One Final Serenade: Songs of Billy Joel
 Download "House of Blue Light"
They all drive Chevy pick-ups in the morning
They all ride Harley-Davidsons at night They all work for somebody Who makes all the money And pays them just enough to get tight In the House of Blue Light "House of Blue Light" is the B-side to "We Didn't Start The Fire" and was never released on any album prior to My Lives. It is a gruff and bluesy rocker. The "House of Blue Light" refers to a fictitious working-class roadhouse bar where a person can forget about one's sorrows and grief. The name is possibly an homage to the similarly titled song "The House of Blue Lights" by Don Raye and Freddie Slack, and sung by Ella Mae Morse, and/0r a reference to the "house of blue light" in Little Richard's "Good Golly, Miss Molly."
The original B-side version of the song was slightly different than the version that appeared on My Lives. The original version did not have the harmonica, and it can be heard here. |
Well, I’m driving on down to the surfside bar
These days my old shovelhead, she don’t travel far But she goes where I want and now I want to be Where all the locals go to keep each other company They all drive Chevy pick-ups in the morning They all ride Harley-Davidsons at night They all work for somebody Who makes all the money And pays them just enough to get tight In the House of Blue Light House of Blue Light Well I’m driving on down to meet a woman there She got the long legs, the red lips and the golden hair She knows what to do to make a man feel good She’s the hardest working woman in this neighborhood She don’t mind making breakfast in the morning She don’t mind making love every night She says come see me honey And bring lots of money ’Cause we know how to treat you right At the House of Blue Light House of Blue Light House of Blue Light House of Blue Light You know this life is filled with grief Sometimes it gets you so down You got to find yourself some kind of relief And there’s a roadhouse right outside of town Roadhouse of Blue Light Well I’ve been around the world a dozen times or more And I never really knew what I was searching for Till I came to this place on a midnight ride I pulled next to a full dress Electra-Glide They had a band playing blues from Mississippi They had a bar that kept customers in sight They had some fine architecture And a view that would get you To want to spend the whole damn night In the House of Blue Light House of Blue Light House of Blue Light House of Blue Light "House of Blue Light" (1989) from My Lives (2005)
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