"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.
Fun for an hour when the he's gone-
Can one trick nights feed 40 days?
In my bed at the break of dawn she
Shivered like a vein slashed bright and new-
She's got the radio active, it makes
me feel ok (I don't feel ok)
Grip- force the vials, strip the locks, smash
The set and slash the beds, and when it
Looks like a wife's ex-plot, we'll cover
All the rugs with cheap perfume
Like a docent's lisp
Like a damsel's spit
Like a dry gin's twist (of lime)
Like a poor droll sir
Like a poke's dull spurs
Like a pastor's flock (no church)
Can one trick nights feed 40 days?
In my bed at the break of dawn she
Shivered like a vein slashed bright and new-
She's got the radio active, it makes
me feel ok (I don't feel ok)
Grip- force the vials, strip the locks, smash
The set and slash the beds, and when it
Looks like a wife's ex-plot, we'll cover
All the rugs with cheap perfume
Like a docent's lisp
Like a damsel's spit
Like a dry gin's twist (of lime)
Like a poor droll sir
Like a poke's dull spurs
Like a pastor's flock (no church)
Lyrics submitted by boomerstyle, edited by cutlunch
Perfume-V Lyrics as written by Stephen Malkmus Scott Kannberg
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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."
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.
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
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.
This song may very well be about murdering a hooker.
I think you have to consider the song in the context of the whole album. Throughout the album, 'our singer' explains to us the death of a relationship; perhaps not a specific relationship but certainly the mental acceptance of a droll traditional relationship. If you've grappled with the mental anguish of ending a perfectly workable long-term relationship for the promise of charting a new course, you can probably relate to the whole of S&E on this level.
Some key indicators in this song include "She's got the radioactive" .. it makes me think that perhaps you don't need a wife at home for the regular unfulfilling sex when one night of dirty, passionate 'radioactive' sex (obviously in this case a prostitute, given the 'hour') could 'feed 40 days', taking care of the urge until next time. In some ways, perhaps there's some merit in prefering one night of passion-fueled sex to the regular (if you're lucky) boring familiar sex? The second verse conjures in my mind the destruction of that relationship and whenever you miss that ex-partner, you cover it up with cheap perfume and move on.
Another great song to sing while drunk, especially the end. Pavement does it again.
I love this song. It has a darker undercurrent then most pavement songs. Parts of it seem to be about some sense of guilt someone might feel after being with a nervous prostitute ("can a one trick night feed 40 days", the singer, I assume, being that nights trick). The image of her shivering like "a vein slashed bright and new" is particularly harrowing. I also get the sense of a bad acid trip, the vials metioned might contain LSD. Whatever it's about it sounds sinister and I love that. And your right devastator, it's also a good one to hammer out while your hammered.
This is one of my very favorite pavement songs.
great on 'slanted', great live. both 'she shivered like a vein slashed bright and new' and 'when it looks like a wife's ex-plot, we'll cover all the rugs in cheap perfume' are gaudy-bright romanticism in their weight and rhythm. fucking great lines, and then the way the guitars rise and hover at the end of those lines to lead us to the chorus is genius. magoo did an interesting version where they dropped the chorus into slow-mo...but nowhere near as good as the original.
I think it's about someone taking one last hit before they try to get the monkey off their back.
things make things be like things.
heroine or whatever affecting them. the radio affecting him. making some heroine getaway vacation something look like a wife's ex plot. the power of perfume to make things smell like things. the power of the word "lime" to suddenly change an image in your head.
a docent is a guide or a teacher
Like a poor old soul.
Not poor droll soul.
sir. <br /> <br /> not soul damn it.