Never Die Young

I'm actually with tommaso on one detail in particular -- but let's go through it line by line (or at least verse by verse). I'll refer to "stanzas", which isn't quite the usual way I'd describe song lyrics, but since the verse/chorus structure isn't as strict as with most songs, it seems to make a bit more sense.

There are a lot of contrasts here, which seem to be deliberate, and it starts in the first pair of lines. "Ring-around-the-rosie children" are contrasted with "circles around the sun"; both invoke circles, but the circles "we" (where "we" seems to mean almost everybody) act out are tiny and childish compared to the scope of the pair the song refers to; the two perfect lovers encircle the sun as easily as the rest of us encircled a rose in a children's game.

The next two lines evoke an inevitability, invincibility, eternity; the subjects of the song will, in particular, neither grow old nor die young and so seem almost immortal.

There's already a bit of ironic melancholy here, though; the only way to keep from growing old, after all, is to die young, so there must be at least some figurative element here. More on that later.

In the second stanza the astronomical metaphors return; again, it's a contrast between the cosmic inevitability and stability of the lovers and the earthbound limitations of the rest of us.

The third stanza brings back a bit of the sorrow that drifts in and out; but it links the sorrow to hope. The unbearable experience against which "we" can only close our eyes is the hope that "they" might "make it", might really have found something transcendent while the rest of "us" are left to negotiate with an imperfect world and try to get by as best we can. We break down our losses, tears, etc. into manageable pieces, while "they" are above sorrow -- which again implies that "they" are not, strictly, living human lives any more.

The next two stanzas might seem to return to a bit more mundane detail (streets, Saturday nights, a particular town) but the unease here starts to hint at tragedy. "They" simply aren't equipped to live in a world of mundane details; together, they're "too sweet", "too tight", "not enough tough". Through it all, "we" are far enough from them that we can't even hope to touch what "they" have. Still, "they" aren't immune to the harsh realities, in the end -- they have "their backs up against the wall", and if it can't ultimately break them apart, it's still a threat.

The "hold them up"/"never to let them fall prey to the dust and the rust and the ruin" stanza is, with the following section, what suggests most to me that something, likely fatal, has happened to "them". "They" are set apart here, with a near-prayer hope that "they" be held forever immune to the ravages of time; again, death is the only way around this. Other lovers may go through life together, but the lovers referred to in this song seem to have transcended it entirely. This continues into the last two stanzas...

Here is where the song moves into what seems to me to be a deliberate apotheosis. "They" don't simply deal with the troubles that "we" face in previous stanzas; they move beyond entirely. They "rise from among us", "take [to] the sky"; and while other "hearts were broken", the "golden ones sail on...to another land beneath another sky". This apotheosis -- a near-deification in terms that evoke an exodus to paradise or a union with the stars in the style of Greek mythology -- carries a particular note of melancholy, particularly in the context of the rest of the song. "They" were never suited to this world; "we" can only join together in a chorus (again, Greek-style) to pray that "they" be held up and preserved, a state often associated with exemplary mortals at their deaths.

So I tend to hear and perform this song as poignantly ironic -- as referring to a couple whose love was spectacularly inspiring but who did, unfortunately, "die young". Rather than dwelling on that death, though, "we", the living, remember the love that inspired us, made us hope that anything was possible, that in the end if we can love like "they" did then no matter what else happens we have lived well.

This is, of course, only my reading of the song; I won't claim that this is the best or only interpretation, and I certainly don't know what James Taylor intended in writing the song, but I think it's a reading that makes sense in terms of both the lyrics and the tone of the music. I've heard some people suggest that this song specifically refers to a couple lost to AIDS; while the time-frame would fit, while this would certainly make for a poignant added detail to performances/interpretations of the song, and while James Taylor may have done some work for AIDS charities, I haven't read anything to convince me that this is a necessary part of the song. There's definitely enough breadth of meaning here to support a range of readings; I'd certainly like to see more interpretations by different artists. (JT's collaboration on the song with Luciana Souza is definitely worth acquiring, by the way.)