///*****/// [Intro] A dial turning slowly And a signal coming in [Verse 1] There was shouting through the floorboards And a bottle on the stair And a boy of eight or nine Underneath a blanket there And he had a transistor radio That he got for Christmas past And he put it to his ear And he turned the volume half And a station out of Cleveland Came in weak and came in true And it played him something enormous And it got the whole night through [Pre-Chorus] And they can say it is just music And they can say it is not real But a nine-year-old in Ohio Knows exactly how it feels [Chorus] This is the house that music built Every brick and every beam It was raised on borrowed radio And on somebody else's dream When there was nothing else to stand on It was under both my feet This is the house that music built And I am living in it still The house that music built [Verse 2] Then at twelve I got a guitar From a pawnshop on the square Thirty dollars and a broken neck And a case with a cigarette burn there And I could not play a chord of it For about eleven months And then one Tuesday it came open Like a door inside my hands And I sat down on the mattress And I played the same four things And the shouting was still happening But it could not get in [Pre-Chorus] Because I had somewhere to go now That was inside of my own head And you cannot follow anybody Into a song they've said [Chorus] This is the house that music built Every brick and every beam It was raised on borrowed radio And on somebody else's dream When there was nothing else to stand on It was under both my feet This is the house that music built And I am living in it still The house that music built [Verse 3] So when somebody in an interview Asks me why it matters Why I do the schools and hospitals And the little run-down theatres I tell them about Cleveland And the transistor and the stair And I say there is a kid tonight Underneath a blanket somewhere But if one song gets through the floorboards Then I have paid it back again [Pre-Chorus] Because somebody built this for me And they never knew they did Some session player in a room In nineteen sixty-six [Bridge] So thank you to the strangers Who I never got to thank Thank you to the airwaves And the towers and the banks Of stations playing all night To whoever is awake [Guitar Solo] [Final Chorus] This is the house that music built Every brick and every beam It was raised on borrowed radio And on somebody else's dream When there was nothing else to stand on It was under both my feet This is the house that music built And the door is off the latch The house that music built [Coda] So turn it up in the kitchen Turn it up in the car Turn it up for every person Who does not know where they are There is somebody out there listening On a bad night, on the floor And you will never ever meet them And you are building them a door [Outro] A dial turning slowly And a signal coming in And a boy beneath a blanket And a house he is living in
