Forever Young

Ok first of all, I'd just like to say that this is songmeanings.net, where people post their views on what the song means, and not a discussion board about where they first heard the song and which tv show 'ruined' it.

Ok, but about the song. This is my all time favourite song because it is absolutely beautiful and I love the lyrics. This is my intepretation of the song;

Let’s dance in style, lets dance for a while Heaven can wait we’re only watching the skies -- talking about the beauties of youth, and that 'heaven can wait' while you're enjoying your youth, 'dance in style, let's dance for while.'

Hoping for the best but expecting the worst Are you going to drop the bomb or not? -- the original song was written about nuclear war and this is a reference to it

Can you imagine when this race is won Turn our golden faces into the sun -- talking about getting old and dying

Some are like water, some are like the heat Some are a melody and some are the beat Sooner or later they all will be gone Why don’t they stay young -- beautiful lyricism that indicates that one thing everyone has in common is that they have experience youth

So many adventures couldn’t happen today So many songs we forgot to play So many dreams are swinging out of the blue We let them come true -- basically, youth is short and there's never enough time to experience it, but as you get older there are all these 'dreams swinging out of the blue.'

That's just part of my interpretation of the song. I think everyone should stop complaining about how The O.C has 'ruined' this song; just because the song is more popular, it is still just as emotive, insightful and beautiful as ever. This is amazing lyricism right here that never fails to take my breath away.

I'm glad this show was on The O.C. The O.C. may be an exaggerated version of real life, but it still reflects real feelings that people have, and this song fit in perfectly. And I don't think that this version of the song should be compared to the original. This one is from a completely different time. Also, a song doesn't have only one meaning. This one in particular can mean many things to many people, and no one should be told that "it means this" because it means a lot of things.

Ok, this song is a cover, if you people don't know this. The original was by Alphaville, and it's better. Well I think it's better probably because I heard it first. Well it's definitely more 80's. Which is always cool. Alphaville's version is also the one in Napoleon Dynamite.

yep totally not for the OC. I hate people making covers of songs especially for such lame shows.

as for it being about nuclear war i think each song has different meanings to everyone so its not really right to say 'it is this or it is that' its something different for everyone anyway I LOVE ALPHAVILLE and they diserve all credit for this song mutters to self 'stupid people making covers'

omg OC used this song for ryan and marissa for "their song" its friken about nuclear war and mass suicide!! so it so doesnt suit OC!!!! i hate when people use songs and dont give a shit about their meanings!!!!

Like Shmeeper said, this is a cover. And it isn't nearly as good as the original. I can't even have a small amount of respect for it, either, because they're trying to sound just like Alphaville and they do a bad job and mess up all the notes. It's interesting how the writers of the song didn't get any attention but now these O.C. come along, mess it up, and steal all their glory. Good going

P.S. I totally agree with 'GibsonSheep', the lyrics are open to interpretation, and while the original (by Alphaville) was sung in the sense that it was about nuclear war, I personally beleive the cover version (by Youth Group, obviously) was sung in the sense that it was about youth, and the view of being young and youthful as something ideal. I believe this because of the film clip. It shows a bunch of young people on skateboards, and (if I'm right) the footage was taken from Sydney, but don't listen to that I might be wrong and the location of where the film clip was made is irrelevant anyways.

isn't this site supposed to be about what the song means? not whether you like it or not. if you don't like it, why the hell would you be commenting on it??

this song is about youth suicide; "let us die young or let us live forever" generally your last memory of someone is how they were when they died, hence the person or people in the song want their youth to live on in everyone's memories forever. how do they ensure that this happens? they commit suicide while they are still young letting thier beauty live on forever, like glistening diamonds.

Surely it's more about the cold war? original version was released around then... and all the references to 'race', 'bomb' seem to be referring to the arms race?

the rest of the song is quite bucket list - ish as in, we may as ewll make the most of our youth since we don't know how long it'll last!

(alphaville, the original artists, were german)

Well I'm from Germany, from the west part of Berlin and this song really REALLY resonates with me. I was born in 1970 during the height of the Cold War and I grew up with the spectre of nuclear war always overhead. While a lot of the younger generation who didn't live through the Cold War link this to either Ryan and Marissa or to graduation, for me it's really about living life to the fullest because during those days when i was 12, 15, 18, we weren't watching the OC, we were trying to live our lives knowing that if the US and USSR ever went to war our country would be the first to get bombed, by both of them. And that was totally out of our control. That's what this song is about to me, about the fragility of life under the shadow of two superpowers.

Also it should say "if this race is won" because if someone did "win" by getting their bombs off first, "turn our golden faces to the sun" is an allusion to a nuclear explosion which for a split second can rival the heat of the sun.

Essentially it is saying, we don't want to live under this shadow for our whole lives...we didn't want to live under the shadow of fear. Better we be bombed so that our youth remains forever, like diamonds in the sun, than to be put down like an old racehorse. And that sentiment I guess transcends generations, then and now.