The Picture

This one is for my sisters, Ann and Jane.

It's a song that's been a favorite of mine for years and years, though this is not the version that I'm most accustomed to nor that I first heard. The song is written (and here sung) by Loudon Wainwright, and it's an autobiographical song called "The Picture." The first time I heard the song it brought tears to my eyes, but not because it is dead on my life. It's not. There are a number of lines in the song that don't fit in with my life. My father, for instance, is not dead (Thank goodnes!), and my sisters are older than I am and not younger (again, thank goodness!). But it isn't the details that matter. It's the spirit of the song. The narrator of the song feels the way I feel about my sisters.

And like I said, this isn't the version that I'm most familiar with (the version I know and have a copy of is sung by a woman, making the relative ages thing actually work for me), but I like it nonetheless. I know the song is based on a real photograph from Wainwright's family album, and I think that actual photo is shown in the middle of the video.

Jane and Ann, I think BECAUSE you were older than I was, I leaned more--to put it in the language of the song--towards the "torture" side than the "protecting" side when we were growing up, and so I didn't tell you two often enough that I loved you. I think, instead, I hit Jane over the head once with a Fischer-Price toy radio, and I got into hundreds of verbal fights with Ann over who was the more "retarded."

Well, here's my effort to make up for that now. Publicly, in front of the world, let me say it: I love you both. Enjoy the song.

(I can't see the video.)