"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.
Does not exist, take an exit
I hear voices insinuating
Feeds me lyrics to this song that I am saying
Sunlight 7:20 pm, early September
Standing looking at a photograph
That you do not remember being taken
You look out of breath, and me like I am faking
As a matter of fact I don't recall this photo being taken
You don't even actually exist so I just started shaking
Does not exist, take an exit
I hear voices insinuating
Feeds me lyrics to this song that I am saying
Sunlight 7:20 pm, early September
Standing looking at a photograph
That you do not remember being taken
You look out of breath, and me like I am faking
As a matter of fact I don't recall this photo being taken
You don't even actually exist so I just started shaking
Does not exist, take an exit
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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"
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.
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.
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.
i think the heavy breathing in the background of the song is a good clue as to what this is about. he hears voices, he seems to recall this person that does not even exist. (alternatively, he is looking at a picture of himself from a long time ago). I think message is that the singer is insane. He is hyperventilating, having a nervous breakdown. And for him, the exit does not exist, there is no way to break out of this cycle of insanity that he is enveloped in. He is recalling how things used to be, realized that the person in the picture no longer exists as he has transformed into someone else, and he breaks down. Also as the song goes on the music becomes more and more chaotic and disorderly. This song is really, really great and is probably one of my favorites as it's something I can relate to about now.
I think the heavy breathing is more exhaustion. To me I read/hear the lyrics as...<br /> <br /> (happiness) Does not exist. Take an exit. (suicide)
Why stop listening to a great band because they have different believes than you do?
That's like hating someone because they have different believes or are from a different culture.
Just enjoy the music, and respect their beliefs. As i'm sure they'd respect yours.
I think that this song is about a bad acid trip. The whole thing with voices, the heavy breathing, staring at pictures, and definitely with "exit does not exist" since, when tripping, you often want it to stop but you can't stop it, which is when you really to start to freak out.
now either this song is completely drugged up or its about a relationship that turned out completely crap and neither party wants to acknowledge that it ever happened or something completely different
I personally think this is about a battle with schizophrenia/mutiple personality disorder. mostly because it seems the way isacc sings it anyway that he is arguing with himself or in a state of confusion and thats often a characteristic of schizophrenina and also because of the lyrical content.
You sound pretty close, dancingbears. It could also be about two people who got themselves drunk and decided to have some fun and take photos. I think that because of the line which says, "You look out of breath, and me like I am faking."
The end sounds tripped out to me. But the "Exist does not exist" lines COULD (a stretch probably) be referring to inability to escape existence. In Christian sense... go to heaven or hell for ETERNITY and in Hindu world, you're stuck in samsara (cycle of death and rebirth). There's no way out!
yes i agree theo reo but still appreciate it, its modest mouse for christs sake!
I appreciate the music towards the end. But ugh, I'd rather a skit or something, over this.
i love the song. the energy towards the end is great. and i think they lyrics are awesome too. im going to go with drugs on this one.
i love the song. the energy towards the end is great. and i think they lyrics are awesome too. im going to go with drugs on this one.