‘Coffee Homeground’ is a song written by Kate Bush while in the USA in May 1978. It was one of only three songs newly written for the album Lionheart – along with Full House and Symphony In Blue.

The lyrics mention Hawley Crippen, who gained infamy after poisoning his wife.

Cover versions

‘Coffee Homeground’ was covered by Kat Devlin, Yuri Kono and Mouse.

Kate about ‘Coffee Homeground

[‘Coffee Homeground’] was in fact inspired directly from a cab driver that I met who was in fact a bit nutty. And it’s just a song about someone who thinks they’re being poisoned by another person, they think that there’s Belladonna in their tea and that whenever they offer them something to eat, it’s got poisen in it. And it’s just a humorous aspect of paranoia really and we sort of done it in a Brechtian style, the old sort of German [vibe] to try and bring across the humour side of it.

Lionheart Promo Cassette, EMI Canada, 1978

Lyrics

Down in the cellar
You’re getting into making poison
You slipped some on the side
Into my glass of wine
And I don’t want any coffee homeground

Offer me a chocolate
No thank you, spoil my diet, know your game!
But tell me just how come
They smell of bitter almonds
It’s a no-no to your coffee homeground

Pictures of Crippin
Lipstick-smeared
Torn wallpaper
Have the walls got ears here?

Well, you won’t get me with your Belladonna – in the coffee
And you won’t get me with your aresenic – in the pot of tea
And you won’t get me in a hole to rot – with your hemlock
On the rocks

Where are the plumbers
Who went a-missing here on Monday?
There was a tall man
With his companion,
And I bet you gave them coffee homeground

Maybe you’re lonely
And only want a little company
But keep your recipes
For the rats to eat
And may they rest in peace with coffee homeground

Well, you won’t get me with your Belladonna – in the coffee,
And you won’t get me with your aresenic – in the pot of tea,
And you won’t put me in a six-foot plot – with your hemlock
On the rocks

You won’t get me with your Belladonna – in the coffee
And you won’t get me with your aresenic – in the pot of tea,
And you won’t get me in a hole to rot – with your hemlock
On the rocks

With your hemlock on the rocks
“Noch ein Glas, mein Liebchen?”
With your hemlock on the rocks
“Es schmeckt wunderbahr!”
With your hemlock on the rocks

Credits

Drums and percussion: Stuart Elliott
Rhythm guitar: Ian Bairnson
Bass: David Paton
Synthesizer: Duncan Mackay
Piano: Kate Bush