TIN ROOF, RUSTED: Apropos of nothing at all, and mindful of the ALOTT5MA Prime Directive, this week's Friday Playlist request is for songs about ceilings, floors, walls and roofs. (Or rooves).
Fire Water Burn, The Bloodhound Gang Walk The Dinosaur, Was (Not Was) ("Open the door, get on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur!") Mansford Roof, Vampire Weekend
"Burning Down the House" reminded me of the Talking Heads' album "More Songs About Buildings and Food," but none of the songs on it actually refer to buildings. So post-modern.
How about Paul Simon - One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor Paul Simon - Something So Right ("They got a wall in China, a thousand miles long . . . I got a wall around me that you can't even see") Bob Dylan - It'S All Over Now Baby Blue ("The lover who just walked out your door, has taken all his blankets from the floor, the carpet, too, is moving under you. . .") Artic Monkeys - Bet You'd Look Good on the Dance Floor Gram Parsons - A Song for You (not the Harry Nillson one, the one that ends with "Take me down to your dancefloor, and I won't mind the people when they stare") The Blue Nile - Walk Across the Rooftops
Also there must be alot of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley songs that fit, but only a few came to mind: Rogers and Hart - Dancing on the Ceiling Sondheim - Rain on the Roof Kern and Fields - I Won't Dance ("I get so absolutely stumped on the floor")
Non-Bruce division: Our House, CSNY Disorder in the House, Zevon (with Springsteen) Disturbance at the Heron House, R.E.M. House at the Top of the Tree, TMBG Build That Wall, Aimee Mann Walls, Tom Petty
Once again, I'm spotifying this sucker. Just rooves, for me, and a few repeats from ones already mentioned, but here they are:
Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker), Parliament - The purest, uncut PFunk, that's the stuff... Mansard Roof, Vampire Weekend - The purest, uncut VW, also, I am unconcerned with regards to Oxford commas... Roof Garden, Al Jarreau - Slightly cut Jarreau, to make it go down just a bit smoother... Through the Roof 'n' Underground, Gogol Bordello - Exactly what you'd expect from a Gogol Bordello song with this title... Sleeping On the Roof, The Flaming Lips - Instrumental stylings from these folks. Roof related not only by title, but also, because the song itself is meant to evoke the experience of sleeping on a roof, I suppose... The Roof is On Fire, Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three - If I hadn't known that this was actually released originally back in the 80s, I would have assumed this song was a parody of this kind of old school rap song, not a single cliche is missed... I Need a Roof, Mighty Diamonds - Roots Rock Reggae it its rootsiest... Roof Over Mi Head, Sister Nancy - More Reggae mon. Seems rooves are difficult to maintain in Jamaica... Up on the Roof, The Drifters - Of all the roof songs, probably one of the sweetest... Up the Ladder to the Roof, The Supremes - Post Diana Ross Supremes, the Funk Brothers arrangement is very much in the forefront on this one...
Windowsill, Arcade Fire My Doorbell, White Stripes Looking Out My Back Door, CCR One Step Up, Bruce ("Woke up this morning, the house was cold") You Can Look, Bruce ("...Looking for something pretty I could hang on my wall"; ""before it hit the floor I caught it")
Pink Houses - John Mellencamp Fortress Around Your Heart - Sting Step Inside This House - Lyle Lovett Up the Ladder to the Roof - The Supremes (post-Diana Ross) Knock Three Times - Dawn Another Brick in the Wall - Pink Floyd Almost Paradise (Love theme from Footloose) - Mike Reno and Ann Wilson (Just sing the chorus to yourself, you'll get it.)
A more few standards: "Working on a Building," the country gospel song covered by The Cowboy Junkies, Bill Monroe, The Oakridge Boys and no doubt hundreds of others. "Open the Door, Richard," a huge hit in the '40s for both Louis Jordan and Count Basie "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" ("Once I built a tower to the sun ...") "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" ("Someday we'll build a home on a hilltop high, you and I" and one of my favorite internal rhymes ever, "Our veranda will command a view of meadows green")
Dancing on the Ceiling, Lionel Richie (obviously)
ReplyDeleteWhat Comes Around, Beastie Boys
The Drifters: Up On the Roof
ReplyDeleteDoes "Burning Down the House" count?
