'Forever Love' is an obscenely famous eight minute ballad by
X Japan. It has been voted the number one song of all time in countless Japanese polls, and former
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made it publically known that it is his favourite song.
Whenever the band performed it live, it was always a very emotional moment. At X Japan's Last Live in 1997, playing the song was particularly painful because the lyrics seemed to speak in direct contrast of what was actually occuring.
A total of four different versions of the song were released at separate times. The original 'single' version was used as the closing
theme song for the
anime movie
X. The
acoustic orchestral version ended up on the album
Dahlia, while a live version was recorded at the
Dahlia Tour Final in 1996. Finally, after X Japan announced their breakup in 1997, a final 'Last Mix' was recorded and released.
The song's
beauty, both in
lyrics and
composition, is overwhelming. Few pieces of music come close to the emotion achieved at the close of the soft third verse: 'Everything is ending. What am I losing?
Nothing - only
you.'