A Louse Is Not A Home chords by Peter Hammill

Chords with lyrics

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


 A#A# FF  G minorGm  D#D#  D MajorD      A#A# FF  G minorGm  D#D#  D MajorD
Sometimes it's very scary here; sometimes it's very sad;
 D#D# G minorGm  D#D# FF       G minorGm   D#D# FF  G minorGm D#D#   D MajorD
sometimes I think I'll disappear; be_times I think I have.
 D#D#    FF   G minorGm   D#D#   D MajorD
There's a line snaking down my mirror:
 D#D#     FF  G minorGm D#D#    D MajorD
splintered glass distorts my face,
D#D#  G minorGm   D#D# FF           G minorGm
and though the light is strong and strange
D#D# FF          G minorGm  D#D#        D MajorD
it can't illuminate the musty corners of this place.
 D#D#    FF                   G minorGm D#D# D MajorD
There is a lofty, lonely, Lohengrenic castle in the clouds -
 D#D#     FF  G minorGm D#D#        D MajorD
[yes and ]I draw my murky meanings there,
 D#D# G minorGm      D#D#  FF       G minorGm
but seven years' dark luck is just around the corner
D#D#      FF      G minorGm  D#D#   D MajorD
and in the shadows lurks the spectre of Despair.

DmDm
A augmentedA cracked mirror mid the drapes of the landing:
C majorC
split image, labored understanding -
A#A#             A augmentedA        DmDm
I'm only trying to find a place to hide my home...

[trumpet-like:] DmDm C majorC DmDm Dm C majorC DmDm Dm C majorC D MajorD

[Bass-Drums:] G+G A minorAm C majorC Am, G+G A minorAm C majorC D MajorD A minorAm [twice, with different timings] x 2

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

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

A#A#          A augmentedA
Sometimes I get the feeling that there's
        DmDm
someone else there :
DmDm
The faceless watcher [he] makes me uneasy,
C majorC
I can feel him through the floorboards, and His presence is creepy
A#A#         A augmentedA       DmDm
He informs me that I shall be expelled...

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

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

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

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

DmDm
Home is what you make it, so my friends all say,
C majorC                    B minorBm
but dont't you know I rarely see their homes in these dark days.
DmDm
Some of them are snails and carry houses on their backs;
C majorC             B minorBm
others live in monuments which, one day, will be racks -
DmDm     C majorC                A#A#     (G+G A augmentedA A#A#)
I keep my home in place with sellotape and tin-tacks,
A#A#           A minorAm         DmDm
but I still feel there's some other Force here:
FF            E minorEm (4-0)
He who cracks the mirrors and moves the walls
DmDm
keeps staring through the eye-slits of the portraits in my hall;
FF             E minorEm (4-0)
He ravages my library and taps the telephone -

DmDm
I've never actually seen Him,
but I know He's in my home
D#D#     FF
and if he goes away,
G minorGm    D#D#   D MajorD
I can't stay here either.
D#D# FF       G minorGm D#D#          D MajorD   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+G   A minorAm    C majorC       A minorAm
I am surrounded by flesh and bone,
G+G   A minorAm   C majorC   D MajorD   A minorAm
I am a temple of living,
G+G   A minorAm    C majorC    A minorAm
I am a hermit, I am a drone,
G+G   A minorAm   C majorC    D MajorD   A minorAm
and I am boning out a place to be.

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

A#A#         A augmentedA       DmDm
could this be the guy who never shows
DmDm
the cracked mirror what he's feeling,
C majorC
merely mumbles prayers to the ground where he's kneeling :
A#A#
"Home is home is home is home is home is
A augmentedA                  DmDm
house is house is house is] home is me!"
DmDm
All you people looking for your houses,
C majorC
don't throw your weight around, you might break your glasses
 A#A#         A augmentedA         DmDm
and if you do, you know you just can't see

DmDm
and then how are you to find the dawning of the day?
C majorC             B minorBm
- Day is just a word I use to keep the dark at bay,
DmDm
and people are imaginary, nothing else exists
C majorC
except the room I'm sitting in,
     B minorBm
and, of course, the all-pervading mist -
DmDm      C majorC          A#A#    (E minorEm C majorC) DmDm
sometimes I wonder if even that's real...

D#D# FF E minorEm D#D#    D MajorD
Maybe I should de-louse this place;
D#D# FF E minorEm D#D#          D MajorD
Maybe I should de-place this louse;
D#D# G minorGm D#D#  FF       G minorGm
Maybe I'll maybe my life away
D#D#   FF    G minorGm    D#D#   D MajorD
in the confines of this silent house.
 D#D# FF  G minorGm D#D#     D MajorD     D#D# FF  G minorGm D#D#  D MajorD
Sometimes  it's very scary here; sometimes  it's very sad;
 D#D# G minorGm  D#D# FF       G minorGm  D#D# FF  G minorGm D#D# ... D MajorD
sometimes I think I'll disappear; sometimes I think...


Credit to: Jose Javier Glaria at Hammill.ru