Hey to all my Friday Follies Friends! I hope you’re experiencing everything wonderful in life and enjoying every minute of every day. And I hope you can read the love between the lines for my favorite people in the world.
For this week’s Friday Follies, I have decided to try to answer a question so many people have asked me, and it is this: “Forever Is As Far As I Could Go” is a dark subject song compared to your usual upbeat writing. What was the motivation? With the disclaimer at the beginning of the song, it sounds almost like an apology for writing it. What was your thinking at the time?”
Well, I like variety, if for no other reason than to make it interesting for me. I enjoy writing story songs like “Song With No Music” and “Kirksville, MO.” Although I like writing uplifting songs like ballads – “I’ve Love You All of the Way” and up tempo songs like “Didn’t We Have a Good Time,” I also like sad songs. I try to challenge myself and “compete” with myself, for lack of a better word. I’ve said often, I want to write something for everybody – the person who’s experiencing the very best in life and the one who’s down and out and going through the hard trials of life. I was aware of course that “Forever Is As Far As I Could Go” is a serious subject and wondered what would cause someone to get far enough down to consider suicide. So to address these questions, I decided to write the song about what happens when the heart is broken into so many pieces it seems as though there is no hope for healing and maturity has lost its focus to the point that survival is no longer an issue.
Songs almost always seem to write themselves. It’s like ideas have hearts and they demand attention. I might have the “hook” or title and think it’s a great idea and just start building on it. Sometimes the melody drives the lyric and vice versa. So, that’s the back story, I guess.
To answer this particular question, I wrote the disclaimer at the front because I didn’t want someone to become so pulled in by it that they would forget it’s just a song. And I wrote the disclaimer after I had finished writing the song and actually after we’d already recorded it. So we went back into the studio to record the “disclaimer.” That’s how seriously I felt about it.
Although we can learn from ideas in songs, I’ve always believed even songs as sad as this one can illustrate a story to the point that the negative can really have a positive meaning. In other words, don’t ever get so caught up in the “down” that you lose your common sense and reality that life is good and we have an obligation to protect it.
So, for those of you who have asked questions about this song, I hope I answered them. Thanks. Your questions are always interesting to me, and I appreciate your attention to the details.
I love you all and hope you’re doing great.
Love,
Donna
P.S. Thanks to all of you who’ve ordered the calendar and the UK cd of 50 songs. You have been so generous with your praise, and we’re so happy we’re pleasing you.
