Music Blur

This is one of those rare instances where a cover of a song winds up being better than the original. However, that is not to say that the original is a piece of trash. On the contrary, maybe this is an even *rarer* time where I still love the original, but maybe just slightly less than I do this cover.

That song is Forever Young, originally done by Alphaville, but here, by Youth Group. Many people may recognize it from that old hit teen-drama The O.C. I won’t lie and say that I didn’t watch that show, because, well, I did. And that was my first exposure to this song, and ever since then, I’ve really enjoyed it. To me, it just sort of conjures up images of being young, careless, and free. It’s mellow, without putting me to sleep.

The video I can’t really speak for – it’s just the one on YouTube that had the most views. If I had to speak for the video, I’d say “Hey, look at all of this fuzzed-out footage of young 80s-looking youths skateboarding, while listening to this cover of a song we did that talks about staying young, forever. Or something.” Actually, what I might say is look at this footage from the early-1970s Australian youth television program GTK, showing Australia’s first skateboarding contest being held at the Coca-Cola factory in Frenchs Forest, New South Wales in 1975. But, that’s only because I read the Wikipedia entry about the song.

Apparently Youth Group’s version of Forever Young comes from an album called Cosmic Casino Dogs, and having just listened to the 30-second snippets on Amazon of it, I can say that Youth Group just might be worth a listen.

If you’ve never heard Alphaville’s original, do yourself a favor, and go check it out. It’s as 80s as you can get, and kinda creepy.