From the recording Bold Enough To Say (2014)
Your own credo in "Forever and Ever, Amen" - "Through the virtues I've collected I will give myself for all" - emerges as the directive of this work, the great call to devotion and compassion that is the capitulate imperative of the divine love that illuminates us, connects us, moves through us, and of which we must become instruments. Your own work here consummately achieves this ideal, as you have achieved the very thing you cry, igniting the fading fires in our souls. Though your god is bigger than the words we use to describe it, you have yet expressed its beauty and power and necessity, its consummate realty, through the transformative alchemy of words and music. - Ethan
Written & Produced by Billy Webster
Lead Guitar by Carl Basler
Drums by Jesse Maynard
Recorded at Unfinished Storage Studio
(c) Shampoo Girl Music, 2014
Lyrics
Through the virtues I’ve collected, I will give myself for all Through the gifts that I’ve perfected, I will heed the sirens’ call
When you come to the end of the story are you sure that it’s really the end when you sing of the blood and the glory forever and ever, amen
When you sit by the fire and remember the cries and the laughter of friends are you sure that it wasn’t a daydream? forever and ever, amen
Are you sure that it ends when you die? Are you sure that you’re really alive? Are you sure that you haven’t been half asleep And dreaming most of your life?
When you come to the end of a memory and you think, this is where I began and the sights and the sounds that were random appear to be part of the plan
And the girl over there with the long black hair is the girl that you knew back in 1022 and the words that you say, that you just throw away are the words that could usher in a brand new day
When you wake from the throes of a Technicolor dream with the words that could make all the young girls scream and the God that you see from the corner of your eyes is a God of love and it’s no surprise
Through the virtues I’ve collected, I will give myself for all Through the gifts that I’ve perfected, I will heed the sirens’ call Through the virtues I’ve collected, I will give myself for all Through the gifts that I’ve perfected, I will heed the sirens’ call
Through the virtues I’ve collected, I will give myself for all Through the gifts that I’ve perfected, I will heed the sirens’ call
Our father, our mother, our sister, and our brother You made us, you shaped us, you named us, and you shamed us
Our fathers, with words or with silence can inspire us, or do violence Our mothers, shining with resilience, embrace us, with brilliance And if I’m bold enough to say the words you gave me then you know I’m gonna take it, gonna make it, not gonna fake it ‘Cause my God is, bigger than the words we use to, describe him, to describe her, to deny him, to deny her to ignite the fading fire in our souls.