House music (the loving kind, not the dancing kind)

1. Woody Guthrie – I Ain’t Got No Home
(from Dust Bowl Ballads)

2. Hank Williams – Ready To Go Home
(from The Ultimate Collection)

3. Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner – Better Move It On Home
(from The Essential Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton)

4. Eddie Floyd – Bring It On Home
(from Chronicle: Greatest Hits)

5. Elvis Presley – Baby, Let’s Play House
(from The Sun Sessions)

6. The Kinks – I Took My Baby Home
(from Kinks)

7. Solomon Burke – Home In Your Heart
(from Home In Your Heart)

8. The White Stripes – Let’s Build a Home
(from De Stijl)

9. Tom Waits – Come On Up To the House
(from Mule Variations)

10. Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young – Our House
(from So Far CSNY)

EPILOGUE: Swan Silvertones – I’m Coming Home
(from Love Lifted Me/My Rock)

Lately I’ve been giving a lot of thought to house music over here at Post-Rockist HQ, and not the four-to-the-floor variety. But the idea of “home” in music. Everyone has one, or had one: that place with four walls and a roof over your head where you plant your roots and watch Judge Judy comfortably in your sweatpants. But in pop culture “home” isn’t so much a place as it is a goal; a site for departures and arrivals. Someone’s always leaving home, coming home, dreaming of home, building a home, wrecking a home, sick of home, or homesick.

So in that spirit of adventure, I’ve put together a little mix of house music. It’s not necessarily the greatest selection of home-themed songs, but it follows a loose story arc of homelessness to homecoming. We start with Woody and Hank bemoaning the absence of home in a socioeconomic and spiritual sense, respectively, before picking things up a notch with the saucy country duo Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner toying around with the foibles of spousal obligations. Eddie Floyd tries to smooth things over with his departed lover with remorse in his voice and a sturdy Stax strut to signify his sincerity. Meanwhile, Elvis and the Kinks, lovers in tow, want to bring their babies home with non-too-subtle metaphors veiling their animal intentions. The man with the sexiest voice on this list, however, Mr. Solomon Burke, is seeking a home with a little more permanence than a brief playdate. And Jack White… well, I don’t really know what he’s on about, but he sounds serious. With home finally in sight, Tom Waits is there to rattle our foundations with his booming growl, reminding us of the fragile and shambling nature of all those things we hold dear to our heart, but reassures us like a bohemian Baloo that transcendence can be found in our transience. Home at last, Graham Nash celebrates the little joys found in our domestic setting, and yes, this song has been overplayed, but that doesn’t make it any less beautiful. Finally, the a capella gospel legends the Swan Silvertones figuratively bring it all home to tidily wrap up the spiritual void first noticed by Hank Williams at the beginning.

Quite frankly, I’m a little surprised that “Home” hasn’t been the subject of one of Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hours yet, considering his other topics. Bob, if you’re reading this, and I know that you are, feel free to use the idea. Just be sure to give credit where credit is due.