Sunday, December 6, 2009

How I thought It Would Be

Pin It I feel that I need to preface this post with the following.

Set your way-back clock to 9 years ago. My brother and I were both attending BYU – he before his mission for one semester, and me just having completed my degree and readying to start my first year as a certified schoolteacher.

It was a Sunday evening. We sat in apt. 210 of Centennial. I plucked away at the strings of my dad’s old 12-string guitar, and a set of chords kept repeating themselves underneath my questing fingers. Again and again these chords played, and a picking pattern emerged, filling the room with the sweet tones that that old guitar could give.

My brother, reading something for one of his classes—or perhaps just the newest Harry Potter book –stopped what he was doing, and started to hum a melody.

What happened next could only be described as magical. We had a song.

No words. No lyrics. Just a tune and some chords.

Over the next hour we wrote what came to be known as “How I Thought It’d Be.” We then recorded it…either through a set of headphones made into a makeshift microphone into an old computer, or by using our answering machine—I simply can’t remember which.

Over the course of the years, I started to save files onto hard drives, and I threw away a lot of disks; I couldn’t find the file of Yancy and me singing our song. I thought for sure that this particular disk was one which made its way to the trash heap, and was now buried deep in the earth, as part of a landfill.

Until today.

I found a disk; written on it in my all-to-familiar hasty scrawl it said, “Songs with my brother.”

I slipped the disk into my laptop.

From the speakers poured our song. The one we wrote and recorded. I can’t remember if we’ve sung it since that day we wrote it, but a friend of mine recorded a version of it in a studio after Yancy had departed to Nevada for two years, and I had moved across town.

So, today I present you with the song my brother and I wrote nine years ago. It is the original version with the hiss and the poor quality you’d come to expect from two poor college students.

And it still reminds me of how life could be…



How I thought It Would Be
Jason and Yancy Zimmerman


There’s a road somewhere lost in my past
Dusty dreams echoing in my head
Times gone by, days of carefree hearts
There’s a place, way back far in my mind.

Standing tall holding her hand with mine
I act brave, leaving for the first time.
I say goodbye, tears on the windowpane.
Feel my heart, with her it will always stay.
(with her it will always stay)

Keep hanging onto dreams of my old home,
Back when I thought I never would grow old,
Things were perfect like a summer morning…

Time goes by, by like the Autumn leaves,
Memories of how I’d thought it’d be.
But for now, I wish I could make it change
In our hearts, I pray that we are the same.

Softly falls the gentle winter snow
Iced inside warm hearts need to know,
Of the love, of family oh so dear
In our hearts, we need to know they’re near.

Keep hanging onto dreams of my old home,
Back when I thought I never would grow old,
Things were perfect like a summer morning…

I stand outside the home that’s no longer mine,
feel the breeze, the same blowing from my mind.
I wish the thoughts of those days would not fade
As I grow old the world turns to gray.

Keep hanging onto dreams of my old home,
Back when I thought we never would grow old,
Things were perfect like a summer morning…

We keep hanging onto dreams of our old home,
Back when we thought we never would grow old,
Things were perfect like a summer morning…

Then it changed without a warning.
Then it changed without a warning.

13 comments:

Graton said...

How cool that you guys did that. For me, watching that brought back a flood of wonderful memories of that year.

A Lark said...

Glad you found this. It's a good memory and the sentiments are so universal.

Amy said...

That's terrific! What a great memory with your brother. I might also add, I wish it was a "summer morning" here because we are getting snow and lots of it! However, not enough to call off school. Bummer! :)

Gerb said...

Very nice. This made me dig around and find the one remaining cassette tape that I have of a song I recorded on my pink radio in the bathroom of Bay Village, Apt. 6. It's not nearly as awesome as this song, but it brought back a flood of memories for me.

Along with some wonder as to why I kept that cassette. But I'm glad you kept your CD.

And now I'm rambling.

L said...

Nice song. I enjoyed the blurbs that went with it. It was like watching pop up video or something. I don't think anyone ends up where they thought they would be, funny thing about making plans they tend to have a way making their own detours.

Rachel said...

I think perhaps......if things turned out how I thought they would....I wouldn't be near as happy as I am.

When I drive I take back roads. Back roads all over the place. I like back roads....detours.....I'm glad my life has had a lot of detours in it because the road I had all picked out was easy yes, it didn't have any bumps on it; but the scenery! Wow!

jayne wells said...

Aren't siblings the best? So fun to hear this!

K.J. said...

This is really neat. Priceless!

Linn said...

Awesome, awesome, awesome!

jacs said...

for you only---- hey babe! so no internet is lame but i was thinking about you--checking to make sure youre all good. hang out sometime soon? and want to hang out with the fam on xmas? we are LOADS OF FUN! call me

Unknown said...

The word that comes to mind when I listen to this is "bittersweet." We do look back with such fond longing for all those sweet, perfect things that tug at us from our childhoods--but there's so much richness in our adult lives, too. The sacrifice is ultimately so worth it.

You and your brother are very talented, btw. My older brother got all of the artistic digs, I (middle child) got the writing digs, and my younger brother, Clay, ended up with the musical ability. He's wonderful and I'm so envious of anyone that can sing and play--and doubly so of someone like YOU that can write and sing. If you can paint as well I think I might drive to Utah and... I don't know. Just be really jealous. ;)

Just SO said...

How great you were able to find it! And thanks for sharing it. What a great song.

Teachinfourth said...

I just realized that I didn't respond to anyone's comments...I am such a jerk-face.

G - I have a lot of good memories about those days, too.

J - I'm glad that I found it, too. It would be nice to really record it someday.

A - Seems there are a lot of summers gone by, aren't there? Thanks for reading.

G - And I haven't forgotten about that tape you gave me, I will get around to digitizing it. I'd pinkie-swear, but you know...swearing.

L - Didn't John Lennon say something like that in 'Beautiful Boy'?

R - Backroads. Awesome.

J - I couldn't agree more.

KJ - I just wish the quality were a bit better.

L - Glad you liked it, I know that I sure was excited to end up finding that I still had it.

J - I won't be around on Christmas Eve and I'll be around after that. Dad's coming to visit. We can get together though. It would be fun.

L - Okay, I can't paint...unless it's with light on a photograph. In that case, I can do that somewhat.

I'm just glad that we all have different talents we can share with the world. Heaven knows a few of your posts have had me rolling...that Lawson.

S - I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for taking the time to listen...

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