Story Behind The Song

This is a true story. We have some friends who had their mid-life crisis pretty early, quit their jobs, moved to the backwoods, and built a timber-frame house. This song was a housewarming present.

Lyrics

Raise the Roof

I had a thought today:
Let's quit our jobs, OK?
We'll sell the house, and move away,
and live in the woods.
And I'll sell canoes, and you can make hats,
and we'll buy some 8 x 8's and a Shopsmith,
and a chisel like a baseball bat.
We'll carve away everything
that doesn't fit tight and true,
get it all ready, throw a big party,
and raise the roof!

Chorus:
Gonna raise the roof, gonna raise the beams,
gonna raise the purlins and the joists
and the rafters,
raise a dream,
gonna raise a little hell, gonna tell the truth,
gonna raise our glasses to the past
and our hammers to the future,
gonna raise the roof!

All the mortises are drilled,
and all the tenons are carved,
and all the pegs are counted
and everythings ready,
and laid out in the yard.
It's an engagement in the joiner's art -
we'll be joining together
what had grown apart.
It's a kind connection,
between muscle and wood,
Oh we're gonna be tired when we're done,
but it's gonna be a tired that's good.
(Chorus)