"The House That Built Me" as written by Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin....
I know they say you can't go home again
I just had to come back one last time
Ma'am I know you don't know me from Adam
But these handprints on the front steps are mine
Up those stairs in that little back bedroom
Is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar
I bet you didn't know under that live oak
My favorite dog is buried in the yard
I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it's like I'm someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could just come in I swear I'll leave
Won't take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me
Mama cut out pictures of houses for years
From Better Homes and Gardens magazine
Plans were drawn and concrete poured
Nail by nail and board by board
Daddy gave life to mama's dream
I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it's like I'm someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could just come in I swear I'll leave
Won't take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me
You leave home and you move on and you do the best you can
I got lost in this old world and forgot who I am
I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it's like I'm someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could walk around I swear I'll leave
Won't take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me
I just had to come back one last time
Ma'am I know you don't know me from Adam
But these handprints on the front steps are mine
Up those stairs in that little back bedroom
Is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar
I bet you didn't know under that live oak
My favorite dog is buried in the yard
I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it's like I'm someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could just come in I swear I'll leave
Won't take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me
Mama cut out pictures of houses for years
From Better Homes and Gardens magazine
Plans were drawn and concrete poured
Nail by nail and board by board
Daddy gave life to mama's dream
I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it's like I'm someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could just come in I swear I'll leave
Won't take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me
You leave home and you move on and you do the best you can
I got lost in this old world and forgot who I am
I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it's like I'm someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself
If I could walk around I swear I'll leave
Won't take nothing but a memory
From the house that built me
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Throughout the verses of this song, Miranda introduces the occupant of her old house to its history, while switching to her current struggles in the chorus. She starts with a brief introduction of the house and then ventures to more specifics once inside. The climax of the song hits when she realizes that she has done the best she could in life but has managed to lose herself along the way. Her current attempt to rediscover herself is evident in the visit to her old home.
The great thing about great songs is that they can have different meanings to different people. Songs can also have varying meanings for the same person, depending on their life stage and point of view. I find this to be the case with “The House that Built Me.” When I first heard this song, I thought of when I left home for college and a professional career. I often thought of what it would be like to go back and if I would find restoration of the sadness that I experienced with leaving home for school.
However, after listening to the song again, I have discovered another meaning that relates loosely to the “Parable of the Prodigal Son” in the Bible (Luke 15:11-31). This parable describes a son that leaves home, squanders his wealth, experiences heartache and poverty in his attempt to live on his own, and then eventually returns home to his family. Similar to the parable, Miranda sings about how “you leave home, you move on, and you do the best you can.” Like the prodigal son, there was a realization in Miranda’s song about how in doing what she thought was best, she “got lost in this old world” and forgot herself. In the song, however, she returns to a home occupied by another, and no mention is made of where the family is. While listeners may not know the specific reasons for leaving, there is a bittersweet perspective given when visiting her old home. While the prodigal son was able to reconcile with his family, the main character in this song was not as fortunate during her visit.
This particular view of the song reminded me that there will be a moment when it may be too late to receive restoration in the way we may desire. There is an appreciation for one’s past and a longing to be made well again, and it is through this that we find an emphasis on not postponing healing. The song leaves me questioning where will she go after her visit? What type of healing was she able to experience? In her taking “nothing but a memory,” did she not find the repair that her heart needed?
We had the best dog ever at our old house, but she passed before she could live in our new house. That house I lived in built me and all the things we did there while growing up will be nothing, but a memory.
I was so young and so free and I was me. I just wish I could go back and be me again, but I've lost myself along the way and I just don't know where I forgot who I am or when I lost what I've been missing, but I just want to knock on the door of my old house and ask to look around and try to find what it is that I've lost. I remember my bedroom was so small and had a funny shape to it, but I just want to go back and run my fingers along the window seal where I nearly broke all my fingers when my brother dropped the window on them when I was three, I want to look under the bed where I hid from monsters when I was six, I want to knock on the hollow spot in the wall Daddy covered with Spackle because the door knob went right through it when I was throwing a fit when I was five.
I just wish I could pay my respects to my beloved dog, Bingo, one last time, and somehow find what I've lost. I just want to remember again and be myself again.
Basically, that's what the song is saying and I cry every time I hear it. I hate everyone who does a cover on it because none of them capture the emotion behind it. They think it's a pretty song and move on. They hear the lyrics, but they don't listen. They don't know what she's saying. They can't connect to it, they don't know how it feels to lose something along the way and want so desperately to backtrack and go back to your childhood home and try to find it and just remember. They sing it with a smile on their face, a laugh in their throat. I want to punch them in the face. They just don't understand and they never will.
But when she was young she had the perfect childhood. A family with a mom that had big dreams of a perfect house, that her daddy built them. And she was happy, but at some point it was all broken. Probably just because she grew up, and her parents sold the house (or died?(. But maybe her parents could've divorced, and the house was sold to someone else, and she lost that perfect childhood. So now she's tried doing everything to move on and become something new, to fix that broken feeling. But no matter what she can't, because that childhood was a huge part of her life, even if it's not herself anymore..
What does it mean when she says "i know you dont know me from Adam"? i dont get it.
I agree with everyone, though I do have my own thoughts on it. I get that she wants to go back home to all the memories, and the good times. But why? I think because maybe, she's taken her new life a little for granted. Maybe she feels that she needs a reality check and she knew that seeing everything from her past would help that. Remind her who she is and where she came from. What do you think?