How I Wrote ‘Home’

Home is a song I’ve had hanging around for rather a while. How long? Here’s a really rough ‘first time I’ve ever heard the thing’ run through with a college band. It was recorded in 2002. That’s how old it is.

Home (Demo)

There’s a violin on this that you can just about hear. Great violin player, but she was standing too far away from the little mini-disc recorder.

Oh, and isn’t it obvious how unprepared the drummer was? I think he was halfway through a residency with a Blues Brothers tribute and was completely dead to the world when attending college…

Anyway, the song itself is about missing the object of one’s affections because you’ve been away from home too long hunting big game from an airship.

Of course.

The lead parts  were improvised – I recorded plugged my guitar into my Sonuus G2M midi converter and recorded both original guitar sound and the midi signal through a synth patch. Lots of fun.

I was going for big pop chorus with quirky verses, and personally I think it achieved that. Still, although it gets listened to, Home appears to be the least popular song on Spinning the Compass.

At least I like it.

Leaving the earth was such a thrill
A ship of the sky, lighter that air
At hunting grounds we made our kills
Kings of the great game, on top of the sky

They say we’re took the long way
Say we’ll soon touch down
I don’t see that, I’ve only eyes for home.

Thrill of a lifetime but I’ve been away too long
What I would give, to touch the earth again

They say we took the long way
Say we’ll soon touch down
I don’t see that, I’ve only eyes for home

They say we’re coming home soon
They say the clouds are grey
I don’t see that, I’ve only eyes for home

And all the kills, all the trophies, all the game that we bought down
All the hides, all the skulls, all the savage beast we found
I would give them all, every one if it would bring you close to me
I’d chant your name like spell, reach for you just like a drowning man

They say we took the long way
They say the clouds are grey

They say we’re coming home soon
Say we’ll soon touch down
I don’t see that, I’ve only eyes for home

They say we took the long way
They say the clouds are grey
I don’t see that, I’ve only eyes for home