"Picture Yourself"

It's been almost a year since I wrote "Picture" one night after work. I was listening to the Kinks at the time, and I guess this was an attempt to write my own "Village Green", complete with things I remember from my own childhood. I did take some artistic license with that----for instance, I never lived in a house with a white picket fence. There are also things I borrowed from other peoples' lives, such as the family photos hanging above a seldom-used piano. But you get the idea, this is a song about a comfortable suburban upbringing, and the passing on thereof to the children. It could also be about aging... in fact, I remember being really moved by the last verse which alludes to the speaker as an old man. The very last line was originally "Make my living worthwhile," but I thought that was way too sad, and so I changed it to repeat the previous line, "Remember them with a smile."

I must have been feeling lazy that night, because the chords are very simple (no barre chords), and it's just one verse-chorus after another. I think it's catchy, though, and it's still fun to play. It's true, I play a Hohner acoustic guitar, but it'll be a while before it becomes vintage.

For the music video, I'm thinking of walking down the street in a suburban-looking location with wide streets, nice houses, and no traffic. Something like this location in Pleasanton, CA. Probably just a continuous shot of me miming to the song, like this video.

Who played on the recording? Steven (lead vocals, guitar, melodica, percussion); Lisa (glockenspiel); Russ (guitar); Hilary (cello, backing vocals); Molly (ukulele, backing vocals); Maya (viola); Devin (French horn)

Lyrics:

Picture yourself one day you’re married
With a home and job and family
And children running around
White picket fence and Reader’s Digest
A Sunday Mass to feel blessed
In this familiar town

All those things I knew so well,
All those things I lived back then
I miss those simple, carefree days,
Will I live them through again?

Picture yourself one day you’re driving
Screaming kids on the highway
On the way out of state
Not quite the trip that Kerouac spoke of
But you’ve got to take good care of
The things you wanted so much

All those things I knew so well,
All those things I lived back then
I miss those simple, carefree days,
Will I live them through again?

Picture yourself one day you’re happy
With a grand piano that will
Sit for seventy years
A portrait of Mum and Dad and Junior
Still looks young and rosy
On his wedding day

All those things they knew so well,
All those things they lived back then
I miss those simple, carefree days,
Will I live them through again?

Out on the porch there you’ll be strumming
A vintage Hohner acoustic
You picked up long ago
That you were playing since you were twenty
Songs of hope and of promise
Remember them with a smile
Remember them with a smile
Remember them with a smile