Faded Photograph

Summer sun has faded, the skies have turned to grey
Your face came unexpectedly to mind again today
A crazy dream, or was it just that faded photograph?
Well anyway, you know I had to laugh

Me & my nostalgia, we been chasin’ you again
Listenin’ for your footsteps in the sweet November rain
Watchin’ little numbers on the calendar go by
And we celebrate their passing with a sigh

Winter time is lonely time, it’s always been that way
I get a little tired of the games you seem to play
Ain’t it just like you to walk away and sever every tie-
Would it make you glad to know you make me cry?

April showers brought your lonely letter to my door
And my heart goes pitter-patter, but I’ve heard the words before
You ask me why I never write, you feel so far apart
Would it make me glad to know I stole your heart?

Summer sun is shinin’ and the gentle breezes blow
You feel about as real to me as the February snow
But I’m sendin’ my heart in a letter to replace the one I stole
And I don’t know why but it’s you that makes me whole

Harvest moon a-glowin’ comes a letter in reply
I am sorry that you feel that way, it makes me want to cry
You’ll see that I’m enclosing this wedding photograph
Please think of me my darlin’ when you laugh

So many summers faded now and the skies are often grey
And your face comes unexpectedly to mind most every day
A crazy dream or is it just that faded photograph?
Well anyway, I do my best to laugh,
And anyway, I do my best to laugh...


This one seems to be a favorite for a lot of people. I think it was the first time I wrote a love song that wasn’t explicitly about me or my own life. Basing the song on an exchange of letters was something I admired very much in Bob Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather.” Nancy Griffiths’ version of that tune was in my head a lot, and somehow eventually I wrote a letter-writing song myself.

I had an intuition one time that of all my songs, this might be the likeliest to last long after I’m gone.

Amherst, Nova Scotia, 1994.