Memories Die
In high school there was this Alex Turner Chris Martin John Mayer wannabe type who also played guitar and got much of the attention I wanted, perhaps because he was a much friendlier, more sociable and approachable person than I was at that point in time. He used to write his own music as well, and one day he came up with something along the lines of “this is a song about memories, because people may die, but the memories we have of them are eternal.” A lovely sentiment. Truly, an unfiltered moment of being seventeen and thinking you’ve just discovered the enlightenment of a lifetime. Unfortunately, I was also seventeen and also thought I was enlightened, but with me, I thought being cynical was the coolest thing. And I took this well meaning intention and asked myself “What happens when the people who have those memories die, genius?”
Maybe I did that out of pubescent pettiness and teenaged mandatory opposition. It made for a pretty cool song, though. And I still believe it to be true that everything physical is finite, and eternity only exists within the moment of right now. It is arrogant of us to believe that any individual can leave a mark much larger than themselves in the time scale. And of course, anyone who’s remembered for more than four generations is remembered more as an idea than as a person. We are small, but we contain the entire universe, for we are part of it, as meaningless and transient as everything else.
And also, thanks to that arrogance, the globe is warming and full of plastic, and we’re killing off every species including our own. Which is not super awesome to think about and makes me feel very negative, contrarian feelings.
The lead vocal track of this song is pretty much just four consecutive takes. I did it four times in a row on an emotionally charged day, while having a moment of emotional discontrol – it was impulsive, brash and explosive. On a calmer day, I would have minded my technique, done more comping, punched in a couple of the trickier phrases, that sort of stuff that makes the recording sound cleaner and more professional. But I think this song asked to be recorded like that. If I sound angry, desperate or delusional here, it’s because I was.
Most of the screaming is from take one, the verses are mostly take four, the choruses are mainly take three. Take two was almost entirely unusable. Go figure.
I’ve not been thinking about it
I’ve been thinking of you
A way of letting you know
Sometimes you get what you choose
Look at the world outside
Do you think we did the things
We were supposed to?
This is me standing in line
I know my way around town
Everywhere at the end of time
Remember, time is a lie
Look at the things we hide
Do you think we took care of what we could
And then ran away?
Look at the world map burn
Do you think the fire is real
What can we do to stop it?
‘Cause forever means forever
Forever means whenever
Forever means you have to hold on
‘Cause I know what to do
‘Cause I’m so into you
Take the second turn to your right
And find my second spine
The moon to the left never happened
Dust to dust, we die
Look at the place we live
And in speck within speck it’s all nothing
It’s all meaningless
Everything is just in the mind
So I choose to fill my mind with you
Until the day I die
‘Cause forever means forever
Forever means whenever
Forever means you have to hold on
‘Cause I know what to do
‘Cause I’m so into you
Forever means forever
Forever means whenever
Forever means we’re happy ever after
Forever means forever
Forever means whatever
Forever means nothing at all
