X/Z Song Trader: "Picture Book"

A Gen X Rocker Discusses Music With His Gen Z Daughter

Mar 18, 2025

About X/Z Song Trader: Steve is a music journalist, author and musician. Lucy is a diehard music fan and college student. They have always enjoyed a father/daughter bond over music. Each week one of them picks a song and they both share their perspectives. These are casual conversations based on musical connections. Opinions are their own. Keeping it positive.

Check out the whole X/Z Song Trader series.

Steve’s Perspective

Nostalgia can be addictive, especially as you get older.

The inclination to view the past through rose colored glasses is very human and happens to people of any age, but as the decades stack up I’ve found that there’s a more pronounced temptation to pine for the “good old days.” Perhaps it’s a matter of having more experiences behind you than ahead, or maybe it’s a retreat from the realities of aging and into the warm embrace of our time-softened memories.

Nostalgia is definitely a used-and-abused trope in the arts. The term was coined by a Swiss doctor in the late 1600s to describe soldiers separated from their family and friends, but hit the mainstream in the 1800s thanks to Romanticism. It has been used to tug at the heartstrings in most major art forms ever since—including rock music.

I wrote a lot about power pop in our discussion of Todd Rundgren’s “Couldn’t I Just Tell You” last month and this feels like a continuation of that thread. I’ve been saying for a while now that nostalgia is the engine that drives power pop because, in many ways, the genre is about looking back at British Invasion music of the ‘60s (The Beatles!) and trying to recapture those sounds and their cultural relevance.

The Kinks often get left out of strict power pop discussions, but when it comes to nostalgia in ‘60s pop rock—nobody did it better.

The song “Picture Book” is a perfect example. Although it was originally overlooked when The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society was released in 1968, this track has since become a fan favorite, and for good reason. It’s impossible to keep your foot from tapping the moment that bouncy, bass-heavy riff kicks in, the Barbershop-style singing is undeniably catchy, and the drumming is perfect.

So, musically there is a lot to enjoy, but for me the power of this track comes from the playful lyrics and Ray Davies’ self-aware, wink-and-nod lead vocals. As a young California kid who discovered this song and album in the mid-‘80s, I was initially drawn in by the quaint Britishness, but I’ve been coming back for decades because of how the combination of upbeat music and nostalgic lyrics makes me feel:

Picture book, your mama and your papa
And fat old uncle Charlie out cruising with their friends
Picture book, a holiday in August
Outside a bed and breakfast in sunny Southend
Picture book, when you were just a baby
Those days when you were happy, a long time ago

As if the theme wasn’t perfectly obvious, “...a long time ago” pops up throughout and gets repeated in quick succession during the outro to really drive the point home. It might seem like overkill, but I always hear it as the narrator’s internal voice constantly reminding him that the pictures he’s flipping through are distant memories. (There’s another song on the same album with “Picture” in the title. Running theme!)

In that way, it’s always been a great reminder to me that the memories we’re making together now will one day be the distant past as well.

That somehow helps me appreciate them even more as they’re happening. It took me a long time to figure that out and fully embrace it, so I need to remind myself often in order to stay present.

I’m not sure how much time you’ve spent with The Kinks, but I’d love to know your thoughts about this track. And I’d love to hear about your relationship to nostalgia.

Lucy’s Perspective

Honestly, I haven’t spent a ton of time with The Kinks, but clearly I should because I loved this song!

There is something so perfect about the beat and the way the tune and lyrics align. I especially enjoy that the music is somewhat louder than the words being sung. The sort of faded-sounding singing really adds to the feeling of nostalgia evoked throughout the track. Whether that was purposeful or not, I felt that it really emphasized the theme of the song as a whole.

My relationship with nostalgia is interesting. At this point in my life—where I have more ahead of me than behind—reflecting on my past memories with a melancholic feeling feels almost counter-productive. Why would I rather look backwards than live in the moment or dream about the future?

Recently, though, I have had to sort of rid myself of that mindset. For the first month or so after the Eaton Fire, I tried to avoid nostalgia at all costs. It was only more recently that I was able to reflect on that choice and decide to find a balance between being stuck in the past and ignoring it entirely.

I especially like the ‘scooby-dooby-doo’ part.

I originally thought that was about the cartoon, but apparently it’s a reference to Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers In The Night.” Using that lyric itself represents a form of nostalgia and that’s exactly what makes this song so creative and enjoyable.

Despite being stuck in a cycle where I had either too much or too little nostalgia for a while, it is truly one of my favorite song themes. Some of my favorite artists use nostalgia to fuel their writing, and that is exactly the kind of song I listen to over and over. We see this with Taylor Swift’s “Teardrops On My Guitar,” Noah Kahan’s “Homesick,” and boygenius’ “Me and My Dog.”

I enjoyed “Picture Book” through and through, from the first melodic beat to the final “yeah, yeah, yeah.”

I love how nostalgia is a feeling that you and I both experience through music. I look forward to exploring more of The Kinks’ music with you and understanding your version of nostalgia to a greater level.