Joan’s car, and we pass an antique store. And we’re looking in the window, and she saw a very beautiful vase that she wanted to buy … I persuaded her to buy this vase. It wasn’t very expensive, and we took it home. It was a very grey, kind of sleety, drizzly L.A. morning. And we got to the house in Laurel Canyon, and I said – got through the front door and I said, you know what? I’ll light a fire. Why don’t you put some flowers in that vase that you just bought? Well, she was in the garden getting flowers. That meant she was not at her piano, but I was … And an hour later ‘Our House’ was born, out of an incredibly ordinary moment that many, many people have experienced.
In the same interview, Nash was asked about the vocal harmonies in the song:
It’s me and David [Crosby] and Stephen [Stills] doing our best. That’s all we ever do. You know, we’re lucky enough to be able to do, you know, anything that we want to do, musically. And, you know, these two guys are incredible musicians. Crosby is one of the most unique musicians I know, and Stephen Stills has got this blues-based, South American kind of feeling to his music. And I’m this, you know, Henry VIII guy from England … You know, it’s not supposed to work, but it does, somehow.
I’ll light the fire
You place the flowers in the vase
That you bought today
Staring at the fire
For hours and hours while I listen to you
Play your love songs all night long for me
Only for me
Come to me now (come to me now)
And rest your head for just five minutes
Everything is done
Such a cozy room (such a cozy room)
The windows are illuminated
By the evening sunshine through them
Fiery gems for you, only for you
Our house is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy ’cause of you
And our
La-la, la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la, la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la
Our house is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy ’cause of you
And our
I’ll light the fire
While you place the flowers in the vase
That you bought today
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Graham William Nash
Our House lyrics © Nash Notes
HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE 💜💜💜
willowdot21 
