Catchy tunes. Just don't burn down the house.

Did some of these lyrics surprise you, even though you'd listened to the songs over and over? Pop culture is insidious.

1. And I hear the hungry coyote as he slinks up through the grass
   
   Round the little old sod shanty on my claim. (Oliver Edwin Murray, 1880)
2. It's only a shanty
   
   In old Shanty Town....
   
   The roof is so slanty it touches the ground.... (Ted Lewis)
3. I was in the house when the house burned down
   
   I met the man with the thorny crown
   
   I helped Him carry his cross through town.... (Warren Zevon)
4. There is a house in New Orleans,
   
   They call The Rising Sun.... (Animals, 1964)
5. Our house, in the middle of our street
   
   Our house, in the middle of our (something tells you that you've got to move away from it).... (Madness, 1982)
6. There's a pink one and a green one
   
   And a blue one and a yellow one
   
   And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
   
   And they all look just the same. (Malvina Reynolds, 1962)
7. A chair is still a chair,
   
   Even when there's no one sitting there,
   
   But a chair is not a house.... (Bacharach/David, 1964)
8. Bless these windows shining bright,
   
   Letting in God's heavenly light.... (Helen Taylor, 1927)
9. Ain't got time to oil the hinges
   
   Nor to mend the windowpane
   
   Ain't a-gonna need this house no longer
   
   He's a-gettin' ready to meet the saints. (Stuart Hamblen, 1954)
10. In my father's house are many mansions,
    
    Though tonight some make their bed along the street.... (Etheridge et al, 1989)

Go around humming or whistling one of these songs today. Start conversations. Your friends may advise therapy.

Our house, in the middle….

Dmitri Gheorgheni

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