Your favourite songs about someone being at the door

Started a thread on FB but thought I'd throw it open to the ILM massive. Most songs about someone being at the door are good if not great. Very few are bad. What are your favourite songs about someone being at the door?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd52IHHEoj8

I guess that's one of the bad ones, ha.

"Let 'Em In" by Paul McCartney - one of his classic "will this do?" singles

it's one of his best solo songs

Eileen Barton - If I Knew You Were Coming I'd Have Baked a Cake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1gfZwejPv8

One of my favourites. The key element in any good 'somebody at the door' song is sass, and this has it in droves... Speaking of which...:

Little Richard - You Keep A Knockin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYr7I4gOSXk

'Come back tomorrow and try it again'

White stripes - my doorbell
Gordon lightfoot - sundown

Toy Dolls - "Florence Is Deaf (But There's No Need To Shout)"

https://youtu.be/Y3WgsKEDg5Q

btw - nice to meet you yesterday DL!

you too Willl! Quite funny we both realised we were Ilxors after a good 30 minute chat

Louis Jordan - Open the Door, Richard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irIf9OOyyK0

Can't find Ivor Cutler's 'Knock Knock Knocking' or the completely different song of the same name by Deaf School on YouTube, but both are canon

there's a playlist now: https://open.spotify.com/user/1153731601/playlist/7kqiCbf7fB27DuvIu7fDao?si=dr3qhQiEQxqWPdaQf7up9A

The obvious -
Beatles "No Reply"
Men at Work "Who Can it Be Now?"
The Byrds "I Come and Stand at Every Door"
Fats Domino "I Hear You Knocking"

Does Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" count? In the sense of being at THE DOOR!

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Song of Joy.
Guy's at the door, asking for a room, lamenting his sad story. Will the one answering the door (...you?) let him in? Or does the clue in the final lines not go unnoticed?
Dark stuff. But good stuff.

Can't find Ivor Cutler's 'Knock Knock Knocking' or the completely different song of the same name by Deaf School on YouTube, but both are canon

The Ivor Cutler track is Who's That Not Knocking At My Door, so it doesn't count because it's about no-one being at the door.

“Open the Door, Homer,” written by Bob Dylan, recorded by Bob Dylan and The Band. Which has the lyric “Open the door, Richard” referencing the oft-recorded song mentioned above.

The Ivor Cutler track is Who's That Not Knocking At My Door, so it doesn't count because it's about no-one being at the door.

― Poisoned by Johan's pea soup. (Tom D.), Monday, June 4, 2018 11:26 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

huh

Peter Hammill, "I Dared Not Speak" from his opera The Fall of the House of Usher. The most dramatic point in the whole opera:

Days ago I heard her first feeble movements
in the hollow coffin -
said I not that my senses were acute?
I heard the scraping, the scraping of her nails -
but I dared not, I dared not speak!
Madman! Madman!
I tell you that she now comes towards the door!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSxOxmtrm7g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1qG-KZcBPc

Vince Staples "Screen Door"

Legitimately stupefied to find that no one has mentioned ABBA's 'The Visitors' yet.

Hop Along - The Knock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuWdggpr3Os

the WITNESS just wants to TALK TO YOUUUUU

Is the visitors about old friends coming over od occult forces? I always thought the visitors were demons or something tbh

You're kidding me, right?

No I’m not, I legitimately had no idea what the song was about until I just looked up the meaning. I thought the beauty of music was interpretation tbh.

It's quite blatantly about people that are in hiding because they've spoken out against their government and they're being "visited" by officials that want to silence them.

'The Day Before You Came' is more vague, and possibly more menacing as a result, but that's another thread.

Well now I know that but man, did you know that the first time you heard it? I only heard the record for the first time a month ago. Not sure where you get the manual for the holy objectivity of music but let me know.

See, I've heard the song as an agoraphobe's perspective of friends stopping by to check in on them, but Turrican has spoken.

Getting flashbacks to when sanpaku corrected my interpretation of these days by ane Brun, a song I’ve always taken to be about distant lovers. Apparently it’s ahour depression and my reading was wrong.

Yeah old lunch I definitely can hear that. Shades of Kate Bush all the love thematically

huh
― My name is the Pope and in the 90s I smoked a lot of dope (dog latin), Monday, 4 June 2018 10:36 (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's the joke, otherwise it's just a song about someone knocking at the door, which isn't very absurd.

Turrican otm on The Visitors btw.

tom petty - don't come around here no more

cosmic psychos - can't come in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVm7NNo82JA

^ truly the best chorus ever EVER

lol I posted that one on the FB thread

git facked

sheer poetry

that cosmic psychos song is sadly not on Spotify

I've decided The Visitors and Knockin On Heaven's Door are allowed in this as quasi outliers to the genre

How is 'The Visitors' a quasi outlier? The titular visitors are literally ringing the bell and trying the knob. I don't know how it's possible to be more 'at the door'.

Terri Gibbs, "Somebody's Knockin'"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSplf_0JJiQ

And this thread cannot be complete without DuJour's immortal "Back Door Lover"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXSO6I5YHyY

C.J. & Co., "Beware the Stranger"

Has no one mentioned the Allmans' "One Way Out" yet?

How is 'The Visitors' a quasi outlier? The titular visitors are literally ringing the bell and trying the knob. I don't know how it's possible to be more 'at the door'.

