Having dropped quite a few old originals in here lately, I figured it was time to do another “no rehearsal, no excuses” cover. Last night, I recorded a song by John Gorka called “I Saw a Stranger with your Hair.” He’s recently been added to the inner circle of my list of favorite singer-songwriters along with Richard Thompson and Loudon Wainwright III. Other great tracks by him include “Love is our Cross to Bear,” “Down in the Milltown” and “Geza’s Wailing Ways.”

Why I chose “I Saw a Stranger with your Hair”

For me though, the height of poetry and symbol comes from “I Saw a Stranger with your Hair.” It’s a beautiful and haunting song from his early days, originally recorded back in 1987. The lyrics paint the picture of an ended relationship with the narrator seeing traces of his past lover in his present life. I think it captures the heartache that comes with losing someone but not being ready to move on yet. The line that particularly hits me hard (and I’m jealous that I didn’t think of) is, “by the way, how is my heart?” It’s so casual but so vulnerable. Reminds me of “She Thinks He Still Cares” and how that character tries to play it cool about a relationship ending but is really emotionally hurt by it.

There are lots of great versions of him singing the song in his low baritone voice with his acoustic guitar playing on Youtube. I decided I wanted to do it on piano because I’d never heard the song played on a piano and I’ve been doing a lot of guitar lately so it was a nice change up.

Lyrics & Chords

Capo 2nd fret

G C
I saw a stranger with your hair
Am
Tried to make her give it back
G C
So I could send it off to you
Am D
Maybe Federal Express cause I know you'd miss it

G C
I saw a stranger with your hair
G C
I saw another with your eyes
G C
I heard an angel with your voice
G C
By the way how is my heart
G C
By the way how is my heart


Standing in Line is yet another oldie that I wanted to get out there for the sake of documenting some of my musical history. It’s a song mostly written by Matt Stankiewicz, that I believe he brought to Gary Zimmer and me after he had the chords and a title. We wrote this at our band’s headquarters/rehearsal space on Milwaukee Ave in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Lyrics considered

The story is about a guy who is with a girl that would rather be with someone else but is afraid of making the move. He senses it and pulls the trigger before she gets the chance. I like a lot of the rhymes here (“when I’m gone, will you see what you did wrong?” and “make you see… he’ll do to you what you’ve done to me”) so that part holds up to me.

The one thing that bugs me about it is the line “dreaming of his bed while you’re sleeping in mine.” I wish that had been a bit less explicit because that kind of locks in the meaning of the song. At the time, I think I liked the idea of it being applicable to any situation where you’re in cahoots with someone but they’re looking around for something better. I thought a similar situation that came up at the time was being in a band. I thought about changing that line to “being in his band instead of playing in mine.”

Chords and Melody

As far as the music goes, I’ve long been impressed by what matt came up with. The leading tone walkdown through the augmented A and the diminished F# just give this a real smooth journey. Then, you get a walk back up from the F, through the F#dim and back into the G and finally hang on that G7 until another smooth resolution to the tonic with the C on the chorus.

The verse chords don’t exactly wow me but they provide a stable structure and a break from the relentlessness of the chord changes in the chorus.

I did notice in re-recording this that I end up kind of shout singing most of it. When Matt sang it, he didn’t strain as much. I guess it just seemed like it needed to be shouted to me.

Words and Chords


Intro: C – C7 – Am – A+
G – F#o – F – Fm - C

C C7
excuse me please
Am Ab+
I'm down on my knees
G F#o
I'll stop wasting my time
Am Ab+
you with your pride
G F#o
and what's left of mine
F Fm Am
is better than standing in line

Bitter Jealousy is another oldie I’m pulling from the vault. I co-wrote the words and music on this one, again in California. This time though, I co-wrote was with friend Dan Divanian. If memory serves, this was his first attempt at writing a song. Not bad for starters.

Musically, it has a fixed minor verse form, a pre-chorus and delayed but extended chorus. It plays kinda long and, since the focus was on telling an entire story with a beginning, middle and end, it might feel a bit repetitive by its conclusion. I’m proud of how it makes you wait for the major chorus until 2 and a half minutes in. It’s like a reward for putting up with a lot of story exposition.

The story was one Dan told me that I translated into lyrics. It was a specific situation he went through but I could tell right away that the situation is a common one. It takes a lot to make a love connection between two people. Sometimes, it’s the right time and the wrong place. For the two teenagers in this song, it’s the right people but the wrong time. In hindsight, I feel like the song is also about realizing you are about to miss out on something you took for granted.

I should add that the stuff about drugs was legit all made up. The song kind of had a brooding Sacramento vibe to it and the Weezer song “Hashpipe” had recently been released so I threw it in there. It wasn’t something I actually did. If you listen to the demo recording I did from way back in 2001, you’ll hear a sweet melodic intro riff that I don’t bother with in the video and you’ll hear me talk about freebasing coke or something else equally unbelievable.

Lastly, here are the words and chords to the song so you can all sing along.


Bm A F#m
Maybe it was the way you looked that night
Bm A F#m
Your hair tied high and your eyes burning bright
G A Bm
I never saw you that way before

So you say you’ve got a new boyfriend
What’s his name? Does he treat you well?
God, I wish I were him tonight
God, I wish I were him tonight