“Live Forever” by The Fold, Friday, June 2, 2023 (partial repost)

We all have to pay the bills, and musicians are certainly no exception. Randy Torres formerly of Project 86 works in sound design. Dan Koch of Sherwood writes music for adverting. Stephen Christian is a music pastor. All of these examples, though, have kept the band separate. The Fold released two records on Tooth & Nail Records, but never achieved the greatness of their label-mates, save a Grammy nomination for the packaging of their sophomore record. Though having a smaller fanbase than other Tooth & Nail bands, The Fold started partnering with brands, writing theme songs, most notably Lego's Ninjago, for which they performed exclusively for seven years. 

I SPENT A LONG TIME BUILDING LADDERS TO THE STARS. Today’s song comes from The Fold’s 2013 independent record, Moving Past. “Live Forever” is the album’s fourth track. The themes on the album are somewhat humanist and somewhat Christian. The subject of “Live Forever” is not about one’s eternal resting place in heaven, but rather it’s an assertion that “I can’t live forever.” The song doesn’t correct its theology, but rather realizes that death is restful after years of toil, particularly toil caused by fruitless tasks such as “building ladders to the stars.” And coupled with the album cover artwork reminding me of Charon as he sculls his boat along the river Styx, we come to trust death as a natural process. The upbeat tone of “Live Forever” keeps the lyrics from falling into a depression. Practically, who wants to live forever? Who wants to outlive their peers? For much of human existence, early death was a reality. Thirty-five was once considered old, but yet we're living long and longer these days. And now there's talk of trans-humanism, scientific advancement that will allow us, or the most wealthy of us, to upload our consciousness to the cloud and download it onto a younger body. If this ever happens, people will have to grapple with problems eighty years often cut short.

THESE BONES DON'T STAND A CHANCE. I fear the future every day. I fear poverty. I fear losing my loved ones as I get older. I don't think a teenager ever thinks they will wake up in a thirty-three year old body, but I'm fearing how fast the calendar pages are turning. I've heard people say they think life is long. I don't remember the last time I was bored. It seems there's always something to fill up my time. And yet, I wonder, does there come a point when you say, I've lived a good life; I'm ready for it to end? On my darkest days when I think I'd rather be dead than face what's up next, but on the way to work I almost step in front of a bus and I start fighting for my life. I think about the sad story I heard yesterday about one of my former coworkers’ daughters died from a genetic disease after she spent her young life studying and working very hard as nurse. It’s horrible to hear about someone dying in their 20s. There’s so much life she couldn’t live. Dying at sixty has us saying “she was too young.” We don’t want the day that we finally have to say goodbye to our loved ones—grandparents, aunts and uncles, and our parents. Mental illness aside, there’s never a good age that we can say, “I’m glad to have lived this long and I hope that I die tomorrow.” Perhaps it's our mind that wants to live forever, but our bodies protest in the end.

Read “Live Forever” by The Fold on Genius.