"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Go away, leave me alone
I feel your presence in my mind
The time seems to stop
I set you free
You calm my mind
You calm my mind
Make my dreams come true baby
Every time it seems to me
That fiction and reality
Melt together for eternity
Liquid words dropping down the stairs
Filling the emptiness with sense
You and me on the floor
Floating on our sensibility
You need a timekiller
and you don't understand
I am like quicksand
lick it from my hand
I am your timekiller
I'll let your mind expand
I am like quicksand
lick it from my hand
Tick tack tick tack
Madness comes tonight
What's reality compared to me
I rest on the bed
and I'm sure I slowly get mad
I'm in a state of mind
which makes me blind
for the fact that I'm a man
I'm here to stay forever
but not today
You need a timekiller
and you don't understand
I am like quicksand
lick it from my hand
I am your timekiller
I'll let your mind expand
I am like quicksand
lick it from my hand
In my heart there's no place for you
and in my mind there's no space for you
The exit already melted away
and now there's nothing left to say
You need a timekiller
and you don't understand
I am like quicksand
lick it from my hand
I am your timekiller
I'll let your mind expand
I am like quicksand
lick it from my hand
I feel your presence in my mind
The time seems to stop
I set you free
You calm my mind
You calm my mind
Make my dreams come true baby
Every time it seems to me
That fiction and reality
Melt together for eternity
Liquid words dropping down the stairs
Filling the emptiness with sense
You and me on the floor
Floating on our sensibility
You need a timekiller
and you don't understand
I am like quicksand
lick it from my hand
I am your timekiller
I'll let your mind expand
I am like quicksand
lick it from my hand
Tick tack tick tack
Madness comes tonight
What's reality compared to me
I rest on the bed
and I'm sure I slowly get mad
I'm in a state of mind
which makes me blind
for the fact that I'm a man
I'm here to stay forever
but not today
You need a timekiller
and you don't understand
I am like quicksand
lick it from my hand
I am your timekiller
I'll let your mind expand
I am like quicksand
lick it from my hand
In my heart there's no place for you
and in my mind there's no space for you
The exit already melted away
and now there's nothing left to say
You need a timekiller
and you don't understand
I am like quicksand
lick it from my hand
I am your timekiller
I'll let your mind expand
I am like quicksand
lick it from my hand
Lyrics submitted by dthprod
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Fast Car
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This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
American Town
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Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
The music video depicts a man in a fit of hypergraphia. There is a bottle of mysterious liquid (possibly ansinthe) and several nondescript pills on his desk (amphetamines?). As the song/video progresses he becomes increasingly manic as he rises out of his chair and flies around the room while he appears to experience a number of hallucinogenic visuals. This seems to indicate that the lyrics are referring to the addictive pleasure/suffering of ecstatic writing (possibly under the influence of drugs). The author is writing obsessively for the sake of regulating his reality and sense of self (he's able to "calm his mind," reality and fiction "melt together," he fills the void of meaning in his life "with sense", his "mind expands"). However, he may also be writing for the sake of erasing himself in the act of writing or symptomatically self-negating (note the lyric he's "made blind to the fact that [he's] a man"). Of course, all of this erodes his sanity and utterly sinks his time.