Paul Kelly - Other People's Houses Lyrics

Lyrics Other People's Houses - Paul Kelly



His mother always let him stay up late on Fridays. They would lie in her room together watching TV. Sometimes she fell asleep before he did and he'd be watching a talk show - one person talking, then another, then all this laughter coming from nowhere. Next thing he knew she would be shaking hime gently. 'Wake up little one, wake up'. Saturday morning. So he'd get up, dress himself, put his shoes on and leave the house without breakfast. Breakfast always came later in other people's houses.
They had to catch two buses to reach their destination and the trip seemed to take forever unless he fell asleep along the way. When they got off at their stop they were in a bigger, brighter neighbourhood. The houses were a long was back from the street and some of them were hidden from view by big hedges. Looking down the street was like looking through the wrong end of a telescope. His mother guided him through this country. She knew exactly where to go. She carried in her bag a big, heavy ring full of keys - all keys to other people's houses.
She would turn one of the keys in the lock. Some of the doors needed two keys. Then presto, they were in. The houses had so many things in them yet still so much space. He like to rub his feet quickly on the thick pile then touch a door knob with one finger and give himself a small electric shock. In the first house they always went straight to the refrigerator. There were things in there he couldn't imagine anyone ever eating - strange looking pastes in jars and horrible concoctions in plastic. His mother would sit him down with a jam sandwich and a glass of milk, then set to work cleaning other people's houses.
And so they would go all day long from one house to another, his mother scrubbing, mopping, vacuuming, cleaning, tidying up, leaving him to his own devices. Often if no-one was home, she would play music on the stereo. There was one record she always put on and sang along to. It had two men and two women on the cover and they all looked sort of blonde except for one of the women had dark hair. The stereo flickered like the controls of a spaceship. Other houses were full of books and sometimes he was allowed to take one of the books down from the shelves and open it up. There were books on war and cricket and movie stars. He liked to look at the pictures and pick out big words that he knew. He was very careful with the books. He was very careful with everything in other people's houses.
Many of the houses had other children in them. They would rush right past him into the yard. He'd follow them out back where the backyard was as big as the house, sometimes even bigger. He'd play with them for a while then sit on the steps watching them. He felt slower than the others. There was a girl about his age who lived in a house they went to every second Saturday. Her name was Stephanie. She used to take him everywhere with her, wherever she went, all around the house, even into her room. He'd never see his mother until it was time to leave. One Saturday his mother told him Stephanie and her family had moved away. Just like that. He still thinks of her now, twenty years later, moving, laughing, sitting down to dinner, making conversation, making love in other people's houses.



Writer(s): Paul Kelly


Paul Kelly - The A-Z Recordings
Album The A-Z Recordings
date of release
26-08-2011

1 Adelaide
2 Your Little Sister (Is A Big Girl Now)
3 After the Show
4 Young Lovers
5 Anastasia Changes Her Mind
6 You're 39, You're Beautiful And You're Mine
7 Be Careful What You Pray For
8 Your Loving Is on My Mind
9 Beautiful Promise
10 Zoe
11 Before Too Long
12 Beggar On The Street Of Love
13 Behind the Bowler's Arm
14 Big Fine Girl
15 Blues for Skip
16 Bradman
17 (The) Cake and the Candle
18 Careless
19 Change Your Mind
20 Carlie Owen's Slide Guitar
21 Cities Of Texas
22 Coma
23 Cradle of Love
24 Deeper Water
25 Desdemona
26 Difficult Women
27 Don't Explain
28 Don't Harm the Messenger
29 Don't Stand so Close to the Window
30 Don’t Start Me Talking
31 Down To My Soul
32 Dumb Things
33 Emotional
34 Every Fucking City
35 Everybody Wants to Touch Me
36 Everything's Turning to White
37 The Foggy Fields Of France
38 Foggy Highway
39 Forty Miles to Saturday Night
40 Forty-Eight Angels
41 From Little Things Big Things Grow
42 From St Kilda To Kings Cross
43 Gathering Storm
44 God Told Me To
45 (The) Gift That Keeps on Giving
46 Glory Be to God
47 Going About My Father's Business
48 How to Make Gravy
49 I Can't Believe We Were Married
50 I Close My Eyes and Think of You
51 I Don't Know Anything Anymore
52 I Keep on Coming Back for More
53 I'd Rather Go Blind
54 If I Could Start Today Again
55 I Wasted Time
56 I Won't Be Your Dog
57 Jandamarra/Pigeon
58 Jump to Love
59 Just About to Break
60 King of Fools
61 Lately
62 Leaps and Bounds
63 Little Boy Don’t Lose Your Balls
64 Love Is the Law
65 Love Never Runs on Time
66 Luck
67 Maralinga (Rainy Land)
68 Meet Me In The Middle Of The Air
69 Midnight Rain
70 My Way Is to You
71 No You
72 Nothing but a Dream
73 The Oldest Story in the Book
74 One More Tune
75 Other People's Houses
76 Our Sunshine
77 Please Myself
78 Pretty Place
79 The Ballad Of Queenie And Rover
80 Rally Round The Drum
81 Randwick Bells
82 Saturday Night And Sunday Morning
83 Shane Warne
84 Smoke Under the Bridge
85 Somebody's Forgetting Somebody
86 Somewhere in the City
87 South of Germany
88 Standing In the Street of Early Sorrows
89 Stolen Apples
90 Stories of Me
91 Stupid Song
92 Summer Rain
93 Sweet Guy
94 Sydney from a 747
95 They Thought I Was Asleep
96 Thoughts in the Middle of the Night
97 To Her Door
98 Until Death Do Them Part
99 When I First Met Your Ma
100 Wintercoat
101 Won't You Come Around?
102 Would You Be My Friend
103 You Broke a Beautiful Thing
104 You Can Put Your Shoes Under My Bed
105 You Can't Take It with You




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