"Disorder in the House" is a song from Warren Zevon's last album, The Wind. It was performed by him and Bruce Springsteen and it won a 2003 Grammy for "Best Rock Vocal Performance (Group or Duo)". The song was written by Zevon and Jorge Calderón.
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS TOTAL SPECULATION... I know because I originated the term "Reptile Wisdom" and spoke to Warren Zevon at some length about it's meaning. I am a Biological Anthropologist with a background in Limbic Brain research. Warren was dying slowly and read some of my WEB SITE. The song used the phrase with my permission, it's part of the song, which is about the feelings of dying slowly and inexorably.
Warren shared the images in this lyric as his thoughts and feelings during his long and painful struggle with Mesothelioma. 
About the Song[]
Keeping with classic Zevon themes, the song is about criminals. It starts by describing rather mundane house disturbances before moving on to describing the criminals being chased by police helicopters and cases of cataclysmic destruction. The song ends with him escaping and living with the losses and watching the sundown through the portière window.
Song Lyrics[]
Note: the text of this song's lyrics is not under the same copyright license as the wiki's encyclopedic text, it is used under fair use/dealing.
Disorder in the house
The tub runneth over
Plaster's falling down in pieces by the couch of pain
Disorder in the house
Time to duck and cover
Helicopters hover over rough terrain
Disorder in the house
Reptile wisdom
Zombies on the lawn staggering around
Disorder in the house
There's a flaw in the system
And the fly in the ointment's gonna bring the whole thing down
The floodgates are open
We've let the demons loose
The big guns have spoken
And we've fallen for the ruse
Disorder in the house
It's a fate worse than fame
Even the Lhasa Apso seems to be ashamed
Disorder in the house
The doors are coming off the hinges
The earth will open and swallow up the real estate
I just got my paycheck
I'm gonna paint the whole town grey
Whether it's a night in Paris or a Fresno matinée
It’s the home of the brave and the land of the free
Where the less you know the better off you'll be
Disorder in the house
All bets are off
I'm sprawled across the davenport of despair
Disorder in the house
I'll live with the losses
And watch the sundown through the portière
