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Genesis 3:23 Lyrics
House up in Clearlake
Where I used to live
Picked the lock on the front door
And felt it give
Touch nothing, move nothing, stand still
Keep my ears open for cars
See how the people here live now
Hope they're better at it than I was
I used to live here
I used to live here
I used to live here
I used to live here
Pictures up on the mantle
Nobody I know
I stand by the tiny furnace
Where the long shadows grow
Living room to bedroom to kitchen
Familiar and warm
Hours we spent starving within these walls
Sounds of a distant storm
I used to live here
I used to live here
I used to live here
I used to live here
Fight through the ghosts in the hallway
Duck and weave
Stand by the door with my eyes closed
When it's time to leave
Steal home before sunset
Cover up my tracks
Drive home with old dreams of play in my mind
And the wind at my back
Break the lock on my own garden gate
When I get home after dark
Sit looking up at the stars outside
Like teeth in the mouth of a shark
I used to live here
I used to live here
I used to live here
I used to live here
Where I used to live
Picked the lock on the front door
And felt it give
Keep my ears open for cars
See how the people here live now
Hope they're better at it than I was
I used to live here
I used to live here
I used to live here
Nobody I know
I stand by the tiny furnace
Where the long shadows grow
Familiar and warm
Hours we spent starving within these walls
Sounds of a distant storm
I used to live here
I used to live here
I used to live here
Duck and weave
Stand by the door with my eyes closed
When it's time to leave
Cover up my tracks
Drive home with old dreams of play in my mind
And the wind at my back
When I get home after dark
Sit looking up at the stars outside
Like teeth in the mouth of a shark
I used to live here
I used to live here
I used to live here
Song Info
Submitted by
tragicweek On Jul 28, 2009
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"Therefore the Lord God sent him out (or forth, depending on your translation) from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken."
It sounds so appropriately soft in a beaten kind of way. I like the shark image for when he gets home.
I always figured the guy was (un)dead.
Hence the pause in "I used to live...here". Hence he has to "break the lock on [his] own garden gate," it's a cemetery. Hence he lies out looking at the stars "like teeth in the mouth of a shark," he's lying in an open grave. Hence "hope they're better at it than I was" - not living in this particular house but living in general.
Clearly, he should meet up with the guy from "The Cool" and have adventures.
I'm stricken by the fact that the narrator had to break the lock on HIS garden gate when he got home. Why didn't he have a key?
I think it's more like he's breaking the lock as a big "Screw You" to the Big Man Upsairs. If the character in this song is/resembles the mental state of Adam post-banishment, then it makes sense that he wouldn't necessarily care for locks on garden gates.
I think it's more like he's breaking the lock as a big "Screw You" to the Big Man Upsairs. If the character in this song is/resembles the mental state of Adam post-banishment, then it makes sense that he wouldn't necessarily care for locks on garden gates.
It's a way of saying, "I'll be more welcoming and understanding than You."
It's a way of saying, "I'll be more welcoming and understanding than You."
It's not his garden. Someone else owns it. At this point in the song, his sense of ownership over his old home allows him to casually break in, and sing without any intensity. That's why the song comes off as calm and cheery rather than intense. It's a break in that feels warranted.
Is this the house that he grew up in on The Sunset Tree?
Seems to be about a person who has had either a familial falling out or, given the bible passage referenced in the title, someone who has fallen from grace in a spiritual sense and is trying to reclaim their soul. This echoes Adam's banishment from the Garden of Eden, and explains why this person is breaking the lock on "their own garden gate." Either way, this person is trying to recapture something they lost.
He's so used to breaking and entering that he unconsciously breaks into his own property
I get the feeling of an estranged son/husband/etc coming home because he misses his family.