"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.
Sitting in the cheap seats underneath
The stars
I'm heading back to base, I'll drop you off
At Mars
I'm sure I know your face or what star
You're from
I try to make conversation but I'm too
Far gone
I'm a man machine
Drinking gasoline
Super human being
Shooting laser beams
How you gonna leave, when your bags
Ain't packed
And how you gonna shoot, when we're
Back to back
How d'you tell a joke, when you can't laugh
You know that you're the punchline, baby
Take a bath
I'm a man machine
Drinking gasoline
Super human being
I'm a queen's dream
The dog has ate my homework today
It's not done, it ain't done
I have heard they're not very well
In the sun
Cos I'm a man machine
I'm a queen's dream
Drinking gasoline
I'm a queen's dream
Yeah....Help
How you gonna live for love lying on
Your back
And how you gonna keep it kleen in a
Dirty mac
How you gonna breathe when you're lost
In space
You're dazed and amused
Talking through a different face
Cos I'm man machine
Drinking gasoline
I'm a teen dream
I'm a man machine
I'm a man machine
I'm a man machine
Drinking gasoline
The stars
I'm heading back to base, I'll drop you off
At Mars
I'm sure I know your face or what star
You're from
I try to make conversation but I'm too
Far gone
I'm a man machine
Drinking gasoline
Super human being
Shooting laser beams
How you gonna leave, when your bags
Ain't packed
And how you gonna shoot, when we're
Back to back
How d'you tell a joke, when you can't laugh
You know that you're the punchline, baby
Take a bath
I'm a man machine
Drinking gasoline
Super human being
I'm a queen's dream
The dog has ate my homework today
It's not done, it ain't done
I have heard they're not very well
In the sun
Cos I'm a man machine
I'm a queen's dream
Drinking gasoline
I'm a queen's dream
Yeah....Help
How you gonna live for love lying on
Your back
And how you gonna keep it kleen in a
Dirty mac
How you gonna breathe when you're lost
In space
You're dazed and amused
Talking through a different face
Cos I'm man machine
Drinking gasoline
I'm a teen dream
I'm a man machine
I'm a man machine
I'm a man machine
Drinking gasoline
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
its a good song.. yea granted... but why in the intro, does he rip off the smiths song "what difference does it make" ?? if you listen to them both you can hear it x
Because the whole world of music is built on drawing from influences and changing songs slightly to create something totally new. Listen to the entire album "American Idiot" by Greenday and tell me you can't hear any likenesses to any classic rock songs. Sugababes "Push The Button" - Try singing along the word's to Wham's "Last Christmas"... It's everywhere you just have to notice.
But anyway, onto the song. I love it. Fits perfect in that scene in Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels after Ed walks out of the police station scot-free. Watched that movie again the other day and the song stuck in my head, hadn't heard it in ages, but it's just one of those songs that makes me feel good, like it inspires confidence, almost as if by singing along you're making the statement that you're the mutt's nuts. And that's basically what I see the song as meaning. By calling himself a man machine, who drinks gasoline and shoots laserbeams, he is being confident in himself, saying he can achieve anything thrown at him, at the same time as - in the verses - standing up to someone who think's they're bigger or better and pointing out that in fact, he could very well be that person's better.
Great song.