This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Taking her seat at the bar
She don't talk to anyone
Plane leaving soon for afar
Where she don't know anyone
She thinks of her precious time
There's no-one she leaves behind
Who could change her mind
Is this the way it's gonna be forever
Is this the way it's gonna be forever
Is this the way it's gonna be
Forever now
Take a whole life's loneliness
Wrap it up in some tenderness
Send it off to some emptiness
With all my love
'cause it's only you and me
There'll be nothing we need to see
Only one thing can set you free
Is all my love
Making his way down the stairs
He can't help but looking back
Thinks of the things that they shared
There'll be no more turning back
He thinks of the day they met
The words that she said of love
He just can't forget
Just the way they want to be forever
Just the way they want to be forever
Tell me it will always be
Forever now
Take a whole life's loneliness
Wrap it up in some tenderness
Send it off to some emptiness
With all my love
It's only you and me
There'll be nothing we need to see
Only one thing can set you free
Is all my love
It's only you and me
There'll be nothing we need to see
Only one thing can set you free
Is all our love, oh yeah
She don't talk to anyone
Plane leaving soon for afar
Where she don't know anyone
She thinks of her precious time
There's no-one she leaves behind
Who could change her mind
Is this the way it's gonna be forever
Is this the way it's gonna be forever
Is this the way it's gonna be
Forever now
Take a whole life's loneliness
Wrap it up in some tenderness
Send it off to some emptiness
With all my love
'cause it's only you and me
There'll be nothing we need to see
Only one thing can set you free
Is all my love
Making his way down the stairs
He can't help but looking back
Thinks of the things that they shared
There'll be no more turning back
He thinks of the day they met
The words that she said of love
He just can't forget
Just the way they want to be forever
Just the way they want to be forever
Tell me it will always be
Forever now
Take a whole life's loneliness
Wrap it up in some tenderness
Send it off to some emptiness
With all my love
It's only you and me
There'll be nothing we need to see
Only one thing can set you free
Is all my love
It's only you and me
There'll be nothing we need to see
Only one thing can set you free
Is all our love, oh yeah
Lyrics submitted by Regos the Sane
Forever Now Lyrics as written by Steve Prestwich
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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What a brilliant song. I was never a Cold Chisel fan per se. but this song has always been in my personal Top 10. The aching loneliness of love grown old and how it eats you up... just gut wrenching.
@louichan I agree completely. This is a transcendent song, and the whole band is playing to each others' strengths. Their rock and roll stuff really doesn't hold a candle to this one.
Both this song and "Flame Trees" are about his teenage sweetheart. They were so in love! Inseparable. I knew them both. The Chisels were really starting to get big in Oz and touring alot. She wanted the white picket fence and kids. He was torn to follow his dream. She didn't wait for him and married a guy that she never loved as much. I told her she was crazy. Broke Steve's heart. I know for a fact that they met secretly a few times. Could never stop loving each other. He was the sweetest guy. Died too young. I hope she was there for him. Don't know. Lost contact. I cry whenever either song comes on the radio. I cried so much when The Chisels played at the Rugby League Final, last year. It was the first time I'd seen them play without Steve there, and in his memory they played Flame Trees - "And number 3 is never say her name!" (Who needs that sentimental bullshit anyway?) Bless you Stee. XX
God, this song is beautiful.
This is one of the most hauntingly beautiful chisel songs. its about a girl who gives up on her guy and leaves to start a new life. we dont know why she leaves, probably because the guy screwed up somehow. the best line is when he reminisses about the day they met and the words of love he just cant forget. gives me a chill every time even though i've played it hundreds of times.
This song is a wonderful pop/rock classic,very funky cold chisel track!
A girl has recently been dumped, and has no-one left in this city so she's leaving on a plane.
One of my all time favourite songs.
Sounds like a girl who is tired of life and love just getting on a plane and leaving as there is nothing or no-one to stay for.
A bit late but just listening to this today and realised what a great song it is. I loved their heavier songs and have not got into the ballads as much but it's a very fine song.
I was about 12 when this song came out, and even then the title of this song, "Forever Now" seemed to me to be the idea of a moment lasting forever. It made the song confusing to me, but I think it does make sense. Turning points in our life - walking away from a lover, from a life we have always lived, or when love was first pledged - a part of us is left there, we live it over and over. In a way, that moment exists for us "forever." As a result, I think it's not just a sad song, it's also heart-warming. We may forever be leavbing that lover, but we always will exist in that moment of falling in love too. Forever Now. Somewhere in eternity we are lovers forever.
@PaulSouth If you read my "memory" comment, you'll know you got it in one.
Apparently the drummer, who couldn't play an instrument at all and had never written any songs for the band, hummed it to the rest of the guys. One night around that time, he was in a drunken state, and he told (the main songwriter) Don Walker that the song was meant to have multiple levels of meanings, but Don said it was never very clear to him what these levels were meant to be. Lol!
But I always thought that this song had at least two levels of meaning: a spiritual interpretation of love, and the simple love of two people for each other in the mundane world that we know. The spiritual interpretation is the one that breaks my heart: the moment of our greatest feelings of love lasting eternally in that moment, "forever now." And who are these two people? They are the archetypal He and She, they are all of us. The song addresses all humanity and eternity, and this is what makes it, in my mind, a classic love song.
@PaulSouth Steve was a great drummer!!! Just struggled with the writing, so Don helped. Don knew what and who it was about!