Knock Knock (Who's That Knocking' On My Coffin Lid Door?)

Album: Carrboro (2016)

Songfacts®:

  • Before there was MTV Cribs, there was a little show called Cutting Edge that once featured a couple of scruffy, punk-looking guys known as The Flat Duo Jets. In that episode, Dex Romweber and Chris "Crow" Smith took the MTV crew on a tour of the tiny house Romweber lived in, decorated with macabre found objects and looking exactly like what you'd expect from the abode of the young Romweber. Years later, that house, known as The Mausoleum, made its way onto Dex Romweber's 2016 album Carrboro, memorialized in the song "Knock Knock (Who's That Knocking on My Coffin Lid Door?)" Romweber told the story in a 2019 interview with Songfacts:

    "That song is about my old mausoleum on Pine Street in Carrboro [North Carolina], and having people knock on the door early in the morning, a girl or something, and you're not even awake and you basically have nothing for them. It was a small house, filled with a lot of really weird things. There was another old house, abandoned, just a few feet away, and we got tons of gothic, weird stuff there. It was the Danziger house. But I made my place in the motif of the '30s and '40s Munsters and Addams Family gothic horror. It was a gothic horror rockabilly kind of house about the size of a mausoleum, so we called it that. It was amazing. It went up in an LSD trip gone bad, it went up in flames and my best friend almost died in that thing. It was really close."

    The footage from that episode of Cutting Edge is still around thanks to YouTube, and wraps up with Flat Duo Jets performing an energetic cover of the Buddy Holly-penned tune "Think it Over."

Comments: 1

  • Siahara Shyne Carter from United States{ Just Nobody }............................ Continue Sleeping in your coffin with metalic door ;-)
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Donald Fagen

Donald FagenSongwriter Interviews

Fagen talks about how the Steely Dan songwriting strategy has changed over the years, and explains why you don't hear many covers of their songs.

Grateful Dead Characters

Grateful Dead CharactersMusic Quiz

Many unusual folks appear in Grateful Dead songs. Can you identify them?

Stephen Christian of Anberlin

Stephen Christian of AnberlinSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer/lyricist for Anberlin breaks down "Impossible" and covers some tracks from their 2012 album Vital.

Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk: Rock vs. Televangelists

Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk: Rock vs. TelevangelistsSong Writing

When televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart took on rockers like Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica, the rockers retaliated. Bono could even be seen mocking the preachers.

Mike Love of The Beach Boys

Mike Love of The Beach BoysSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.

Chad Channing (Nirvana, Before Cars)

Chad Channing (Nirvana, Before Cars)Songwriter Interviews

Chad tells tales from his time as drummer for Nirvana, and talks about his group Before Cars.