ReplyDeleteSure. Anything dealing with building structure.
ReplyDeleteFire Water Burn, The Bloodhound Gang
ReplyDeleteWalk The Dinosaur, Was (Not Was) ("Open the door, get on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur!")
Mansford Roof, Vampire Weekend
Fall Out the Window - Violent Femmes
ReplyDeleteLet My Love Open the Door - Pete Townshend
Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker) - Parliament
Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones
ReplyDeleteSugar Walls - Sheena Easton (Let's all pretend it's about a building, ok?)
"Hit the Floor," Jesus and Mary Chain.
ReplyDelete"Hello, Walls," Willie Nelson.
Is it too much of a stretch to go for "Love in an Elevator" by Aerosmith?
ReplyDeleteAlso, "Walls" by Tom Petty.
ReplyDeleteRockmaster Scott and the Dynamic Three, "The Roof Is On Fire."
ReplyDeleteJohn Cougar (Mellencamp?), "Crumblin' Down"
"Burning Down the House" reminded me of the Talking Heads' album "More Songs About Buildings and Food," but none of the songs on it actually refer to buildings. So post-modern.
ReplyDeleteHow about
Paul Simon - One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor
Paul Simon - Something So Right ("They got a wall in China, a thousand miles long . . . I got a wall around me that you can't even see")
Bob Dylan - It'S All Over Now Baby Blue ("The lover who just walked out your door, has taken all his blankets from the floor, the carpet, too, is moving under you. . .")
Artic Monkeys - Bet You'd Look Good on the Dance Floor
Gram Parsons - A Song for You (not the Harry Nillson one, the one that ends with "Take me down to your dancefloor, and I won't mind the people when they stare")
The Blue Nile - Walk Across the Rooftops
Also there must be alot of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley songs that fit, but only a few came to mind:
Rogers and Hart - Dancing on the Ceiling
Sondheim - Rain on the Roof
Kern and Fields - I Won't Dance ("I get so absolutely stumped on the floor")
Bruce division:
ReplyDeleteMy Father's House
Dollhouse
Leah
Non-Bruce division:
Our House, CSNY
Disorder in the House, Zevon (with Springsteen)
Disturbance at the Heron House, R.E.M.
House at the Top of the Tree, TMBG
Build That Wall, Aimee Mann
Walls, Tom Petty
The "Song for You" that I wasn't referring to is the one by Leon Russell. Harry Nillson wants you to know he had nothing to do with it.
ReplyDelete"If These Walls Could Speak" I'm especially partial to the Shawn Colvin cover.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I'm spotifying this sucker. Just rooves, for me, and a few repeats from ones already mentioned, but here they are:
ReplyDeleteGive Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker), Parliament - The purest, uncut PFunk, that's the stuff...
Mansard Roof, Vampire Weekend - The purest, uncut VW, also, I am unconcerned with regards to Oxford commas...
Roof Garden, Al Jarreau - Slightly cut Jarreau, to make it go down just a bit smoother...
Through the Roof 'n' Underground, Gogol Bordello - Exactly what you'd expect from a Gogol Bordello song with this title...
Sleeping On the Roof, The Flaming Lips - Instrumental stylings from these folks. Roof related not only by title, but also, because the song itself is meant to evoke the experience of sleeping on a roof, I suppose...
The Roof is On Fire, Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three - If I hadn't known that this was actually released originally back in the 80s, I would have assumed this song was a parody of this kind of old school rap song, not a single cliche is missed...
I Need a Roof, Mighty Diamonds - Roots Rock Reggae it its rootsiest...
Roof Over Mi Head, Sister Nancy - More Reggae mon. Seems rooves are difficult to maintain in Jamaica...
Up on the Roof, The Drifters - Of all the roof songs, probably one of the sweetest...
Up the Ladder to the Roof, The Supremes - Post Diana Ross Supremes, the Funk Brothers arrangement is very much in the forefront on this one...
in which case, "Stairway to Heaven," by the Led Zeppelin.