― On the Wingers of Love: The Kip & Debra Story (Old Lunch), Monday, June 4, 2018 1:42 PM (eighteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was just about to say this, but I think dog latin needs a break from me nit-picking at his posts. I know I do!

It’s All Over Now Baby Blue:

The vagabond who's rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9PNoJuP-mk

xxp it's only cos people were calling Visitors into question. I agree, while the song's about a bit more than just being at the door, it describes enough door-based action to warrant it appearing in the canon of 'being at the door' songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMATnqyVMZM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtllPBWMAog

and-ah-I would walk 500 miles and-ah-I would walk 500 more just to be tha man who walks a thousand miles
to fall down at your door

I'm up to 50 songs on Spotify now. Even I didn't realise there'd be so many amazing songs about someone being at the door

https://open.spotify.com/user/1153731601/playlist/7kqiCbf7fB27DuvIu7fDao?si=ssamMlQ3TJmMStLL-Wmc4w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At5pMQ15iTY

Paul Kelly - To Her Door

SHE SAID "SHOVE IT JACK I'M WALKIN' OUT YOUR FUCKIN' DOOR"

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Fright Night

Knock knock on the door three times
And you knock knock on the door
Said you used to talk to demons with my ouija board
But not anymore

Was (Not Was) - Walk the Dinosaur

Open the door, get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur

Like, I think it's implied that the dinosaur shows up at his door while he's watching Miami Vice even though it all took place 40 million years ago? I think it might just barely qualify?

And you wake from your dream with a wolf at the door, reaching out for Veronica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSZyezEhRhs

Shouldn't we include also The Doors "Break on Through to the Other Side" here?

Made the scene
Week to week
Day to day
Hour to hour
The gate is strait
Deep and wide

"I was surprised to see your suitcase at the door" might be tenuous but I always assume the person is at the door ready to leave in that line, taken from First Choice "Let No Man Put Asunder" and then sampled in Rhythm On The Loose "Break Of Dawn"

also lol I made the mistake of turning on noticfcations for that that thread on Facebook and my phone has been blowing up, what happened to your exile from it anyway?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4xJvxSZ9aI

Talk about anti-climactic.

Ween, "So Many People in the Neighborhood"

"How's about a piece of pie? (ding dong ding dong)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnGq69ey5tw

boxedjoy - about a week after I left I got offered to put on a regular night which I had to promote and basically it's impossible to do that, at least to start with, if you don't have Facebook. That, and it's very addictive. It was a very good relaxing week though I must say

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwkW27Xapzc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqwvJoO2ZYE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyuF-eUdiSE

John Martyn - Dealer

Let me in let me in let me in

'The Day Before You Came' is more vague, and possibly more menacing as a result, but that's another thread.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican)

saying "the day before you came" is "sinister" is one step away from saying "in the air tonight" was about that time phil collins saw somebody get murdered

anyway. barnacle bill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hegAcCMnEnw

The Ghouls - Dracula's Theme

fwiw quite keen to not include metaphorical doors or vague references to doors or door-like entranceways here peeps. the song has to be about somebody being at the door

Death, "Keep On Knocking"

Dubstar, "Not So Manic Now"

Aeon, "Doorknocker"

Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight”

?

Chris Stamey, "The Summer Sun"

The Ex and Tom Cora, "A Door"

The Replacements - "Kick Your Door Down"

did anyone say The Walk by The Cure yet?

I called you after midnight
Then ran until I burst
I passed the howling woman
And stood outside your door

Bob Marley - Waiting In Vain <-- i could be wrong but this has a bit about knocking on a door for three years i think?

Van Morrison - Dweller At The Threshold

^ I wouldn't wish homelessness on anyone but I do like to think that this is literally about Van living on someone's doorstep

B52s - Love Shack

Hank Williams - Never Again (Will I Knock on Your Door)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jts27gZfKQo

tbh this is kind of an anti-example, being about NOT being at the door

Carole King "So Far Away"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UofYl3dataU

So far away
Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore
It would be so fine to see your face at my door

and he came to a door...
and he looked inside...
"Father?"
"Yes, son?"
"I want to kill you"

perhaps insufficient "someone" and "literal door" content, but I've had "The Claw" by Ten Benson in my head since I first read this thread title, so: claw's scratching at my door

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftbCvjlS_pg

(or skip halfway through for the main draw of the song, the weird-vacuuming-noise solo)

This Mortal Coil - "Another Day"

http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/sites/default/files/collection-images/138-080-000.jpg

Have could we have come so far without mentioning Jimmy Nail's "Ain't No Doubt"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iF47M3YDlg

Jim even does a helpful mime to help us visual someone knocking at a door:

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/HeavyCandidCicada-max-1mb.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kecN9z91Rpc

Early this morning
When you knocked upon my door
And I said "Hello Satan
I believe it's time to go"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYsnRc09csQ

I was trying to think if Madness had ever done one. 'Embarrassment' ('Stay away from our door') is the only one I can think of.

I linked to Uncle Sam a little ways upthread.

'here they come again, hop scotching up to my door'

Deep Purple - Knockin' At Your Back Door
Zep - Nobody's Fault But Mine ("Somebody open that DINGDONGDINGDONG)

Now, who is that knocking?
Who's knocking at my chamber door?
Now could it be the police?
They come and take me for a ride-ride
Oh, but I haven't got the time-time
Hey, hey, hey, she's busy sucking on my ding-dong

Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep