16 years ago today

Never Die Young
James Taylor
We were ring-around-the-rosy children
They were circles around the sun
Never give up, never slow down
Never grow old, never ever die young

Big Bend 1989 

Synchronized with the rising moon
Even with the evening star
They were true love written in stone
They were never alone, they were never that far apart

Bill and I, Christmas 1988 

And we who couldn’t bear to believe they might make it
We had to close our eyes
Cut up our losses into doable doses
Ration our tears and sighs

You could see them on the street on a Saturday night
Everyone used to run them down
They’re a little too sweet, they’re a little too tight
Not enough tough for this town

cozumel 1992 

We couldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole
No it didn’t seem to rattle at all
They were glued together body and soul
That much more with their backs up against the wall

Big Bend 

Hold them up, hold them up
Never do let them fall prey
To the dust and the rust and the ruin
That names us and claims us and shames us all

I guess it had to happen someday soon
Wasn’t nothing to hold them down
They would rise from among us like a big balloon
Take the sky, forsake the ground

Leaving the church, happier than ever 

Yes other hearts were broken
Other dreams ran dry
But our golden ones sail on, sail on
To another land beneath another sky

Yes, other hearts were broken 

Happy Anniversary my love.  It has been fabulous!  Here’s to 40 more!

***edited to add:

From Long Ago and Far Away by Timothy White, published in 2001 about Never Die Young:
“Some think of it as being about young people who have died and gone to ‘another land beneath another sky’ and that’s not true,” said James. “It’s actually about one person looking at an idealised, mythical couple, and while there’s envy there, the person is rooting for them and saying, ‘Hold them up!’ and praying they’ll make it. The emotional foundation of the story is the person telling it, saying, ‘I don’t have a chance of making it out of what-have-you – a dying steel town, a barrio, an addicted existence, a war zone – but I hope to hell they make it, and survive,’ and that they ‘Never give up/Never slow down/Never grow old/Never die young’.”