Barenaked Ladies Songs - The Old Apartment Lyrics

Barenaked Ladies - The Old Apartment

Barenaked Ladies - The Old Apartment Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Born On A Pirate Ship
Released: 1996

The Old Apartment Lyrics

Broke into The Old Apartment
This is where we used to live
Broken glass, broke and hungry
Broken hearts and broken bones
This is where we used to live
Why did you paint the walls?
Why did you clean the floor?
Why did you plaster over the hole I punched in the door?
This is where we used to live

Why did you keep the mousetrap?
Why did you keep the dishrack?
These things used to be mine
I guess they still are, I want them back

Broke into the old apartment
Forty-two stairs from the street
Crooked landing, crooked landlord
Narrow laneway filled with crooks
This is where we used to live

Why did they pave the lawn?
Why did they change the locks?
Why did I have to break it, I only came here to talk
This is where we used to live

How is the neighbor downstairs?
How is her temper this year?
I turned up your TV and stomped on the floor just for fun
I know we don't live here anymore
We bought an old house on the Danforth
She loves me and her body keeps me warm
I'm happy there
But this is where we used to live

Broke into the old apartment
Tore the phone out of the wall
Only memories, fading memories
Blending into dull tableaux
I want them back

Writer/s: PAGE, STEVEN / ROBERTSON, ED
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Old Apartment Song Chart

This was the first Barenaked Ladies song to do well in the US. They were popular in their native Canada, but had to tour relentlessly to break into America.

Jason Priestley directed the video. He is also from Canada and a big fan. Later in 1996, Priestley had them on his show Beverly Hills, 90210. Priestley also directed their movie Bare Naked in America, a documentary of their tour. (thanks, Dan - West Hartford, CT)

The line "We bought an old house on the Danforth" refers to Danforth Avenue in Toronto. It is the main street in Toronto's Greektown, popular for its large Greek population and outdoor patios. (thanks, Nick - Toronto, Canada)

A live version was released on a special double-CD of their album Stunt in 1999. The live version was also included on the single to "It's All Been Done."

This was included on their album Rock Spectacle. That album is actually pronounced "Rock Spec-tak" because that is the French pronunciation of that word. Canada is a bilingual country.

In the liner notes for Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits, Steven Page says that "To answer one of the most common questions I get, the protagonist is still with the same woman - it's the new tenants of his old place that he's intruded upon." (thanks, Tara - Parma, OH)