"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.
You say I'm a free man,
But what does that mean to a social security number?
A grey suit as sharp as a new guillotine,
Bought and paid for while drugging us under
Tell me what use is a citizens charter
When blood is the ink for the new Magna Carta?
Sci-fi style weapons in feudal societies
Fingers on buttons that twich with anxiety
[Chorus]
Brought to our knees by the powers that maybe,
Don't care if humanity lives or it dies.
You're alright Jack - so you pulled up the ladder
And hook, line and sinker you swallowed their lies.
Now it seems that the truth is not easy to say
Mouth stuffed with the goodies they sample.
Stripped by their mistresses - tied up and flayed
Like pye-dogs that would lead by example
Not enough answers - and cash payed for questions
Waste paper baskets - filled with good suggestions
Show me a promise they made that has lasted
Successes have fathers - but failure's a bastard
[Chorus]
Your Motto was 'in god we trust all others pay by cash'
You hide beneath oak tables when the windows start to smash
The natives are revolving open season on the scum
Sit back and wait forever for the Eirenarch to come
Rich and poor divide the classes, instigate two types of law
Making nineteen nineties Heaven feel like 1984
Your finger on the trigger of a 12-bore in the dark
When justice knocks upon your door send for the Eirenarch.
But what does that mean to a social security number?
A grey suit as sharp as a new guillotine,
Bought and paid for while drugging us under
Tell me what use is a citizens charter
When blood is the ink for the new Magna Carta?
Sci-fi style weapons in feudal societies
Fingers on buttons that twich with anxiety
[Chorus]
Brought to our knees by the powers that maybe,
Don't care if humanity lives or it dies.
You're alright Jack - so you pulled up the ladder
And hook, line and sinker you swallowed their lies.
Now it seems that the truth is not easy to say
Mouth stuffed with the goodies they sample.
Stripped by their mistresses - tied up and flayed
Like pye-dogs that would lead by example
Not enough answers - and cash payed for questions
Waste paper baskets - filled with good suggestions
Show me a promise they made that has lasted
Successes have fathers - but failure's a bastard
[Chorus]
Your Motto was 'in god we trust all others pay by cash'
You hide beneath oak tables when the windows start to smash
The natives are revolving open season on the scum
Sit back and wait forever for the Eirenarch to come
Rich and poor divide the classes, instigate two types of law
Making nineteen nineties Heaven feel like 1984
Your finger on the trigger of a 12-bore in the dark
When justice knocks upon your door send for the Eirenarch.
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.