"If I Could Live Forever"

The idea that immortality may be a trap is nothing new. Swift explored it in Gulliver’s Travels, and Douglas Adams took it in other directions in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. When I wrote this song, I had not read either of those books, so I thought I was onto something brilliant and original. Oh well. I didn’t reach the same conclusions as either Swift or Adams even though the theme is similar.  I recorded this song for my “Not Here” tape, and that marked my first return to the trombone since leaving Northwestern three years earlier.

If I Could Live Forever

© 1985 Brian Hutzell

If I could live forever

Think what I could do

If I could live forever

I could be the woman and the man inside your nightmare

Look closely, I am in there

The one you thought was dead is quite alive inside your head

If I could live forever

What a thought it is

If I could live forever

I could gather wisdom through the years

There'd be no secrets

You would have no defense

And when your life is gone I'll have your soul to prey upon

I can live forever

No more race with time

I can live forever

Everything is mine

I want, I take

Don't have to worry

I don't have to hurry

And when the last man dies I will be there to close his eyes

(Rest in peace)

I will live forever

I must live forever

Don't want to live forever

Must be something more

Don't want to live forever

Spending every moment trying to get into the next world

I see it; it looks better

My life was heaven

Now it's hell because I can't get out

“December Blues 12”

Brian Hutzell

From December Blues

Part 12 of MMXIII Variations