"In My Strange Hours."* - A Substack Collaboration with Mike Speriosu.
And an interesting story about the origins of this song.
©2024 Mike Speriosu & Sea Change. All Rights Reserved.
LYRICS ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.
It is important to remember that these poetry/music collaborations, for me, anyway, started with a musician named Joshua Nearly, putting a beautiful song together from a great Paul Wittenberger poem, entitled "Stand and Fight," which you can experience HERE. I now had a "bug in my ear" to collaborate with Paul, and when I finally approached him about this very same poem, he had just posted Joshua's song-almost at that very moment. The timing was insane, but I could not have even come near the excellence of the feel, and the arrangement Joshua created, so all was well. Now I found myself on a mission: I wanted to jump on the next ship before it sailed! I have since put music to (2) of Paul's Poems (Links below) and covered Jonathan Potter's most excellent song. "Gambler's Ruin." You can hear this on the links below as well, and make sure you listen to Jonathan's ORIGINAL version of the song within the link...(I only added (1) line to the chorus!) Ok, here's where it gets NUTS. On May 20, 2024, Paul Wittenberger posted a super cool poem called "Boredom," and 3 hours later, Mike Speriosu posted a "spooky" poem called "There is a Man in Your Room Right Now.". So Where am I going with this? Concerning Mike's "Man in Your Room" poem, & in the comments section, Jonathan made some quirk that "the man" in the room was himself. I commented with the following:
To which Mike Replied:
That's where "In My Strange Hours" was conceived! The universe DID conspire to join together the only (3) poets I've collaborated with musically, on the morning of May 21st of this year. I was so "out of it" physically, I contacted Mike the next day to say I liked his idea of the song title, but then he reminded me that I had said it in "a reply," and I said, whatever...YOU write the song. "I'll give you the syllable count of each line and tell you when the syllable's need to rhyme." Mike knocked it out of the park! Here are his lyrics:
In my strange hours Of fever dreams I become so large, so extreme A floating massive place A huge space In my strange hours In my strange hours I close my eyes And I'm a universe of monstrous size I become everything And nothing In my strange hours In my strange hours In my strange hours I breathe The life And death Of every eerie concept ever known Far beyond space I expand to lands where I feel galactic pain Chasms of strange doubt Where I hear the tears of years Spent feeling such bizarre fears In my strange hours In my strange hours
This, to me is the most beautiful part of the Substack platform, amazing words, visions, music, and talents coming together and leading to friendships which will live on for a lifetime. I am so GRATEFUL to Joshua for starting the ball rolling, and to Paul, Jonathan, and Mike for their willingness to allow me the unbelievable honor of working with them…
LINKS:
Collaborations with Paul Wittenberger: “The Past,” and “Seeking #365” with Jonathan Potter: "Gambler's Ruin" And a special thank you to my friend, Mike Speriosu, for your willingness to help me create this song; your task was gargantuan, and you came through as if you were playing with Lego blocks. Please, CHECK OUT all of these fine poets, if you are not subscribed to them already!
Sea,
Thank you so much for remembering this, and the kind words. Songwriters are first cousins to poets, and within that extended family, I can’t think of anyone I admire more than Paul, with Jonathan and Mike being right there as well. So hats off to you, and our wonderful cousins, particularly cousin Paul! (Hahaha). Thanks!
Tempted to throw a harmonica back track in here.