"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.
All these people drinking lover's spit
They sit around and clean their face with it
And they listen to teeth to learn how to quit
Tied to a night they never met
You know it's time
That we grow old and do some shit
I like it all that way, I like it all that way
All these people drinking lover's spit
Swallowing words while giving head
They listen to teeth to learn how to quit
Take some hands and get used to it
You know it's time
That we grow old and do some shit
I like it all that way, I like it all that way
I like it all that way
They sit around and clean their face with it
And they listen to teeth to learn how to quit
Tied to a night they never met
You know it's time
That we grow old and do some shit
I like it all that way, I like it all that way
All these people drinking lover's spit
Swallowing words while giving head
They listen to teeth to learn how to quit
Take some hands and get used to it
You know it's time
That we grow old and do some shit
I like it all that way, I like it all that way
I like it all that way
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Fast Car
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Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'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."
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No Surprises
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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.
I've read interviews on many occasions where Kevin Drew (who wrote the song) has sait it was a song he wrote fro his wife. All he said about the song was that it's basically about loving the one you're with (wanting to grow old with them) and not wasting time in pointless meaningless relationships. I was also at a live show and right before the first chords he said this "Love the one your with" His wife also appears in the lover's spit video on the BSS website
Yes, five years later, Kevin still says "Love the one you're with" after performing this song. This meaning is spot on :)
Thanks for posting this. I love when I get some insight on the artist's intentions and meanings. This just touched me sweetly. Thank you.
I don't know about that. I mean, sure the song is talking about giving head. But I get something a little deeper out of it. I think it's a cry out against meaningless love; there seems to be a desire for this Socratic ascension to find real love and real happiness. "It's time we grow old and do some shit." He's saying... let's quit fucking around and do soemthing that means something.
i completely agree with this. And as for the comments about this song being about a gay couple....even if this is true, there's no way of really proving it, and it doesn't matter. the message stays the same no matter the gender of the subjects....
fellatio and naivete, this is why I love this band.
this song is like the epiphany of realizing that you want more than just sex to connect with someone. One day you open your eyes to realize that you've been just experiencing physical closeness with another person for whatever reason.
Protection? Fear?
I think this song is beautiful and captures the reality of today. People have lost the ability to believe in love so they just fuck...and while this song is like an anthem to our generation...maybe its also telling us to want more. Its ok to want more. Its ok to want to experience emotional love and not just sex in order to connect with someone else.
And perhaps realize that while we hide our desire to actually love in fucking people we don't, we are holding ourselves back from truly loving ourselves and someone else so that we can have both: Sex and Love
I first heard this song in the movie Lie With Me ...great film.
the version of this on the Bee Hives ep is beautiful. such a great song.
andrew whiteman wrote Im Still Youre Fag, Kevin Drew wrote this song.
n439.., I wish it didn't bother you. We can all appreciate the work of homo/bisexual artists (Tori Amos, Freddie Mercury, kd lang, Broken Social Scene, even Dusty Springfield. It's about the love, not the bumsex.
As for the song, I saw it as feeling alienated by "all these people" (not the singer?), "drinking lover's spit" - is this disgust or simply a new way of looking at fellatio? "Clean their face with it" certainly seems to be disgust and incomprehension.
To be hones, it's yet another BSS song that I can't make head nor tail of.
Let me just say that this song introduced me to Broken Social Scene and I LOVE it.
But I heard that the song is about giving head but not wanting to and regreting it
"Swallowing words while giving head" Maybe you just want to say no but do it anyway
to me, this song is about all the people just trying to get laid, and falling for each other's bull. "lover's spit" are those sweet nothings a guy tells you to get into your pants and basically the lies and compliments exchanged during flirting. especially the "tied to the night they never met part", you never really met him, it was just sex.
Nice.
maybe its about..people who think love will solve all their problems? to the point where they ignore all problems just to trick themself into thinking its working.
im kind of guessing. anyone else have ideas?