"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.
I WANT WIND TO BLOW
The Thunderclouds broke up.
The rain dried up. The lightning let up.
The clacking shutters just shut up. There’s no black or white, no change in the light. No night, no golden sun, no graduating flight. There is the sound of cars, the smell of bars, the scraping paw of electric heat. We wait and wait in fluorescent lights sacrificing our true might holding fastly to our useless way, holding hard feelings.
I want wind to blow:
my brains out, my clothes off, my balloon away, sweep me off my feet, to take me up and not bring me back. I want to be removed enough to see days pass at their pace by me and the human head I now clutch in grief to be released. By nature I’m free, I’m the yawning sea, and when I hope for ships I’m lost in the plea.
The Thunderclouds broke up.
The rain dried up. The lightning let up.
The clacking shutters just shut up. There’s no black or white, no change in the light. No night, no golden sun, no graduating flight. There is the sound of cars, the smell of bars, the scraping paw of electric heat. We wait and wait in fluorescent lights sacrificing our true might holding fastly to our useless way, holding hard feelings.
I want wind to blow:
my brains out, my clothes off, my balloon away, sweep me off my feet, to take me up and not bring me back. I want to be removed enough to see days pass at their pace by me and the human head I now clutch in grief to be released. By nature I’m free, I’m the yawning sea, and when I hope for ships I’m lost in the plea.
Lyrics submitted by rxqueen, edited by ReadThese, itsmecaitlind
I Want Wind To Blow Lyrics as written by Phillip Whitman Elverum
Lyrics © SC PUBLISHING DBA SECRETLY CANADIAN PUB.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
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If you listen to the song "Phil Elvrum's will," at the end, he says "I want wind" and strums the first few chords for this song, a little differently. Also, in the beginning of "The Sun" on the Mt. Eerie album, I want Wind to Blow is playing (or being played) faintly in the background.
I love it when artists have common threads and recurring concepts/ideas evident throughout their art. It's like, the ideas gain special significance through their repition. Also, seeing the same idea in a different context, or song, gives it a fresh perspective.
It seems the I want wind to blow concept is an idyllic one, because that's what phil, well, wants. It's used here as an preferred atmosphere over the city, but it might mean death, because he mentions it as one of the things he wants when dead, in "Phil elvrums will." Also, "the Sun" is described as "in which the stroy begins, where you are born and run away from death up the mountain in fear and are watched by a ball of fire." The blowing wind, a.k.a. this song in the intro of "the sun" might be the feeling of death he speaks of running away from.
One more thing. In this song, he says "Sweep me off my feet Take me up and bring me back Oh, where I can see the waves pass by me."
In "phil elvrum's will," he says, speaking of his friends: "and go all the time to the beach to picture my face." Therefore, I think this song is about death.