Two friends of ours, Julianne and Megan, recently got married, and part of the reception was a cabaret featuring songs on the theme of “home.” Faced with the choices available among the sheet music I had handy — which included the Smiths’ very depressing “Back to the Old House”, Kate Bush’s less-than-cozy “Get Out of My House”, and Paul Simon’s appropriate but too frickin’ difficult to play “Something So Right” — I opted instead to follow my usual custom in such situations and wrote my own song (with some melodic improvements from Lorinne). There’s no recording of the performance — which is just as well, honestly — so I recorded a home demo version. And here it is! It’s called “Let’s Build a Nest.” (Right-click here to download a copy.)

Let’s Build a Nest

Once upon a time, two birds of a feather
Sat at two ends of a telephone wire;
They caught each other’s eye and they scooched close together,
Then one told the other, here’s what I desire:

Let’s build a nest, let’s build a nest,
That is my first and last request.
I had to get that off my chest,
But I’m glad I confessed.
Let’s find a tree for you and me, don’t you agree that would be best?
Please say you’ve acquiesced, let’s build a nest.

The other bird just smiled (as much as birds can with a beak),
And said, now this might sound just like some tired old cliche,
But when you looked at me, you cast a spell with your mystique,
And I was so enchanted, I was just about to say:

Let’s build a nest, let’s build a nest,
Now that the thought has been expressed,
As you can tell, I don’t protest,
And in fact I feel blessed.
So now let’s sing as we take wing to do the thing that you suggest,
And then we both can rest inside our nest.
Let’s get started on it yesterday, our nest.
To take a bough will be our quest, let’s build a nest!