This song describes the nostalgia of looking at an old photo album, seeing a picture of a long-ago romance, and lamenting, “Why do pictures last forever, and lovers fade away?”

I wrote this song in the early 1990’s, and my friend Joseph Mitchell recorded a dynamic rock cover version of it. When Pedro and I were envisioning the Waterside album, we planned to include this song. We even contemplating naming the album Faded Pictures. There was just one problem…

Try as I might, I could not match my friend Joseph’s vocal range, and the song wasn’t working. We discarded Faded Pictures, and recorded the Waterside album. I thought that was the end of it.

Then, as I was finalizing the film companion to Waterside, it occurred to me to record my own version of Faded Pictures and place it during the credits at the end. I took the song back to how I had originally composed it decades earlier, and I recorded it with harmonies provided by my guitar teacher Sharla June. I liked how it came out so well that I placed it as the first song in the Waterside film, and I created a music video to go along with it.

As I recorded “Faded Pictures,” I updated the lyrics to reflect my perspective now three decades later. While the song was originally somewhat lamentful, it’s now more lighthearted and playful. Instead of seeing “a sad pair of lovers frozen by the pain of living out their yesterdays,” I now see “a young pair of lovers fading away into their yesterdays.” Instead of ending with the memory of making love to the breaking waves, it now ends with watercolor memories washing into the sea, learning how to play, and flying in the present moment.

Just when I thought I was finally done with Faded Pictures, Pedro played me a version of it sung by a female AI voice. When I heard this female voice, it was so beautiful that I began to cry. Pedro said we couldn’t use an AI voice, but one of my friends could sing the song with me as a duet. I immediately thought of Rachel Braveheart, she agreed, and we recorded Faded Pictures and released it as a single.

Shout out to Pedro for helping me envision the music video, to Daniel Gonzalez for directing the video, to Sydney Roberts for letting us film at SydneyLand Farm and for co-starring, and to Naomi Griffin Self and friends from ChattaSings for joining in so playfully and enthusiastically.

I am grateful for the joy and catharsis this song has given me. I think I am finally done with it, but with Faded Pictures, you never know!

I picked up the plastic that hugged to the back

of our photo album and wiped off the dust

I saw there on the cover a young pair of lovers

fading away into their yesterdays, into their yesterdays

I’ve got an old picture that reminds me of the mixture

of your face and a tropical place

and the blue of the ocean, looks out in slow motion

where we made love to the breaking waves, to the breaking waves

Why do pictures last forever, and lovers fade away?

Why do pictures last forever, and lovers fade away?

Transported by nostalgia, I turned to the back

of our photo album, and put the book away

Now we’re between the covers, though we’re no longer lovers

like two flowers, pressed into a frame, in a dusty frame

Why do pictures last forever, and lovers fade away?

Why do pictures last forever, and lovers fade away?

Now days I seldom bother to picture lovers

I just focus on everyone I love

these watercolor memories, paint stories where the green sea

turns to gray, learning how to play, I’m learning how to play,

I’m learning how to play, I’m learning how to play,

learning how to play, we’re gonna fly today

Spotify

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