Details
- Status: Album track
- Length: 7:52
- Significant releases: Separations (album) (19 June 1992) (all releases)
- First played live: 8 August 1988 (The Day That Never Happened, The Leadmill, Sheffield)
- Recorded: September 1989 to January 1990 (FON Studio, Sheffield)
Credits
- Writers: Jarvis Cocker, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey and Russell Senior
- Lyrics and vocals: Russell Senior
- Producer: Alan Smyth and Pulp
- Engineer: Alan Fisch
- Russell Senior: vocal, guitar
- Jarvis Cocker, Steve Mackey and Alan Smyth: sampled bleepy riff (FZ-10), sampled Jensynth bass (FZ-10), strings (Korg), sampled string climb (FZ-10)
Lyrics
He's in a room
He sees the floor
He sees the wall
He sees the roof
He sees the door
It's 9:38
So he goes up to the door
but he finds himself in another room
identical to the one before
The clock still reads 9:38
So he goes out of that room
but he finds himself in a parallel room
A mirror image of the one before
He hits the floor
He hits the wall
He hits the door
He hits the door
The clock reads 9:38
He throws it at the roof
He breaks a hole
He climbs out
He sees the moon
He sees the stars
He sees the sky
The stars are small light bulbs
set in a black cardboard dome
He climbs out
He sees the stars
he sees the sky
The stars are small light bulbs
set in a black cardboard dome
He hits the floor
He hits the wall
He hits the roof
He hits the dome
He hits the dome
Condemned
This house
This house is
This house is
Is this house
This house
Is this house
Fill in a housing form
By one o'clock
Time again
Sort housing papers
9:38
Two thousand years from now it will still be ticking
He hits the floor
Wall, roof, door
The clock reads 9:38
He hits the dome, door, wall, space, floor, time
He sees the moon
He sees the stars for some romantic reason
Space, dome, door, wall, clock face, space, time, place, floor, wall, door, roof
This is one small step for mankind
one giant leap for man
Ten
Nine
Eight
Seven
Six
Five
Four
Three
Two
One
Zero
We have lift-off
He takes the clock
he breaks the dome
He sees the moon
He sees the stars
He sees the sky
He sees the earth for some romantic reason
He takes the clock
He breaks the dome
He sees the moon
He sees the stars
He sees the sky
He sees the earth
Space, time, place, condensed
Space, time, place, condemned
This house is
This house is
This house is
condemned
This house is
This house is
This house is
condemned
Notes
The following text appeared on a flyer for The Day That Never Happened concert at the Leadmill in August 1988.
It was a Tuesday night in August and I was alone in the house. The room was stuffy and the television was giving me a headache, so I decided to go out. I looked at the clock on the wall: 9:35: if I hurried I could catch the quarter to bus into town. I put on a light summer jacket, brushed my teeth and went out through the front door - only, I didn't: instead I found myself in the front room, or rather an exact replica of it, right down to the clock on the wall which still read 9:35.
I was confused.
Again I went to the front door and again I found myself back in the same room. The clock hadn't budged. The bleeding thing was ticking like crazy but the hands wouldn't move. I picked it up and threw it at the ceiling. Instead of smashing to pieces it went straight through, leaving a small hole through which I could see the stars.
I was relieved at least I could get out now. By standing on a chair I could just get my head through the hole. It was then I realised that the stars were really only small electric light bulbs mounted in a black cardboard dome that formed the sky. I hoisted the rest of myself through the hole for a way out.Eventually, after what seemed like ages (although I wouldn't know: the clock still said 9:35) I found a door with a neon sign above it, saying "The Leadmill" and in the keyhole a key bearing the inscription "Pulp". I closed my eyes and turned the key.
Also, a rough version appears in the first Pulp Scrapbook: view it here.
Alternative versions and remixes
This House Is Condemned (remix)
- Length: 7:30
- Releases: My Legendary Girlfriend (Fire single) (18 March 1991)
- Mixed by: Parrot and Winston
Is This House?
- Length: 7:57
- Releases: My Legendary Girlfriend (Fire single) (18 March 1991)
- Mixed by: Parrot and Winston