Coffee Homeground

Album: Lionheart (1978)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The stunningly attractive Kate Bush has her dark side, as evinced by "Army Dreamers" and similar tracks. This is a more straightforward song though - about a poisoner! Running to 3 minutes 39 seconds, this is the ninth track on Kate's second album. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England
  • This was inspired by a paranoid cab driver Kate met who was convinced he was being poisoned. "[He] was in fact a bit nutty," she explained in the album's promo materials. "And it's just a song about someone who thinks they're being poisoned by another person, they think that there's Belladonna in their tea and that whenever they offer them something to eat, it's got poison in it. And it's just a humorous aspect of paranoia really and we sort of done it in a Brechtian style, the old sort of German vibe [e.g. "Mack The Knife"] to try and bring across the humor side of it."
  • The lyrics mention "pictures of Crippen." Hawley Harvey Crippen was an American doctor who murdered his wife at their home in England in 1910 by overdosing her with the anti-nausea drug hyoscine. He tried to escape to Canada on an ocean liner but was captured when the captain recognized him and sent a wireless telegram to British authorities. It was the first time a suspect was apprehended with the aid of wireless telegraphy.
  • Despite its German influence, this tune was actually written while Kate was visiting the US to appear on Saturday Night Live.

Comments: 1

  • Zabadak from London, EnglandThis is a very funny record, er, about poisoning! The melody, however, is reminiscent of the theme to the UK TV series "Tales Of The Unexpected", half-hour vignettes which would feature a deadly, often ironic twist at the end.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Guy Clark

Guy ClarkSongwriter Interviews

Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett are just a few of the artists who have looked to Clark for insightful, intelligent songs.

Rupert Hine

Rupert HineSongwriter Interviews

Producer Rupert Hine talks about crafting hits for Tina Turner, Howard Jones and The Fixx.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

Jethro Tull

Jethro TullFact or Fiction

Stage urinals, flute devices, and the real Aqualung in this Fact or Fiction.

Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles

Timothy B. Schmit of the EaglesSongwriter Interviews

Did this Eagle come up with the term "Parrothead"? And what is it like playing "Hotel California" for the gazillionth time?

Stan Ridgway

Stan RidgwaySongwriter Interviews

Go beyond the Wall of Voodoo with this cinematic songwriter.