Release Date: Friday 29th May 2020
LYRICS
Big House
What kind of damn do you give?
Do you know how the other three quarters live?
You say that you do but you don't have a clue
Sing - oh weh oh weh oh weh oh
Oh weh oh weh oh
etc
You can see it on the streets in your neighbourhood
What you mean? We never had it so good
Chorus
Living in a big house - up on the hill
We're all living it up while somebody else - pays the bill
Well it's a sweet life - as long as it lasts
Living in a big world - but it's shrinking fast
Living in a big house
Living in a big big house up on the hill (let me in)
Well there's a man in East Berlin
All he wants is a ticket on a westbound train (ya see)
It's not the same everywhere but I guess you don't care
So we do the dance - take it for granted
You tell the truth - they don't understand it
In the time it takes to sing this song
Another thousand acres - will be gone
Chorus
Living in a big house - up on the hill
We're all living it up while somebody else - pays the bill
Well it's a sweet life - as long as it lasts
Living in a big world - but it's shrinking fast
Living in a big house
Living in a big big house up on the hill
Bridge
Real life
You can have it - you can keep it to yourself
You can feed it to the sharks - I don't wanna know
We can only - help you if you don't need help
Oh no no no - Sorry!
Chorus
Living in a big house - up on the hill
We're all living it up while somebody else - pays the bill
Well it's a sweet life - as long as it lasts
Living in a big world - but it's shrinking fast
Living in a big house
Living in a big big house up on the hill
Outro
Save me save me save me save me etc
Music & Lyrics: Hull, Musker, Walsh.
BEHIND THE TRACK
Frank Musker on the origins of ‘Big House’…
‘I don’t have a specific memory of writing Big House with Jeff and Marty but I do
think it was essentially concept/lyric driven initially. I had visited the Amazon
(not the online retailer!) about four times in Peru, Brazil and Venezuela. I was
amazed by its pristine beauty, the sheer size of everything, the animal life and I
had become a bit obsessed with South America generally. I still am.
When I read that an area of forest equivalent to a thousand football fields was
being destroyed at some impossibly rapid rate I was in despair and needed to
express it in some meaningful way - hence the line ‘In the time it takes to sing
this song, Another thousand acres will be gone.’
Also it was a couple of years before the Berlin Wall came down and I had become
increasingly aware of the rumblings in the news of refugees fleeing from behind
the Iron Curtain and the dangers they faced - ‘Well there’s a man in East Berlin,
All he wants is a ticket on a westbound train’ - seems like not a lot has changed
now.....if anything the refugee problem has got much worse. They all want the
good life we enjoy in the west - and who could blame them?
So all these environmental and social things were going on in my head at the
time but when I spoke about them to people in California and the UK they
seemed completely oblivious. Actually I remember they thought I was a bit nuts
and it was clear they felt quite uncomfortable talking about it. It was all so far
away. Why is it our problem? So I got the idea of a bunch of ridiculously
hedonistic people living it up in a big mansion up on a hill while down below the
world was burning and choking on filthy polluted air. Nero fiddling while Rome
burns. ‘So we do the dance - take it for granted, You tell the truth - they don’t
understand it.’
Amongst my musical heroes at the time were Don Henley and Peter Gabriel -
they seemed to have the platform to talk about difficult stuff in their music
without people thinking they were being preached to. I remember Jeff and Marty
coming up with the perfect musical feel for the song I wanted to write. The
melody came very quickly and naturally with Elizabeth adding her amazing ad
lib vocals and harmonies. It was very satisfying for me to sing. I found a way of
expressing real anger and passion which I hadn’t been able to express before
because the song itself was so powerful. It feels even more relevant today than it
did then because of the likes of Extinction Rebellion, David Attenborough, Greta
Thunberg etc. It’s now an urgent subject which is in the mainstream of public
and political debate.
The song was written as a wake up call thirty years ago. It’s time to wake up now.