The Songs of “Hozzola: The Unauthorized Autobiography”
	Know Different - My original arrangement idea was more of a barrelhouse / honky-tonk approach. After some discussion, Jim Pantazi took it to a different place. Trevor Rasmussen came in having never heard the song before, took a handful of passes at it and was done in an hour. He showed up on time and did his job for a very reasonable rate. A twenty five year old pro. Original Bridge: “Ever since I owned a cat - and I’d clean its litter box - there is no job I’m above - It was a good experience.” (c)1998 William C. Haas  Original Third Verse: “The story of my life was once an epic poem - It then evolved into a country and western song - Years from now, or days, when I am through on earth - It will be a limerick.” (c)1998 William C. Haas   Intelligentsia
	Jelly From A Jar - A little “Run ‘n’ Gun / Scoot ‘n’ Shoot / Hit It ‘n’ Quit song that’s a lot of fun to sing and a lot of fun to play. This was the first song of the session. JP said he was surprised when I started singing - that he didn’t expect to hear what he heard coming out of me. There were more surprises ahead for both of us.
	Spies - I wrote this in Sherman Oaks, CA back in 1984… Adult Contemporary all the way. I have a version of Ruthie Rudnick (the girl who played the nurse in “While You Were Sleeping”) singing it which we recorded in her apartment in Chicago - I remember her Siamese cat jumping up onto my four track. Hi Ruthie. Remember me? How’s the back? I also cut a rendition at Mike Lescelius’s Misunderstudios in Cicero. I think this will be the final time I’ll record this except for maybe the “live” greatest hits LP that the fans will beg for a little further down the line. I’ve always had high hopes of someone doing it up right and making me a pantload of money with it.
	Mystery Song - I wrote that opening line a number of years back and it tickled me whenever I’d remember it. It still does. I like the “match made in heaven” line and the last line is a lot of fun to sing. I hope to sing this song with Donny Ray Hall at least one more time some day.
	Martyrdom - “It is here the stoic fail.” My wife Lynne doesn’t like the message of this song at all. I wrote it in double eight - the year, not the time signature. Is there such a thing as eight eight? Nobody tells me s--t. Anyway, I like it and that’s why it’s on the album. My favorite version’s a little home recording of it I made the day I wrote it. It hasn’t moved an inch since then. It’s a fun song to sing in trio. When all three singers extend their arms out at the end, it looks like Calgary.
	Secret Rose - I wrote this in Gary Yerkin’s Songwriting class at Columbia College Chicago. One generation’s “secret admirer” is perceived by another generation as a “suspected stalker”, but this guy doesn’t mean any harm, whoever he is.
	Double My Trouble - A pretty loose rendition of this song, but that’s okay. I think we all owe me a debt of gratitude for leaving out things like: Can’t kill or distill my love - can’t chide or deride my love - Can’t scare or bury my love - Can’t drown or bring down my love - Can’t stun or outrun my love - Can’t jail or derail my love - Can’t bug or unplug my love - Can’t beat or defeat my love - Can’t maim or defame my love - Can’t halt or default my love - Can’t curse or disperse my love -Can’t chase or deface my love - Can’t block or shock my love - Can’t bar or mar my love - Can’t deny or decry my love - Can’t harangue or anger my love - Can’t distract or contract my love - Can’t hijack or sidetrack my love - Can’t confine or undermine my love - Can’t miff or stiff my love - Can’t disconnect or misdirect my love - Can’t enrage or disengage my love - Can’t rattle or scatter or battle my love - Can’t pain or restrain or contain my love - Can’t refute, dilute, or pollute my love - Can’t bruise, confuse, lose, or abuse my love - Can’t disconcert or divert my love - and, uh… like that.
	The Blues… On You - A two and a half minute blues song with no solo to speak of. I wish Jeff Tamraz had been available, in which case I would have doubled its length and let him have his way with it. Jeff’s the guy tearing “Seven Wishes” a new back door on the “TurnAround” CD, but you ought to hear him on my little home-recorded version of that - quality work, and funny too. My other approach was to give it a bare-bones Sonny Boy Williamson treatment. Sweet Corn Cous Cous was in town and would have done it for a hot dog and a coke, but rather than re-record it, I opted to pay a few bills.
	Slave - That first line kind of keeps this one off of commercial radio, but nobody listens to that anyway, so it shouldn’t seriously affect my fan base at all. Once again, if Jeff Tamraz had been in town…
	Big Fat Liar - I was called in for a face-to-face meeting at a job I held, and my supervisor was telling me about plans which were to be implemented in the months to come. I sat there nodding my head in understanding and approval, not letting on that I was intending to leave the company in a matter of days. I spoke no untruths during the interview, but I was lying nonetheless. I realized how good I’d gotten at it. It doesn’t matter how I was treated during my employment there. In that respect, if one gives back as good as one gets, then there isn’t really much of a difference separating… ones.
	Baby -  I wrote this song one Saturday while working clerking at a rug company in Chicago. It’s one of my favorite little songs. It was important to me to get a version of it down, out of my system, and into the atmosphere. I’d hoped for the arrangement with viola and cello, but as the monkey said when he peed into the cash register, “This could run into money.”
	Hundred Dollars - A different song for me - I don’t consider myself to be “twisted”, but that’s a twisted mid-section going on there. For those who question my ability to restrain myself, I did omit “If I had a tickle for every steer I have roped within the last twenty four hours, you know I would have a cerebral hemorrhage.”