A Louse Is Not A Home chords by Peter Hammill

A Louse Is Not A Home (PETER HAMMILL: The Silent Corner, The Empty Stage)


 A# F  Gm  D#  D      A# 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.
 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

G   Am    C       Am
I've lived in houses composed of glass
G   Am   C   D   Am
where every movement is charted,
G  Am   C       Am
but now the monitor screens are dark
G  Am        C   D     Am
and I can't tell if silent eyes are there.

G  Am    C        Am
My words are spiders upon the page,
G   Am    C   D    Am
they spin out faith, hope and reason
G  Am    C           D    C   D
but are they meet and just, or only dust gathering about my
chair?

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...

 Dm
What is that but out of and into :
 C
[I] don't know the nature of the door that I'd go through,
 Am                         A#
[I] don't know the nature of the nature that I am inside...


G   Am    C       Am
I've lived in houses of brick and lead
G   Am    C   D   Am
where all emotion is sacred,
G   Am    C       Am
and if you want to devour the fruit
G   Am    C    D   Am
you must first sniff at the fragrance

(same tune and chords, with more intermediate notes played)
G   Am    C       Am
and lay your body before the shrine
G   Am    C    D   Am
with poems and posies and papers -
G   Am    C       Am
or, if you catch the ruse, you'll have to choose
C      D    C   D
to stay, a monk, or leave, a vagrant.

 A#         A
What is this place you call home?
Dm
Is it a sermon or a confession?
C
Is it the chalice that you use for protection?
A#         A
Is it really only somewhere you can stay?
Dm
Is it a rule-book or a lecture?
C
Is it a beating at the hands of your Protector?
A#         A
Does the idol have feet of clay?

Dm
Home is what you make it, so my friends all say,
C                    Bm
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!

G   Am    C       Am
I am surrounded by flesh and bone,
G   Am   C   D   Am
I am a temple of living,
G   Am    C    Am
I am a hermit, I am a drone,
G   Am   C    D   Am
and I am boning out a place to be.

G   Am    C       Am
With secret garlands about my head
G   Am   C   D  Am
unearthly silence is broken:
G   Am    C       Am
the room is growing dark, and in the stark light
C   D   C   D
I can see a face I know -

A#         A       Dm
could this be the guy who never shows
Dm
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 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...


Credit to: Jose Javier Glaria at Hammill.ru