Sock Heaven

[Image: 'Squint' Front Cover]

Sections:

Lyrics

Out of the wringer
Into the dryer
Spins the clothes higher
Squeezing out static and shocks

Little stockings
Tumbling 'round together
Couldn't cling forever
Now I'm missing one of my socks

Lord, where do they go?

One pile waits with their god in a box
The other pile nervously mocks heaven
Misfits lost in the dryer, take heart
Maybe there's a place up in sock heaven

Out of the wringer
Into the dryer
Couldn't just retire
Had to try tempting the fates

One little band
Spinning 'round together
Couldn't cling forever
God, I think I'm losing my mates

Seven good years
Followed by a feeling
I'd hit the glass ceiling
Maybe I'd best disappear

Pick any market
Pick a straitjacket
If you can't act it
Misfit, you don't belong here

Lord, where do we go?
Lord, where do we go?
Lord, where do we go?
Lord, where do we go?

One pile waits with their god in a box
The other pile nervously mocks heaven
Misfits lost in the dryer, take heart
Maybe there's a place up in sock heaven

Didn't want a platform to build a new church
Didn't want a mansion in rock heaven
Didn't want more than to be understood
Maybe there's a place up in sock heaven

Lord, where do we go?
Lord, where do we go?
Lord, where do we go?
Lord, where do we go?

Lord, where do we go?
Lord, where do we go?
Lord, where do we go?
Lord, where do we go?

We're gathered here
To ask the Lord's blessing
Maybe not his blessing
Maybe we're not asking at all

Out of the box
With every good intention
Did you fail to mention
This time we were destined to crawl?

And every day that we died
Just a little more
I was sure you were
Sovereignly watching us dangle

Don't get it now
But I'll get it when
In sock heaven
I see it all from your angle

One pile waits with their god in a box
The other pile nervously mocks heaven
Misfits lost in the dryer, take heart
Maybe there's a place up in sock heaven

Didn't want a platform to build a new church
Didn't want a mansion in rock heaven
Didn't want more than to be understood
Maybe there's a place up in sock heaven

One pile waits with their god in a box
The other pile nervously mocks heaven
Misfits lost in the dryer, take heart
God's got his saints up in sock heaven

Recorded Appearances

Albums

Promos

About The Song

From Squintlets, "The Lament..." promotional Squint CD, 1993:

When I retired from gospel music, it wasn't because I was angry or disenchanted or anything like that, it was just because, frankly, it felt like it was time to do something else. It felt like if I would have stayed in at that point--I had completed my contract, I had an offer to do another one--I think there was something inherent in the offer, it was sort of like, "We want you to keep selling a lot of a records, and you really need to become at least somewhat more mainstream in your approach to this." And so if I would have stayed in at that point, I probably would have been doing it for the wrong motives, because financial security would have been, probably, primary in my motive, but the thought of sort of becoming more mainstream was not very appealing.

It just felt like it was time to do something else and I really wasn't angry or disenchanted or anything, it just felt like, "Boy, this is great timing here. Let's go do something else." At that point, my wife and I went to England for a few months (it's easier to hear God when everybody speaks with a different accent or something, I don't know), but the decision to start the band came about sort of naturally with just other believers--"what if we try this?"

I think the band idea at it's root was a good idea. We approached our forming of the band and sort of the way we put it together with a lot of prayer and a lot of right intentions. The fact of the matter is, as I look back, I don't know why it didn't work like we hoped it would, and, in fact, the song Sock Heaven is pretty much asking that same question. I think that if there was one sort of key point when I made the decision "I want to do another solo album and I want to do it on a gospel label," it was in talking with my pastor who had been a fan of the bands and liked what we did. But he said to me that he felt like maybe we had done a better job defining what we weren't than defining what we were.

I think that really nailed it--to me, I just need a sense of vision and especially a sense of mission. So now, I mean, I got back in started writing songs; the songs came more urgently. I think part of it was just not having had a particular sense of mission for the last four years; I just had it very clearly and succinctly distinctly. I feel that to be able to sing about your faith in a pointed way is actually an honor.

From Steve Taylor Bio / Squint Press Release, September 1993:

My lyrics don't usually get very personal; maybe it's because I can't play acoustic guitar, [...] but I suppose 'Sock Heaven' is the closest I've come to a straight autobiography. I just wanted to write about the last five years and do it in a song under five minutes. There are aspects of the same thing in 'Jesus Is For Loser,' which was not an easy song to get on paper.

From Interviews: Steve Taylor, Cornerstone Magazine, Q1(?) 1994:

I wrote "Sock Heaven" because I needed to figure out what was going on. "One little band spinning round together / couldn't cling forever / God, I think I'm losing my mates." At points it felt that God was sovereignly watching us [the members of Chagall Guevara] dangle. I was even a little afraid that the song might sound a little whiny. Maybe if people know it's about the band they'll understand.

From "...As You Squint With the Light Of Truth In Your Eyes", Cross Rhythms, February/March 1994:

"'Sock Heaven' was a rarity for me in that it dealt with a slice of my own life, specifically the decisions leading up to starting the band, and on through to when we gradually began drifting apart. I believe it is somewhat connected emotionally to the song 'Jesus Is For Losers', in that I had to take a hard look at all my motivations of the past five years in order to figure out where to go from here.

From The Flying Chicken, The Monkey Temple, The Cotton Castle, Campus Life, March 1994:

The most autobiographical song on Squint (written when Steve was contemplating a return to Christian contemporary music). He recounts his musical career over the last 10 years, both as a solo artist and with the group, Chagall Guevara. The chorus recalls the feelings of longing, displacement and hope common to those of us trying to determine where our work fits in with God's plan, rather like lost socks in a dryer that end up in "sock heaven."

From Steve Taylor Interview, Rock Of Life Magazine, Q1 1995(?):

ROL: Explain to me the story behind "Sock Heaven."

ST: This is the most autobiographical song that I've ever done. It tells the story of my retirement and my coming back into the music world with Chagall, and then returning to Christian music. I just felt that I had to put the story to music and tell it that way. Now that you know that, listen to it again and you should understand it.

From Sonfest '95 Press Conference, Peter T. Chattaway, July 28th, 1995:

That song was written when I was trying to sort out all my feelings out of having been in a band on a pop label and seeing it from that side of things. Part of that experience, a lot of the light came on, I suppose, and one of the things, I think, that at least became clear to me, was that the Gospel Music industry exists, I think, is largely because the pop music industry doesn't particularly--or at least didn't particularly--want it to exist, and so this sub-culture of music sprung up for better or worse because there wasn't any way to really get it onto pop labels. You can argue that it was because of quality, but I think that it was actually more than that. My experience in trying to get something going with a label in, man, in like the early '80s, was I took it around to some pop labels and they said, "We like the music but the lyrics would offend our listeners," and of course then I went to Christian labels and they said, "We don't like the music and the lyrics would offend our listeners," so on both sides. But yeah, when that song was written, I was still trying to sort it all out.