"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.
What have we here storm before calm.
Strung out on fear so pass me the napalm
Break Bread with me before it is stolen
Sleep with one eye open silence is golden
Life a magazine Death a Reality
Drug dealer heroes thug celebrities
Rush hour gridlock may seem drastic
An open road compared to drug traffic
Starving to death on a Quaalude diet
Living in a Slow Motion Riot
Concisness it has been gagged and bound
Better make your last confession
The worlds doing its best impression
Of a ship with nowhere to go but down
Skyscraper fantasies Ghetto realities
Dreams watered down like softcore pornography
Watch your step gang related death
Funeral day wonder who's next
Crime is the standard built up Immunity
Only care if it's our community
Smokescreen safety can't trust the Government
In this world hell seems heaven sent
Were in a Slow Motion Riot
Life a Fantasy Death Reality
Life a Quarantine Death a courtesy
Life a Brevity Death Finality
Life a foul disease Death a Remedy
Strung out on fear so pass me the napalm
Break Bread with me before it is stolen
Sleep with one eye open silence is golden
Life a magazine Death a Reality
Drug dealer heroes thug celebrities
Rush hour gridlock may seem drastic
An open road compared to drug traffic
Starving to death on a Quaalude diet
Living in a Slow Motion Riot
Concisness it has been gagged and bound
Better make your last confession
The worlds doing its best impression
Of a ship with nowhere to go but down
Skyscraper fantasies Ghetto realities
Dreams watered down like softcore pornography
Watch your step gang related death
Funeral day wonder who's next
Crime is the standard built up Immunity
Only care if it's our community
Smokescreen safety can't trust the Government
In this world hell seems heaven sent
Were in a Slow Motion Riot
Life a Fantasy Death Reality
Life a Quarantine Death a courtesy
Life a Brevity Death Finality
Life a foul disease Death a Remedy
Lyrics submitted by reactionary17
Slow Motion Riot Lyrics as written by Jason Page Doug Weems
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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"
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
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.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“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.
did anyone see them play this in Long beach w/ pennywise in feb?? was insane.....
has to be the greatest pump up song.. I love this song!!
this song is realy cool
this IS the greatest pump up song!!