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


© 1993 Warner Bros. Records Inc.

Behind the Song:
"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 distinctly. I feel that to be able to sing about your faith in a pointed way is actually an honor." - Steve Taylor (from Sockheaven.org)