"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.
'Love, just don't stare'
He used to say to me
Every Sunday morning
The spider in the window
The angel in the pool
The old man takes the poison
Now the widow makes the rules
'So speak, I'm right here'
She used to say to me
Not a word, not a word
Judas on the ceiling
The devil in my bed
I guess Easter's never coming
So I'll just wait inside my head
Like a scream but sort of silent
Living out my nightmares
Voices repeating me
'Feeling threatened?
We reflect your hopes and fears.'
Voices discussing me
'Others steal your thoughts
They're not confined
Within your mind.'
Thought disorder
Dream control
Now they read my mind on the radio
But where was the Garden of Eden?
I feel elated
I feel depressed
Sex is death, Death is sex
Says it right here on my Crucifix
Like a scream but sort of silent
Living out my nightmares
Voices protecting me
'Good behavior
Brings the Savior
To his knees.'
Voices rejecting me
'Others steal your thoughts
They're not confined
To your own mind.'
"I don't want to be here, 'cause of my
Suffering, 'cause of my illness.
Only love is worth having, only
Love is what matters, loving every
People on equal terms. "
"You've got to know who you're
Dealin' with because, like a stranger,
A-heh, just might come in through
Here with a gun... and then, what
Would you do? (Heh.)"
"Everything is immaterial"
"'n' you know that reality is immaterial."
"This is not reality"
I'm kneeling on the floor
Staring at the wall
Like the spider in the window
I wish that I could speak
Is there fantasy in refuge?
God in politicians?
Should I turn on my religion?
These demons in my head tell me to
I'm lying here in bed
Swear my skin is inside out
Just another Sunday morning
Seen my diary on the newsstand
Seems we've lost the truth to quicksand
It's a shame no one is praying
'Cause these voices in my head
Keep saying
'Love, just don't stare.'
'Reveal the Word when you're
Supposed to'
Withdrawn and introverted
Infectiously perverted
'Being laughed at and confused
Keeps us pleasantly amused
Enough to stay.'
Maybe I'm just Cassandra fleeting
Twentieth century Icon bleeding
Willing to risk Salvation
To escape from isolation
I'm witness to redemption
Heard you speak but never listened
Can you rid me of my secrets?
Deliver us from Darkness?
Voices repeating me
'Feeling threatened?
We reflect your hopes and fears.'
Voices discussing me
Don't expect your own Messiah
This never world which you desire
Is only in your mind.
He used to say to me
Every Sunday morning
The spider in the window
The angel in the pool
The old man takes the poison
Now the widow makes the rules
'So speak, I'm right here'
She used to say to me
Not a word, not a word
Judas on the ceiling
The devil in my bed
I guess Easter's never coming
So I'll just wait inside my head
Like a scream but sort of silent
Living out my nightmares
Voices repeating me
'Feeling threatened?
We reflect your hopes and fears.'
Voices discussing me
'Others steal your thoughts
They're not confined
Within your mind.'
Thought disorder
Dream control
Now they read my mind on the radio
But where was the Garden of Eden?
I feel elated
I feel depressed
Sex is death, Death is sex
Says it right here on my Crucifix
Like a scream but sort of silent
Living out my nightmares
Voices protecting me
'Good behavior
Brings the Savior
To his knees.'
Voices rejecting me
'Others steal your thoughts
They're not confined
To your own mind.'
"I don't want to be here, 'cause of my
Suffering, 'cause of my illness.
Only love is worth having, only
Love is what matters, loving every
People on equal terms. "
"You've got to know who you're
Dealin' with because, like a stranger,
A-heh, just might come in through
Here with a gun... and then, what
Would you do? (Heh.)"
"Everything is immaterial"
"'n' you know that reality is immaterial."
"This is not reality"
I'm kneeling on the floor
Staring at the wall
Like the spider in the window
I wish that I could speak
Is there fantasy in refuge?
God in politicians?
Should I turn on my religion?
These demons in my head tell me to
I'm lying here in bed
Swear my skin is inside out
Just another Sunday morning
Seen my diary on the newsstand
Seems we've lost the truth to quicksand
It's a shame no one is praying
'Cause these voices in my head
Keep saying
'Love, just don't stare.'
'Reveal the Word when you're
Supposed to'
Withdrawn and introverted
Infectiously perverted
'Being laughed at and confused
Keeps us pleasantly amused
Enough to stay.'
Maybe I'm just Cassandra fleeting
Twentieth century Icon bleeding
Willing to risk Salvation
To escape from isolation
I'm witness to redemption
Heard you speak but never listened
Can you rid me of my secrets?
Deliver us from Darkness?
Voices repeating me
'Feeling threatened?
We reflect your hopes and fears.'
Voices discussing me
Don't expect your own Messiah
This never world which you desire
Is only in your mind.
Lyrics submitted by Thunderbolt, edited by boomgorilla
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Little Feat
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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”
When We Were Young
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No Surprises
Radiohead
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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.
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How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
What an amazing song, especially musically