"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.
Poison is bubbling
Beneath your dreamhome
Buried there years before
Kid runs in crying
From playing in the garden
"Mommy, I burned my hands!"
"What's making our eyes so itchy?"
"Don't rub 'em-they'll swell up."
Oh Oh Oh Oh
It's the big waste dump
Oh, yeah
We built your ticky-tacky houses
On landfill soil
To cover up a gift
We left you years before
Of toxic chemicals
And leaking gas
Just dig a little while,
You'll find our acid baths
Cesspools
In Eden
Oozing away:
Groundwater's poisoned
Air stings like hell
The lines for doctors grow long
Over martinis
The company laughs
"We don't owe you one damn thing."
But what about all these fainting spells?
How'd you like a lick
From my open sores
And Oh:.Oh Oh Oh -
Why are our babies stillborn?
A storage tank's leaking
It's about to explode
Why evacuate
When you can watch the fun
Nothing happens here
Get out the lawn chairs
We'll drink pink lemonade
And watch Martinez burn
Cesspools
In Eden
Oozing away
Cesspools in Eden
Leak by the day
The land we sold you
Is right atop our acid pits
We fill them by the truckload
In the dead of night
There's thousands more toxic
Tips of the iceberg
We pay a little bribe
Or we just don't report them
And see what you get-
Cesspools
In Eden
In Eden
No accident-
Just a little of our greed-fueled negligence
So you've found the proof why
Your cancer rate's shot up
But whatcha gonna do
When we've got all the cards
Times Beach, Rocky Flats,
Love Canal & Bhopal
Merry Christmas, hostages
From the folks who care
Cesspools in Eden
Oozing away
Cesspools in Eden
Leak by the day
Cesspools in Eden
Have a nice day
Beneath your dreamhome
Buried there years before
Kid runs in crying
From playing in the garden
"Mommy, I burned my hands!"
"What's making our eyes so itchy?"
"Don't rub 'em-they'll swell up."
Oh Oh Oh Oh
It's the big waste dump
Oh, yeah
We built your ticky-tacky houses
On landfill soil
To cover up a gift
We left you years before
Of toxic chemicals
And leaking gas
Just dig a little while,
You'll find our acid baths
Cesspools
In Eden
Oozing away:
Groundwater's poisoned
Air stings like hell
The lines for doctors grow long
Over martinis
The company laughs
"We don't owe you one damn thing."
But what about all these fainting spells?
How'd you like a lick
From my open sores
And Oh:.Oh Oh Oh -
Why are our babies stillborn?
A storage tank's leaking
It's about to explode
Why evacuate
When you can watch the fun
Nothing happens here
Get out the lawn chairs
We'll drink pink lemonade
And watch Martinez burn
Cesspools
In Eden
Oozing away
Cesspools in Eden
Leak by the day
The land we sold you
Is right atop our acid pits
We fill them by the truckload
In the dead of night
There's thousands more toxic
Tips of the iceberg
We pay a little bribe
Or we just don't report them
And see what you get-
Cesspools
In Eden
In Eden
No accident-
Just a little of our greed-fueled negligence
So you've found the proof why
Your cancer rate's shot up
But whatcha gonna do
When we've got all the cards
Times Beach, Rocky Flats,
Love Canal & Bhopal
Merry Christmas, hostages
From the folks who care
Cesspools in Eden
Oozing away
Cesspools in Eden
Leak by the day
Cesspools in Eden
Have a nice day
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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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."
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.
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.
To those of us who live here in the bay area, the song is about how no matter how little room we have left to expand onto, developers will have their way and put houses on a garbage dump in pursuit for the all mighty dollar. Who cares if it smells forever. They got paid. Theres a subdivision in union city that always smells like rotten garbage because it's a flattened dump. The people don't seem to care about the fumes or their lawns and plants that keep dying. The houses now are so close together that theres not much yard anyway.