Ode to 11222 Dilling St — "The Londelius Plan"

[Intro]
(Acoustic guitar and a single cello note)
The jacarandas drop their purple on Dilling Street.
The air smells like citrus and dry California heat.
It's just a quiet house, most days of the week.

[Verse 1]
Harry Londelius Jr. drew this up in '59.
A Contemporary Ranch, a clean mid-century line.
Flagstone on the front and vertical wood siding,
Standing here while the Hollywood hills were climbing.

[Verse 2]
Violet and George McCallister, they kept the lawn just so.
For forty-five years, they watched the garden grow.
They didn't know they were living in the second-most famous home,
Just a place to leave the porch light on when they would roam.

[Chorus]
And the cars slow down, a camera flash in the sun.
They think they know the story of this one.
But the script they've read is only half the show,
Behind the famous windows, something else can grow.

[Bridge]
(Pedal steel swells and then recedes)
Then they came back with lumber and a strange idea,
To turn the inside out, make the fiction real right here.
Someone drew up a new blueprint from a memory,
And built a television set for all the world to see.

[Outro]
But the cameras leave. The crew is gone.
The L.A. River keeps rolling on.
Sounds from the Radford lot drift over the fence.
And the house just breathes. It all makes a different kind of sense.
(Guitar fades out on a final chord)


Style:
Dusty-road country-folk with a warm, close-miked vocal. Features gentle
acoustic guitar, a sighing pedal steel, and a single, sustained cello
note that carries through the verses. The mood is intimate and a little
wry, like sharing a secret on a quiet Studio City street at dusk.