ReplyDeleteI'm extremely partial to the Dolly Parton reworking of Stairway.
ReplyDeleteI don't think she'd be flattered to hear you calling it that.
ReplyDeleteRain on a Tin Roof - Julie Roberts.
ReplyDeleteMore:
ReplyDeleteWindowsill, Arcade Fire
My Doorbell, White Stripes
Looking Out My Back Door, CCR
One Step Up, Bruce ("Woke up this morning, the house was cold")
You Can Look, Bruce ("...Looking for something pretty I could hang on my wall"; ""before it hit the floor I caught it")
Oops... corrected link for House of Cards
ReplyDelete"Where Is My Mind," The Pixies. For reasons that have only to do with the film in which it is most famously used.
ReplyDeleteBut what if those Sugar Walls were part of a Brick House?
ReplyDelete"Doors," from the Maltby/Shire show Closer Than Ever
ReplyDeleteFiddler on the Roof.
ReplyDeleteMonty Python - Protest Song
ReplyDeleteAtom and His Package- "I'm Downright Amazed (At What I Can Destroy with Just a Hammer". It's a song that pretty much describes my home repair skills:
ReplyDelete"Mr. Sokel does everything, rewires, fixes cracks/
I can can only break walls, move stuff, and get snacks"
"Seven Steps To The Wall", Jane Siberry
ReplyDelete"Living On The Ceiling", Blancmange
"Flat on the Floor" Carrie Underwood
ReplyDelete"The Roof is On Fire" Rock Master Scott and the Dynamic Three
"Up on the Roof" (The Drifters)
ReplyDelete"A House is Not a Home" Bacharach/David
ReplyDelete"Furnace Room Lullaby" Neko Case
"That's All, Amen, Close the Door" Richard Thompson
Pink Houses - John Mellencamp
ReplyDeleteFortress Around Your Heart - Sting
Step Inside This House - Lyle Lovett
Up the Ladder to the Roof - The Supremes (post-Diana Ross)
Knock Three Times - Dawn
Another Brick in the Wall - Pink Floyd
Almost Paradise (Love theme from Footloose) - Mike Reno and Ann Wilson (Just sing the chorus to yourself, you'll get it.)
She Came in through the Bathroom Window - Joe Cocker version
ReplyDeleteAll the Pictures on the Wall by Paul Weller
ReplyDeleteTemple of the Dog - Four Walled World
ReplyDeletebut I'm surprised that no one has broken out
Madness - Our House
How is it that no one on this blog has mentioned Dan Bern, "Jerusalem"?
ReplyDeleteDoes "Love Shack" get an honorary mention (for "Ti-i-i-i-i-i-n rooof! Rusted." ??
ReplyDeleteA more few standards:
ReplyDelete"Working on a Building," the country gospel song covered by The Cowboy Junkies, Bill Monroe, The Oakridge Boys and no doubt hundreds of others.
"Open the Door, Richard," a huge hit in the '40s for both Louis Jordan and Count Basie
"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" ("Once I built a tower to the sun ...")
"The Folks Who Live on the Hill" ("Someday we'll build a home on a hilltop high, you and I" and one of my favorite internal rhymes ever, "Our veranda will command a view of meadows green")
Elton John, "Your Song" (I sat on the roof, and kicked off the moss...)
ReplyDeleteKnockin' on Heaven's Door- I picked the Warren Zevon cover
ReplyDeleteCheap Motels- Southern Culture on the Skids
Come to My Window - Melissa Etheridge
Barenaked Ladies "The Old Apartment"
ReplyDeleteIf building structures are acceptable, then "In Your Room" by the Bangles.
ReplyDeleteThe House That Built Me - Miranda Lambert
ReplyDeleteboom boom, akalaka laka boom, boom boom, akalaka boom boom
ReplyDeleteGimme Three Steps by Lynyrd Skynyrd spends a lot of time talking about the topology of a dance hall.
ReplyDeleteTo which I then must add, "In My Room" by the Beach Boys
ReplyDeleteooops... just caught the tag line! My bad!
ReplyDelete