Steve Taylor – Sock Heaven

Have you ever felt like you didn’t quite “fit” in life? That you were missing something which everyone else seemed to know or have? That somehow you had been “left out” of a secret which everyone else seems to know?

Or maybe it is the other way around? Maybe you know something they don’t, and you wonder why nobody else seems to see it?

Steve Taylor’s song “Sock Heaven” is for you.

If you know much about Steve Taylor’s story, I believe this song is autobiographical for him. He was always misunderstood, misrepresented, maligned, slandered, and sometimes cheated by those who didn’t like his lyrics or his style. He never “fit” into the Christian music mold. He sang with creativity and passion, but also with a prophetic voice. And when you challenge the powers that be, they crush you, as they did to him.

I experienced some of this, which is why the song is also biographical for me. But two of his songs which are most biographical, and which always bring me to tears are “Hero” and “Finish Line.” I could not find videos for either one on YouTube, so will not be posting them. But if you get a chance to listen to them, please do. They are great songs, and I feel as if Steve Taylor peered right into my soul when he wrote them.

So listen to the song below (follow along with the lyrics underneath), and see if “Sock Heaven” represents your own feelings of not quite fitting in to the religious clubs, the political agendas, or the consumeristic mentality of our day.

Also, as you listen, note the creativity in the music. Like many other of his other songs, the music matches the imagery and lyrics. If you close your eyes, the music “sounds” like the tumble cycle of a clothes dryer.

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?

CHORUS:
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?

(CHORUS)

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?

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.
I don’t get it now,
But I’ll get it when
In sock heaven I see it all from your angle.

(CHORUS)

God’s got his saints up in sock heaven.