"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.
When I was seventeen, it was a very good year
It was a very good year for small town girls
And soft summer nights
We'd hide from the lights
On the village green
When I was seventeen
When I was twenty-one, it was a very good year
It was a very good year for city girls
Who lived up the stair
With all that perfumed hair
And it came undone
When I was twenty-one
When I was thirty-five, it was a very good year
It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls
Of independent means
We'd ride in limousines
Their chauffeurs would drive
When I was thirty-five
But now the days are short, I'm in the autumn of the year
And now I think of my life as vintage wine
From fine old kegs
From the brim to the dregs
It poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for small town girls
And soft summer nights
We'd hide from the lights
On the village green
When I was seventeen
When I was twenty-one, it was a very good year
It was a very good year for city girls
Who lived up the stair
With all that perfumed hair
And it came undone
When I was twenty-one
When I was thirty-five, it was a very good year
It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls
Of independent means
We'd ride in limousines
Their chauffeurs would drive
When I was thirty-five
But now the days are short, I'm in the autumn of the year
And now I think of my life as vintage wine
From fine old kegs
From the brim to the dregs
It poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year
Lyrics submitted by Pharmaecopia
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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"
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.
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.
My favorite of F.S. songs. It's hauntingly beautiful with such bittersweet sentiment. I did not discover (enjoy, really) Frank's music until my 40's, although I grew up watching him and Dean (and their musical friends) on television. Those were the days when you sat around the television set with your family after a meal at the table, and was blessed with the likes of the talented musicians of that decade. It was a time of sweet naivety and innocence, which made Sinatra and the like seem like kings.
much like his song "my way" i think it is an old, dying man looking back on his life and thinking how good it was and that he is ready to go.
my favorite sinatra song
its meaning is not cryptic enough to require analysis, really; pretty straightforward
Beautiful song about those great days of yore that everyone had - not just Frank - very universal song. Loved how they used this song in that Season 2 episode of The Sopranos. PS - that's a Frank Sinatra poster in the back of the Bada Bing!
@bkat004 Well Nancy did guest star on the show.
one of the gems on the first Sopranos soundtrack. ALOT of great music in that show. can;t wait for the 2nd half of season6
THE BEST SONG EVER WRITTEN
The final verse makes this song amazing. Here's what I think it means: "I'm in the autumn of the year" gives you an idea of his age; around 3/4ths of his life is over. He says he thinks of his life as vintage wine and that the wine is of a very good year, meaning he believes his life was a very good one. So the title "A Very Good Year" is referring to a life of great value and happiness. I like the metaphor as a life being compared to a year of wine; there are many years and many lives and, just as there are especially good years for wine, this life stood out specifically as a good one.
I couldn't agree more. Another idea that flows well with your idea is the universal progression of human life. When we are young and in the spring of our lives, wedon't enjoy life and embrace it for all it is...in the summer of life, we tend to realize how great life can be, but as we are in the prime of life, we tend to take it for granted, thinking it will last forever...in the autumn, while still enjoying life, we have the perspective of life lived that enables us to appreciate where we are and where we've been...finally, winter sets upon us, and I would like to think that in the end, peace and appreciation for a life well lived allows us to know we were truly a vintage batch of wine, and that our life was indeed a very good year. To sum up, I think the progression of capacity to understand life and its parallel to aging are what make this song truly amazing. We may enjoy life with more vigor in our younger years, but we are able to interpret and appreciate our lives more as we age. This song makes aging a beautiful thing...which most American culture does not. Bravo.
So few comments for one of the most universally beloved musicians? I though there would be so many.. I grew up on this song, and it's a song I make a tradition of listening to every birthday. Very bittersweet, with lots more sweet than bitter, I think.
I am going to say the same thing somebody said in the page for: In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida : " who thinks of the Simpsons when they hear this?" .
I feel there's a more sinister meaning to this song than some people are perceiving. The singer is a user of women, who views each woman as a glass of wine, rather than viewing them as potential partners with whom to build relationship and a life.
He starts out in a small town at 17, enticing girls to move away from the lights of the village green, during the night. Presumably to kiss them and do some mild groping. Pretty innocuous. But then...
We next hear from him when he's 21 and living in a city. He's left the small town and small town girls behind. He views the city girls as more attractive/sexy than the small town ones (city girls are "perfumed") and their hair comes undone for him. To me this is implying that their clothes also came undone, and he had sex with them. Without actually establishing much of a relationship or making plans with any of them.
Fast forward to age 35 (a big jump of 14 years), and he's pursuing "blueblooded girls". Which means daughters from wealthy families, perhaps even wealthy women older than he is who are widowed or divorced. Regardless of their age, they are of "independent means" and "their" chauffeurs drive the couple in limousines (not "his" chauffeur or limousine).
So at this point, he's left behind not only the small town girls he kissed near the village green, but also the perfumed city girls he had sex with - because at age 35 he only wants women with money. But he doesn't marry any of them, he's just using them to live the high life while they are dating, then moving on to the next one.
Now today in 2023, a 35 year old man who has never been married, might hope and plan for marriage and a family. But when this song was written (1961), 35 was getting pretty old to not even consider marriage and starting a family. And based on the lyrics, the guy never does settle on one woman or a serious life. He also doesn't seem to have much of a career, as he's counting on rich women to take him to dinner even when he's 35.
So he looks back from "now" and states that he's really happy with his choices in life. But is he, or is that supposed to show us that he never "gets it" and is just a user of women, satisfied that this has been the right thing to do, and not wanting any more out of life.
I don't know whether the songwriter intended this interpretation or not, but it's in the lyrics. I first heard the Frank Sinatra version, and it's beautifully sung, without a hint of irony. Also, Frank Sinatra was 50 years old and had been married twice and had 3 children when he recorded the song (1965); we might confuse the narrator of the song with Frank himself, but it's not about him.
More recently in hearing the version by The Turtles, it dawned on me that the narrator does not exactly have his life together. The Turtles version becomes somewhat frantic near the end, as if the guy realizes he's wasted most of his life. Possibly that's just due to Howard Kaylan's voice, as he often sounded sarcastic and/or sinister in his delivery (great singer though). Either way, it made me realize that these lyrics might be darker than many people think they are. If intentional, it's pretty brilliant that way, especially since the singer doesn't realize what he's missed in life, he thinks it was just about sampling the best "wine" (i.e. using women, then moving on to the next one to use).