Every passing year, we accumulate more possessions, yet so many of the things we buy today seem disposable. It’s hard to imagine much of today’s mass-produced furniture sitting in an antique store fifty years from now.
But walk through the 22nd Street Antique Mall and you’re surrounded by things that have endured. In some ways, it feels less like shopping and more like visiting a museum. Every object has survived decades of moves, changing fashions, growing families, and people deciding what to keep and what to let go.
We throw away countless things over the course of our lives, but we tend to hold on to the things that mean something to us. Eventually, some of those possessions find their way into antique stores, waiting for someone else to see value in them.
As I browsed the antique mall, one painting caught my eye. It was a portrait of a brown-haired woman titled Gorgeous Lady, painted by an artist named F. Burke and dated 1971. A notation on it referenced the Anaheim Museum.
I wanted to know more about the painting, so I sent an email to the Anaheim Museum. They were kind enough to look into it, but they had no record of the painting. Too much time had passed.
That only made me more curious about the woman in the portrait.
Who was she? Did the artist know her? What became of her after that painting was made? If she were still alive today, she would be a very old woman. More than fifty years had passed since someone sat down and painted her portrait, yet there she was, still looking out from the canvas in an antique mall in Tucson.
I began thinking about how little we sometimes know about the people behind the things that survive them. A photograph, a letter, or a painting can remain long after the story of the person connected to it has been forgotten.
And that is how I got the idea for my song.
There’s an old saying that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. But sometimes what we find in an antique store is more than treasure. Sometimes it’s a small piece of someone’s life, still waiting for someone to wonder about the story behind it.
The Place That Inspired the Song
The 22nd Street Antique Mall is the kind of place where every aisle offers another surprise. It is filled with objects that once belonged to someone, each carrying a history we can only imagine. You can spend hours wandering through it and never know what might catch your eye or spark an idea. On this visit, it was a painted portrait with an $89 price tag that followed me home as a song.
Listen
Recording Notes
I wrote the lyrics and melody, sang the lead and backing vocals, and played the Taylor 114ce and Fender acoustic guitar tracks. I also played the Bebop organ and Native Instruments Mint guitar parts. The recording also features PG Music bass, EZdrummer 3, and a Logic Session Player synth.
Read the lyrics
Gorgeous lady in a portrait
Someone painted you in 1971
Now you’re for sale in an antique store
Hope you had your day in the sun
So many years have gone by
If you’re still alive, you must be very old
I hope you’re warm and taken care of
Somewhere safe from the cold
A painting is so much different than a photograph
The human eye can see an image and choose a different path
All those years ago
You were somebody’s muse and inspiration
I wonder how you ended up
In your present situation
Mona Lisa’s hanging on that museum wall
And they’re selling you for 89 dollars
At the 22nd Street antique mall
As I walk around that antique store
I see so many things that were once treasured
Now they’re just some trinkets
With a price tag, that’s how they’re measured
Things we once thought were precious
Time passes and we change our minds
We keep marching forward
And we leave those things behind
Gorgeous lady in a portrait
I hope that when you look back
At how you lived your life
Can you cut yourself some slack
As I pass by that dusty mirror
I see my reflection and it makes me think
That I’m getting older too
And someday I’ll be a missing link
A painting is so much different than a photograph
The human eye can see an image and choose a different path
All those years ago
You were somebody’s muse and inspiration
I wonder how you ended up
In your present situation
Mona Lisa’s hanging on that museum wall
And they’re selling you for 89 dollars
At the 22nd Street antique mall
Joe Stroffolino Music 