In Every Dream Home A Heartache

Album: For Your Pleasure (1973)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In this song, Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry sings to his plastic fantastic lover, an inflatable doll that will float nicely in his new pool, part of a stately home he just acquired. Typical of Ferry's songwriting, it has a cinematic feel, with a lyric that lays out a series of images to form a strange story. There is no chorus.

    First, we hear about the home, with Ferry using real estate argot like "bungalow ranch style." Then, we hear about the doll, his "disposable darling" that will be his companion. But in this dream home, there is also heartache. We're not sure why, and we know better than to ask this guy questions.
  • According to Ferry, this song was inspired by British artist Richard Hamilton's collage called "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?" Created in 1956, the magazine montage is considered by art historians to be one of the earliest works of pop art. Hamilton later taught Ferry fine art at Newcastle University in the '60s, with Hamilton going as far as to call Ferry his "greatest creation."
  • The first three minutes of this song find Ferry telling his story over a musical texture created with a VCS3 synthesizer, Farisa organ, and a touch of saxophone. After the line "But you blew my mind," the song becomes a rave-up, with drums, bass, and guitar entering the picture in a swirl of phase-shifted glory. The music slowly fades out at the four-minute mark, then returns after a long bout of silence – it's one of the lengthiest false endings in rock.
  • Ferry said in the April 2007 Q that this is the track he is most proud of writing. He explained: "I had an artist friend who lent me a remote carriage up in Derbyshire. This came out of that trip. I remember getting into my Renault 4, loading up a cassette player, keyboards, and pads of paper and pens, and driving up there with the express purpose of writing some songs. Life was so much simpler in 1973."
  • This song was originally twice as long before Ferry cut it back to five-and-a-half minutes. Ferry later included some leftover lyrics in his 2002 solo song "San Simeon." He explained to Uncut: "It's either a return to Dream Home, or an extension of it. It's more particularized. It's about this place, San Simeon, the American newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst's fairy-tale castle, which he built in California. And of course Orson Welles made one of his great movies, Citizen Kane, about the man and the house – which was called Xanadu in the film."
  • Looking for another song about an inflatable doll? Check out "Be My Girl – Sally" by The Police.
  • For Your Pleasure producer Chris Thomas spoke to Roxy Music biographer David Buckley about the recording of this song: "That was one of the songs where we didn't know what was going on in the sense that we didn't know what the lyric was going to be. So we did the backing track as the sort of soundtrack, and then the idea was for this sort of psychedelic bit to happen at the end, but Bryan didn't tell us why. I mean he just said this is what he wanted. So we were just, y'know, flying blind."
  • This song concludes side one of Roxy Music's sophomore album For Your Pleasure. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the LP #351 on their "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list, stating: "The album's deeply weird centerpiece is 'In Every Dream Home a Heartache': Ferry sings a seductive ballad to an inflatable doll ['I blew up your body, but you blew my mind'], one of the creepiest love songs of all time."
  • British-French singer and actress Jane Birkin of "Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus" fame covered this song with Ferry for her 2004 album Rendez-vous.

    American sludge-metal band Melvins also covered it with Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra for their 2013 album Everybody Loves Sausages. Speaking to SPIN, Melvins founding member Buzz Osborne said of Biafra: "How he sings, it's just like Bryan Ferry. It's not that he's ripping him off, that's not fair. But he's clearly a huge fan of that. And do you think anybody that buys Dead Kennedy records knows that?"
  • "Western Homes" from American indie band Pavement's critically acclaimed 1995 album Wowee Zowee is based on this song. Pavement's Scott Kannberg told biographer Bryan Charles: "It's based on that. I really like the sound of it, I like the way it turned out. It's still one of my favorite songs that I've ever done. It's pretty weird. I don't think any of my other songs sounded that weird."
  • In 2019, this was used to soundtrack a commercial for Gucci's Mémoire d'une Odeur fragrance starring Harry Styles.
  • "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" plays over the cold open of Season 2, Episode 1 of the Netflix crime-thriller Mindhunter, directed by David Fincher. The song can also be heard in the background of the break-in scene in Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen starring Matthew McConaughey and Charlie Hunnam.
  • Roxy Music performed this song as part of their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon and John Taylor inducted the band into the museum, with Le Bon referring to Ferry as "a psychedelic Sinatra crooning pop-art poetry over driving drums, saxophones, and oboes."

Comments: 4

  • Rabbi Meyer from Central WisconsinOn the studio version (and most live versions including the '79 Denver show) Ferry takes the line "but you blew my mind" down in the register. But on one version (I heard it on a King Biscuit radio show from that same Manifesto tour) he takes the lyric "up" - I've been looking for that version for some time and have been unable to find it. One of Roxy's little mysteries - Manzanera plays a great solo, too.
  • Kris from Auckland, New Zealandreminded me of what lynard skynard would look like if the guest starred on star trek or blakes 7. first version of this song i heard was by Fields of the Nephilim, and because the lyrics are not so easy to make out, thought the song was about a person that couldnt handle the fact his wife was dead, and tried to dress her up daily and breathe life into her, in a frustrated romantic song as opposed to appear shocking..
  • Anthony from Sydney, AustraliaBrilliant song, one of my favourites along with 'A Song for Europe' and 'No Strange Delight'. Creepy sound, profound and brilliant lyrics. Roxy at their best.
  • Michael from Oxford, -No comments on this one? Yikes! This and "Editions of You" are probably my two favourite Roxy songs. The hard rock section of this track in particular knocks Black Sabbath into a cocked hat.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Lecrae

LecraeSongwriter Interviews

The Christian rapper talks about where his trip to Haiti and his history of addiction fit into his songs.

Strange Magnetics

Strange MagneticsSong Writing

How Bing Crosby, Les Paul, a US Army Signal Corps Officer, and the Nazis helped shape rock and Roll.

Max Cavalera of Soulfly (ex-Sepultura)

Max Cavalera of Soulfly (ex-Sepultura)Songwriter Interviews

The Brazilian rocker sees pictures in his riffs. When he came up with one of his gnarliest songs, there was a riot going on.

Amy Lee of Evanescence

Amy Lee of EvanescenceSongwriter Interviews

The Evanescence frontwoman on the songs that have shifted meaning and her foray into kids' music.

Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders

Chrissie Hynde of The PretendersSongwriter Interviews

The rock revolutionist on songwriting, quitting smoking, and what she thinks of Rush Limbaugh using her song.

Meshell Ndegeocello

Meshell NdegeocelloSongwriter Interviews

Meshell Ndegeocello talks about recording "Wild Night" with John Mellencamp, and explains why she shied away from the spotlight.