"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.
There's a secret, stigma, reaping wheel
Diminish, a carnival of sorts
Chronic town, poster torn, reaping wheel
Stranger, stranger to these parts
Gentlemen don't get caught, cages under cage
Gentlemen don't get caught
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
There's a secret, stigma, reaping wheel
Diminish, a carnival of sorts
Chronic town, poster torn, reaping wheel
Stranger, stranger
Gentlemen don't get caught, cages under cage
Gentlemen don't get caught
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
Cages under, cages under, cages under cage
Cages under, cages under, cages under cage
Gentlemen don't get caught, cages under cage
Gentlemen don't get caught
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
There's a secret, stigma, reaping wheel
Stranger, stranger to these parts
Chronic town, poster torn, reaping wheel
Diminish, stranger
Gentlemen don't get caught, cages under cage
Gentlemen don't get caught
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
Boxcars are pulling, carnival of sorts
Out of town, out of town
Diminish, a carnival of sorts
Chronic town, poster torn, reaping wheel
Stranger, stranger to these parts
Gentlemen don't get caught, cages under cage
Gentlemen don't get caught
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
There's a secret, stigma, reaping wheel
Diminish, a carnival of sorts
Chronic town, poster torn, reaping wheel
Stranger, stranger
Gentlemen don't get caught, cages under cage
Gentlemen don't get caught
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
Cages under, cages under, cages under cage
Cages under, cages under, cages under cage
Gentlemen don't get caught, cages under cage
Gentlemen don't get caught
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
There's a secret, stigma, reaping wheel
Stranger, stranger to these parts
Chronic town, poster torn, reaping wheel
Diminish, stranger
Gentlemen don't get caught, cages under cage
Gentlemen don't get caught
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
Box cars are pulling out of town
Boxcars are pulling, carnival of sorts
Out of town, out of town
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Fast Car
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"'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."
When We Were Young
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Punchline
Ed Sheeran
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Ok, my take on this one is different from all of those, and it seems kind of bizarre, but it works for me. First of all, is it really "reaping wheel", and not "repeat reel"?
I think it's about a movie place, a dirty movie place. It's out of town, because "gentlemen don't get caught". You're going somewhere you won't get caught. "Cages under a cage" are viewing rooms within the larger building, little booths where you go in and view a "repeat reel". I mean, this isn't high-budget 70's stuff, I'm thinking the early days, when they were called "blue movies", and I imagine like a 5 minute clip, that's on loop.
"Secret stigma" is obvious, "poster torn" is just because the place is cheap and shoddy. "Stranger to these parts" is because the place is just in town for a while, and then moves on.
When it moves, we get to: "Boxcar is pulling a carnival of sorts out of town". The idea is that sometimes, the train brings in a carnival, and takes it away two weeks later. The singer wryly notes as the porn shop gets packed up and moved on, that it too is a carnival, of sorts.
I have no idea why he says "diminish".
I don't know if this is what anyone ever meant by this song, or if the scene I'm seeing is even realistic in this universe, but it's what I hear. I love R.E.M.; those guys have given us so much.
@GTony that's an interesting take you have on the lyrics [albeit completely off]. Michael said the lyrics for the first few lps were nonsensical, though I have an interview that's impossibly old where he states that 'Carnival' was made up of words on a poster [of which 'reaping wheel' was two]. The 'box cars' are explained as 'hobo transport'.
evil circus fucks up a town then moves on to the next
@rieve EXACTLY
@rieve Why don't you get your f-ing profanity out of my f-ing face you f-ing moron.
The Holocaust...think about it.
I think this is absolutely right.
@obvious1 "remember: KILL Hitler"
I thought a lot about the lyrics for this song for quite some time. So mysterious. It finally came to me one day when I was cutting the grass in the back yard,,,
The song is about hobo's. Vagrants, vagrancy.
"Gentlemen, don't get caught" don't get caught and thrown into the clink.
"Boxcars are moving (out of town)" obvious
"Stranger, stranger to these parts" Fellows not from 'round here.
"Reaping Reel" AKA falling off of the train and getting crunched by the train wheel. Reaping = dead. Reels are round like wheels. Reel = Wheel.
"Carnival of sorts" clans of hobo's are much like carnivals. Loose bands of gentlemen traveling about almost without aim. A carnival of sorts traveling place to place. Hobo's tend to be male.
Beyond this premise I think it has something to do with a close encounter with a vagrant. Maybe even sexual in nature.
Don't wade into the carnival backwaters or the sinister alligators will get ya!
City-folk you're in a dangerous part of town. This ain't no place for a gentleman to venture into.
dig the freaky calliope intro
@pumkinhed nonesuch
This is my favorite song from the Chronic Town EP. Great stuff.
freewebs.com/thejakesite
@Jakebert <br /> <br /> didn't seem to real
i always thought it was "turning out of town"
@clashcityrocker9 me too - and it's probably correct<br /> <br /> ps: 'try this trick at hand'
first, another rem song concerning trains (driver 8, high speed train) next, just a feeling of being left behind or trapped in an empty place (the carnival leaving, the torn carnival poster, being caged, dont get caught, boxcars leaving). other then that, i dunno, just a great song. always thought it was "repeat wheel", kinda bummed that its not cause its a cool play on words (wheels naturally repeating their positions)
i always think of a circus when i hear this song
@Zwinky1 because the intro uses a calliope used in fairground/circuses