Stranger at Your Door

Lyrics

Unannounced, I turned up once
At a house that formed a gable end
I didn’t look too much like Gable
But I thought I might just pass as a friend
I’d been away all springtime
All I made was one weekend in four
So why should I be half- surprised
To find a stranger at your door

(Chorus)
Stranger at your door, I argued pressure of time
Stranger at your door, and loyalty long into the night
Said you’re too precious for words
Then used those words to balance wrong and right
Unannounced I turned up once
I was a stranger at your door

We shared a rented space once
In a house that served for passing through
And we passed away all the seasons
Discovering those things that lovers do
Nothing then was further
From this couple on the second floor
Than the day I would say hello to
The stranger on the wrong side of your door

(Repeat Chorus)

And there’s a comb you left, some cigarettes
There’s a blanket and a skirt you somehow tore
There’s a note somewhere, a photograph
There’s a ribbon and a stranger at your door.

Song Description

This is a song that I have played with for many years, finding melodies then rejecting or forgetting them. This time I recorded it. It’s a simple memoir of the break-up of a relationship but for me the interesting thing this time was to realise that the ‘Stranger’ is not necessarily (or only) another man but the writer/singer himself who has become a stranger to his former girlfriend. It seems obvious that this is what the song is implying, but I didn’t notice that till recently.

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