Locks

This song was jotted down at the dining room table in our old Victorian house on Main Street in 1978. Cheryl had taken our one-year-old Aaron to Florida to visit her folks. Em was so self-focused, he preferred to stay behind rather than go with the family. He wanted undisturbed time to work on restoring/remodeling the house, which was one of his most excessive projects ever.

Pleased to be left alone, he worked day in and day out on our dream house. But, before long, he found loneliness to be his only companion and realized that “objects” like the house needed to be kept in perspective. The project had little meaning without his family there with him. This marked a turning point in his awareness/sensitivity. This song remained unfinished until 1999 when Cheryl agreed to finish the lyrics in S’garo, Spain, as our journey began.

Coincidentally, the Main Street house never was finished, and sold some five years later for exactly what we paid for it, despite the huge investments of both time and money!

Lyrics

When you come home don’t see the flaws
‘Cause I didn’t quite get finished with the flaws
When you come home don’t lock the doors
‘Cause the door doesn’t lock here anymore

I finished your present just the other day
I wrapped it in dull brown paper and threw it away
It took me four long years to look at it this way
To have you home

If one book is all you’ve read
Then one book is all you’ve said
Read two and three aloud
And the sharing is why we care
The caring is why we share

Passages open to new awakenings
Revealing truth and meaning that it brings
Pathways where music and poetry begin
Are they locked out or locked in

And lately things have changed a lot
My life has rearranged
One simple thing is true
It’s simple but it’s true
I love you

So when you come home don’t see the flaws
‘Cause I didn’t quite get finished with the flaws
When you come home don’t lock the door
‘Cause the door doesn’t lock here anymore

I took all the locks off the doors to open wide

Passages open to new awakenings
Revealing truth and the meaning that it brings
Pathways where music and poetry begin
Are they locked out or locked in

Are they locked out or locked in

Credits

from Never Sleep, track released 01 January 2003
Cheryl Martlage – Lyrics and vocals
Emerson Martlage – Music, guitar and vocals
Tom Tomasello – Producer/Arranger
Jim Bruno – Vocal producer
Mr Toad’s San Francisco – Mastering
Inspiration – 313 S. Main Street, Middletown, Ohio