Track 7: Forever


Many of the songs I've been sharing with you come directly out of my life. This isn't one of them. In fact, in some ways, this song served as a model for the novels I would write later. I refer to my Hearts of Men stories as "situation dramas." Like situation comedies, they throw their characters into a set of circumstances and watch them react to those circumstances. I did not experience most of these circumstances. For example, I never had to raise an infant on my own as Gerry does in When You Went Away, and I never had my best friend develop a fatal disease as Rich does in Flash and Dazzle. What I did with those books was place myself into those situations emotionally and then parse out how the characters would react based on what I could draw from any kind of related experience.

"Forever" is a version of that which predates all of my fiction (except for that dreadful novel I wrote when I was a teenager that has been thankfully lost to antiquity). I put myself into the position of someone who believed he was going to love someone for the rest of his life only to discover that he'd imagined the forever nature of this love.

The other notable thing about this song is that it is one of the first I wrote entirely on my own. Prior to this, I'd done most of my writing in collaboration with my best friend at the time. He would write the music and I would write the lyrics. When he went off to college, I decided that I needed to see if I could handle both parts of composition. I don't think I'll ever forget the look on his face after I played him this song when he came home from break. I think he knew in that moment that we wouldn't be collaborating much in the future, and in fact we only wrote a couple of songs together after that.

This production is the sparest of any of the songs in this set. Since this is a song about going out on one's own, it seemed wrong to fill it with lots of instruments. For the vocal, I tried to imagine how Don Henley would sing it. Trust me, I'm not kidding myself that this is a Don Henley-level vocal, but you might be able to pick up the influence.

FOREVER

Music and Lyrics by Lou Aronica

You used to tell me that you'd love me forever

and I would always be the only one.

And you would tell me that you'd leave me never.

But that was yesterday, and now yesterday's gone.

Because forever ends tonight

and never begins tomorrow.

When I walk out the door, I won't be back again.

Half of my life is gone,

but there'll be no sorrow.

I guess it's just the way that the story has to end.

I guess I never had a reason to be in love.

It was something I'd just built up in my head.

I really convinced myself you were the answer to my dreams.

I guess it's time to put another dream to bed.

It's one foot in front of the other now.

Look the other way.

This story is over and done; turn another page.

Maybe I'll believe again when I hear the word "forever."

It's hard to imagine right now, but there are other days.

Copyright © Lou Aronica


Track List:

Track 1: Nineteen Forever (cover of Joe Jackson song)

Track 2: The Lights Go Down at Eight O'Clock

Track 3: If This is Love

Track 4: Words and Music

Track 5: So Warm

Track 6: A Million Miles Away

Track 7: Forever

Track 8: Now I Understand

Track 9: Look at You

Track 10: World of Wonders

Track 11: Just Love It

Track 12: After All

Track 13: What I Have Now

Track 14: I'll Never Be

Track 15: Stand in the Middle

Track 16: Too Old to Rock and Roll, Too Young to Die (cover of Jethro Tull song)

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