Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her fourth album The Dreaming.

Cover versions

‘Get Out Of My House’ was covered by Bigawatt.

Kate about ‘Get Out Of My House’

‘The Shining’ is the only book I’ve read that has frightened me. While reading it I swamped around in its snowy imagery and avoided visiting certain floors of the big, cold hotel, empty for the winter. As in ‘Alien’, the central characters are isolated, miles (or light years) away from anyone or anything, but there is something in the place with them. They’re not sure what, but it isn’t very nice.
The setting for this song continues the theme – the house which is really a human being, has been shut up – locked and bolted, to stop any outside forces from entering. The person has been hurt and has decided to keep everybody out. They plant a ‘concierge’ at the front door to stop any determined callers from passing, but the thing has got into the house upstairs. It’s descending in the lift, and now it approaches the door of the room that you’re hiding in. You’re cornered, there’s no way out, so you turn into a bird and fly away, but the thing changes shape, too. You change, it changes; you can’t escape, so you turn around and face it, scare it away. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, October 1982)

The song is called ‘Get Out Of My House’, and it’s all about the human as a house. The idea is that as more experiences actually get to you, you start learning how to defend yourself from them. The human can be seen as a house where you start putting up shutters at the windows and locking the doors – not letting in certain things. I think a lot of people are like this – they don’t hear what they don’t want to hear, don’t see what they don’t want to see. It is like a house, where the windows are the eyes and the ears, and you don’t let people in. That’s sad because as they grow older people should open up more. But they do the opposite because, I suppose, they do get bruised and cluttered. Which brings me back to myself; yes, I have had to decide what I will let in and what I’ll have to exclude. (Rosie Boycott, ‘The Discreet Charm Of Kate Bush’. Company (UK), 1982)

It’s meant to be a bit scary. It’s just the idea of someone being in this place and there’s something else there… You don’t know what it is. The track kept changing in the studio. This is something that’s never happened before on an album. That one was maybe half the length it is now. The guitarist got this really nice riff going, and I got this idea of two voices – a person in the house, trying to get away from this thing, but it’s still there. So in order to get away, they change their form – first into a bird trying to fly away from it. The thing can change as well, so that changes into this wind, and starts blowing all icy. The idea is to turn around and face it. You’ve got this image of something turning round and going “Aah!”‘ just to try and scare it away.  (Kris Needs, ‘Dream Time In The Bush’. ZIgZag (UK), 1982)

Lyrics

(“Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw!”)

When you left, the door was
(slamming!)
You paused in the doorway
(slamming!)
As though a thought stole you away
(slamming!)
I watched the world pull you away
(Lock it!)

So I run into the hall
(Lock it!)
Into the corridor
(Lock it!)
There’s a door in the house
(slamming!)
I hear the lift descending
(slamming!)
I hear it hit the landing
(slamming!)
See the hackles on the cat
standing

With my key I
(lock it)
With my key I
(lock it up)
With my key I
(lock it)
With my key I
(lock it up)

I am the concierge chez-moi, honey
Won’t letcha in for love, nor money

(“Let me in!”)

My home, my joy
I’m barred and bolted and I
(Won’t let you in)
(Get out of my house!)

No stranger’s feet
Will enter me
(Get out of my house!)
I wash the panes,
(Get out of my house!)
I clean the stains away
(Get out of my house!)

This house is as old as I am
(Slamming)
This house knows all I have done
(Slamming)
They come with their weather hanging ’round them,
(Slamming)
But can’t knock my door down!
(Slamming)

With my key I
(lock it)
With my key I
(lock it)

This house is full of m-m-my mess
(Slamming)
This house is full of m-m-mistakes
(Slamming)
This house is full of m-m-madness
(Slamming)
This house is full of, full of, full of fight!
(Slam it)

With my keeper I
(clean up)
With my keeper I
(clean it all up)
With my keeper I
(clean up)
With my keeper I
(clean it all up)

I am the concierge chez-moi, honey
Won’t letcha in for love, nor money
(“It’s cold out here!”)
My home, my joy.
I’m barred and bolted and I
(Get out of my house!)
(Won’t let you in)

(Get out of my house!)
No stranger’s feet
(Get out of my house!)
Will enter me
(Get out of my house!)
I wash the panes
(Get out of my house!)
I clean the stains
(Get out of my house!)
(Get out of my house!)
(Get out of my house!)
(Get out of my house!)

Won’t enter me
(Get out of my house!)
(Get out of my house!)
(Get out of my house!)
(Get out of my house!)

Yeah! Won’t let you in!
(Get out of my house!)
(Get out of my house!)
“Let me in!

“Woman let me in!
Let me bring in the memories!
Woman let me in!
Let me bring in the Devil Dreams!”

I will not let you in!
Don’t you bring back the reveries
I turn into a bird,
Carry further than the word is heard

“Woman let me in!
I turn into the wind.
I blow you a cold kiss,
Stronger than the song’s hit”

I will not let you in
I face towards the wind
I change into the Mule
“I change into the Mule”

Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw-hee-haw-hee-haw-hee-haw…

“Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw!”

Credits

Drums: Preston Heyman
Bass: Jimmy Bain
Electric guitars: Alan Murphy
Piano, Fairlight: Kate Bush
Backing vocals: Paddy Bush
“Eeyore”: Paul Hardiman
Drum talk: Esmail Sheikh