(Forever) Live and Die

A song about the ups and downs of feeling intense love towards someone? Excellent song.

Remember this one well. Shimmering intro was unforgettable, and the whole feel of the thing said it well. To me the song was about what most OMD singles were about: very intense desire for a distant, unattainable girl of "upper class" looks and status, felt (largely in secret) by an intellectual, emotional male who saw himself as beneath her in status. John Hughes, who understood 80s pop music well, caught on and utilized OMD throughout his movies because they often said the same thing. As a result this song cannot escape a certain Molly Ringwald-ness (and this is a good thing). That chilly night at the ferris wheel on the broadway overlooking the sea, catching that glimpse of The Upper Class Girl, her eyes meeting yours, and everything that young man hoped and dreamed, the perfect kiss, the perfect returned love, all captured in a single 3:38 pop song. 1986 seemed full of these moments and I still look back on it. I for one was that upper class girl, dressed quite a bit like Molly, and wishing just once that rugged impossible lower class boy would go for it, announce his love, and kiss me forever in a slow romantic round and round steadicam shot that never ended. I never got that kiss, not as a teen in 1986, or ever after... until 2025. We marry this year. To me, Forever Live and Die was simply a snapshot moment of that mutual Gen X longing, and OMD created so many of them.

Very 1986. Loved that year.

Love how this song just fades away at the end.

For me, this song is about an on and off love affair. It's (really) over this time. The lover is so far away (unreachable) You're trying to get over it, but it still hurts, and you ask yourself why??? In death, there is a finality. There is no opportunity for change. We are alive, but continue to repeat the same dysfunctional pattrens. I still love him, and I imagine him feeling like I do, but that's just a fantasy. In reality, I know that he never cared and I projected a lot of my own feelings and character traits on to him. It's like mourning the loss of someone that never really existed. Of course, he did actually exist, but he wasn't the person that I thought he was, or that I wanted him to be. In the end, we were both disappointed. I'm sure that much is true.