Near the beginning of last year, I realized that there can be some interesting connections between a song's tonic chord (the tonal home) and "home" in the lyrics. I just listened to the Searchers' "When I Get Home," and - because I already know the chords - I found some interesting ones.
The song starts with a riff in F major, but then changes keys to E major. There are some chords in the progression that don't really fit into E major though. At the end of the first line (on the "see" in "just wait and see"), there's a D major, and at the end of the second line (on the "be" in "like it used to be") there's a G major. For both of those though, that foreignness sort of works. There's the anticipation in "just wait and see" (the tension of a D major chord in E major) and a recalling of days past in "like it used to be" (the otherness of a G major chord). Similarly, in the second verse, that G major corresponds to the "go" in "wherever you go," providing a tonal example of that "wherever." At the end of each of the first two verses, "When I get home" is sung to an E major chord, the tonic (or "home chord") in the key of E major.
After the bridge though, there's a key change to F major. Musically, there's a sense of some movement happening, and the lyrics match that. The first line of the third verse is "You'll hang on a little bit longer, and we'll see it through." Like the odd chords in the first two verses, there's an Ab major chord in F major for the "you" in "There ain't no nothing can stop me from reachin' you," implying 1) the distance between the singer/speaker and his girl and 2) that not even a wonky tonality will keep him from her. Then the third verse ends with "When I get home" repeated over an F major chord (the tonic, "home chord," now that the song's moved to F major). The riff that started the song comes back, and the lyrics end, but then the song goes back to E major. Because of that sudden and unexpected key change, the stability of the "home" that was just sung to the tonic chord is undermined, and the listener is left with a sort of unsettled feeling. The song doesn't really resolve musically, and the singer/speaker is "five thousand miles from you" again.
