Not Nineteen Forever

"Not Nineteen Forever" is the fourth single released by indie rock band The Courteeners. Taken from their debut studio album St. Jude, it was released on 31 March 2008 on a CD and two 7" singles. It reached #19 in the UK Singles Chart making it the highest charting Courteeners single to date. It was most recently used as Manchester United's record breaking 20th title winning song. The song is featured on Pro evolution soccer 2010.

Chart performance

The single was released on 31 March 2008 as both a CD single and as two alternate 7" singles. It managed to enter the UK Singles Chart at a peak of #19, making it 'The Courteeners' most successful single to date.

Lyrical Meaning

The lyrics concern a conversation between a young man and his older girlfriend, who is disappointed by his wild and hedonistic behaviour that night, and she drives him for 'tea and toast'. He flirts with her in the car, but she reminds him he's only young and needs to get his life together. He goes out again and chases another woman, but she disappears before he can make conversation. He muses about how she probably wasn't worth chasing before understanding his girlfriend's words.

Blaze of Glory (Joe Jackson album)

Blaze of Glory is a 1989 album by English rock and roll singer Joe Jackson.

Origins

Jackson has stated that the album and the songs themselves were an examination of his generation as the 1980s were ending, ranging from the optimism of the 1950s ("Tomorrow's World") to the politics of terrorism ("Rant and Rave") and the Cold War ("Evil Empire"), to yuppies ("Discipline") and rockers who are well past their prime ("Nineteen Forever"). The title track compares the legacy of a classic rock musician who died young ("...went out in a blaze of glory") with the current wannabes ("They're just cartoons" who "think they're Superman" but "can't even fly").

The album is structured in two-halves: the first half through "Blaze of Glory" is presented without breaks, with the coda of one song becoming the intro to the next. The first half deals with adolescence and optimism, the second half with aging and depression. It is interesting to note that the songs of the second half correspond somewhat with the Kübler-Ross model of the stages of grief: "Rant and Rave" is anger (obvious from its title), "Nineteen Forever" is denial (also obvious from its title, although those two are out of order), "The Best I Can Do" and "Discipline" are bargaining (lyrics include "I’ll love you forever / Or at least many years / If you know I’ll never / Take away all your fears", and for the latter "Discipline can make me stronger / If it doesn't kill me first"), "Evil Empire" about depression ("I could go on but what’s the use / You can’t fight them with songs / But think of this as just / Another tiny blow against the empire"), and lastly acceptance in "Human Touch" ("In all the universe I’m just a speck of dust / But all I can do is keep trying... / To give you the human touch").