"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.
Please be careful is never careful
Till it hears the gun
She will always pay the bills
For the having big fun
He talks so well, what can you do,
It's pretty plain he means it too
I don't want to sell you lines,
I only mean to do you right
But I'm a simple slave of appetite,
I'm a poor slave of appetite
Hunger howls, hungers red,
Hungers stays till it's fed
Then it some h-h-how fades,
Then it somehow leaves your sight
Depending on it's appetite,
Depending on your appetite
So if you take - Then put back good
If you steal - be Robin Hood
If your eyes are wanting all you see
Then I think I'll name you after me
I think I'll call you appetite
Here she is with two small problems
And the best part of the blame
Wishes she could call him heartache
But it's not a boy's name
If you grow up to be, just like him, just like me
You're fighting for exclusive rights,
For honeymoons each sleepless night
In which case I'll call you appetite
Yes I think I'll call you appetite
So if you take - Then put back good
If you steal - be Robin Hood
If your eyes are wanting all you see
Then I think I'll name you after me
I think I'll call you appetite
So if you take - Then put back good
If you steal - be Robin Hood
If your eyes are wanting all you see
Then I think I'll name you after me
I think I'll call you appetite
Then I think I'll name you after me
I think I'll call you appetite
Till it hears the gun
She will always pay the bills
For the having big fun
He talks so well, what can you do,
It's pretty plain he means it too
I don't want to sell you lines,
I only mean to do you right
But I'm a simple slave of appetite,
I'm a poor slave of appetite
Hunger howls, hungers red,
Hungers stays till it's fed
Then it some h-h-how fades,
Then it somehow leaves your sight
Depending on it's appetite,
Depending on your appetite
So if you take - Then put back good
If you steal - be Robin Hood
If your eyes are wanting all you see
Then I think I'll name you after me
I think I'll call you appetite
Here she is with two small problems
And the best part of the blame
Wishes she could call him heartache
But it's not a boy's name
If you grow up to be, just like him, just like me
You're fighting for exclusive rights,
For honeymoons each sleepless night
In which case I'll call you appetite
Yes I think I'll call you appetite
So if you take - Then put back good
If you steal - be Robin Hood
If your eyes are wanting all you see
Then I think I'll name you after me
I think I'll call you appetite
So if you take - Then put back good
If you steal - be Robin Hood
If your eyes are wanting all you see
Then I think I'll name you after me
I think I'll call you appetite
Then I think I'll name you after me
I think I'll call you appetite
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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,
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Not sure I'd agree with the comments about this song being a sexual metaphor or having overtly sexual overtones. In keeping with several other tracks on the ' Steve McQueen ' LP ( Hallelujah being a classic example ) - it is more of an insight into the writer's sensitivity. McAloon describes perfectly how it is a weakness of the female gender to fall for the ' bad boy ' - the charmer who says all the right things and elicits excitement ( he talks so well, what can you do....it's pretty plain, he means it too... ), and a warning to the consequences of this weakness in the opening lines of each verse. He then goes on to describe how a more sensitive man has all the same urges in the chorus lines, and issues a plea to be respectful ( if you take, then put back good...) in the reprise. A brilliantly constructed song by the best writer in the history of popular music, bar none and a hugely underrated band. Got decent airplay in Australia but wasn't a major hit, more's the pity.