echo & the bunnymen - "nothing lasts forever" (from the evergreen lp, available for purchase as an import here.)

in brief : a graceful goodbye to something.

it's my birthday and i'll sigh if i want to.

i was reading blender at work today. in it, i read that "nothing lasts forever" is one of his five favorite songs ever, which makes perfect sense. so many of his band's ballads follow this template, though none communicate w/ the simplicity that ian mcculloch displays here in his affectless vocal.

this song is rather britpop--right down to liam on backing vocals (a spot martin later filled at a live show)--and then one remembers it was released in the summer of '97. i tend to view the end of britpop in the light of two dates: 18 august 1997, be here now (the collapse) and 1 september 1997, embrace's "all you good good people" (the last stand). 23 june 1997, however, now seems like a significant date, marking as it does the release of evergreen. "nothing lasts forever" is a farewell to so much, but it does play like an elegy to a particular form of music just as it portends another (whether it's "shadows and pain" is a matter of personal taste), written and performed by a band accustomed to saying goodbye.

i want it now, i want it now
not the promises of what tomorrow brings
i need to live in dreams today
i'm tired of the song that sorrow sings

and i want more than i can get
just trying to, trying to, trying to forget

i'd walk to you, through rings of fire
and never let you know the way i feel
under skin is where i hide
a love that always gets me on my knees

and i want more than i can get
just trying to, trying to, trying to forget

chorus:
nothing ever lasts forever (x4)

i want it now, i want it now
don't tell me that my ship is coming in
nothing comes, to those who wait
time's running out the door you're running in

so i want more, than i can get
just trying to, trying to, trying to forget

(chorus)

all the shadows and the pain are coming to you (x7)