Together Forever

If you've been around in the last few months, you don't even have to ask what's happening today - you know the rules and so do I. In fact, I don't even have to put a single R in this sentence to make you know what's happening today.

"Huh," one of you is saying. "You just quoted the lyrics for Never Gonna Give You Up instead of Together Forever. You should really stay quiet, since you're another one of those people who can't even tell the difference between two songs." Well, I'm about to prove that the two songs you're thinking about are pretty well connected.

Together Forever often gets referred to as "the other Rick Astley song." Of course, I've been around long enough to know that musicians generally don't make 2 songs and then disappear. What these commenters mean to say, most likely, is the other song that he became famous for around the same time. After all, it was 1988, and Rick had just been broadcasted around (quite literally) the entire world. Listeners had quite a reason to be excited when the radios announced that he had a brand-new song.

Listen to the song here
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Never Grow Old

The more time passes, the more I realize that there are some years that are never coming back. I used to not spend time thinking about such things, but they just seem to get more and more obvious whenever I think about the past. And unfortunately, it's not just events that disappear into the sands of time, but people too. I'm sure if anyone coming here has lost a relative, they've had to face the reality of being separated from the past, and eventually even forgetting some of it.

Listen to the song here
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I had the opportunity to play this song at a memorial service once. It makes you think about how eventually, over the years, you'll witness the deaths of most people older than you. Sometimes it seems like it would be more convenient if age wasn't a factor.

James Cleveland Moore Sr. was having similar thoughts when he wrote this song. While studying to become a minister, he heard his father singing at his church. Moore realized that because his father was getting older, eventually he would reach a point where he would no longer be able to sing in public. That thought inspired him to write a song about "a land where we'll never grow old." He dedicated the song to his parents and published it around 1930.

Music was a big part of Moore's ministry in the southeastern United States. He was known for singing, writing music, teaching others to sing, and leading music associations in Georgia. For him, music was a way to give hope to people. Even though there's nothing we can do to control the passage of time, "there's a beautiful home," where we "never shall die." "All our sorrow will end ... 'tis a land where we'll never grow old."

Keep filling your teacup with music!
~Liya