Who’s house?
“Our House: Getting Out Of the Shuffle” by Joey Gee.
I was talking to Daniella about this last night and decided to focus this blog around it, so here goes. “Our House” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young might be one of the finest songs ever, but you’d never know it because it is constantly getting lost in the shuffle, buried deep in the radio waves of countless classic rock stations or in numerous movies and previews during all the cheesy moments, completely missing the point. Play this or “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by the Beach Boys for your friends while growing up or for your acquaintances now who are oblivious to the hip “I’ve been listening to it forever but really downloaded it last weekend” mindset, and you’ll probably get a chuckle. Throw “Our House” on a mix tape and more times than not the listener will see it as novelty, and not for it’s sentimental value.
Let’s take a deeper look at this pop gem: It runs at about 3 minutes, the perfect amount of time to get in and out, leaving the listener wanting more (at least for me it does). It centers around a fairly simple piano line with some solid rhythm, but alone that would hardly be enough to stick in our minds and hearts. So while those 2 ingredients get us halfway there to the perfect song, here is how it brings it home. On the surface, the lyrics are a bit cheesy but it captures that moment of love where you don’t overly think about what you’re saying and only care about the meaning behind it. A problem with a lot of today’s music is that they take from the old but miss the point completely: where’s the honesty? Graham Nash truly and sincerely is excited about lighting the fire while Joni Mitchell places the flowers in the newly purchased vase and he just wants to let her know that. “Our House” perfectly freezes a moment and feeling in time that even if the relationship doesn’t work out (and it didn’t), you’ll always have this audible photograph to look back on the good times. It’s all you can hope out of any defining relationship, honestly. Then of course, there is the vocals. You’ve got some of the best harmonies backing you, and Nash just gives it all. Even while singing the dreamy “la la la”’s, he still seems to put his heart out there.
The thing that was great about “Déjà Vu” by CSNY was that it was 4 incredible songwriters battling each other for memorable songs. And while I cannot say if “Our House” is the best, it certainly is one of the more timeless and charming songs I have ever and will ever hear.
So I think I’ll always love this song on so many levels. It’s meaning constantly changes for me personally as I get older and older. From listening to it on cassette in the back seat of my parents’ car or to hearing it in the front seat of my own car, thinking of someone I really love, it never loses meaning and is a true example of timelessness.
