"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.
Prelude:
And the best thing about what you see here, is that everything works with everything else.
In other words, it's a system. With a system it's no big deal to use. Look. With any
computer you have to learn a few new things. See, it's testing itself.
[Chorus]
MC Chris ownz
I wanna go to an MC Chris show
but he dosen't tour so in the meantime
I'm gonna memorize all of his lines
[Repeat 1x]
I spell word with a three, name's MC
Other rappers flow weak like window unit A/Cs
Latinas on my penis, Japanese on they knees
I love all the ladies as long as they 18
I got bling up the ying, a plethora of Porsches
I'll say anything cause my mouth is remorseless
Even the Source says my hip hop's a vortex,
Leave horse heads on door steps, my mic checks cost Corvettes
The strobe light explodes white as I step on the floor
The bar keep knows the code so he throws me a Stroh's
Weak MCs decompose, 'cause they know I can flow
Like Wessel comma Zam through Corruscant corridors
Humidor filled with Stoges, filled with 'dro
Like 90210 it's filled with the word "bro"
Fuck the lexicon of octagons, I'm all about go
These amateurs got catheters I'm all about prose by pros
[Chorus]
I'm lit like a Branch Davidian
I'm what's left of the lithium in Cobain's cranium
I fill Whimbley Stadium
I'm once-bitten, twice-shy call it pyromania
When I roll up in Kashykk, I roll three Jedis deep
The fleet of peeps that I creep all got vests underneath
There's no need to beleive, in the heat that I keep
The squares that I [bleep], or the heiresses I freak
It's embarrassing to me, I'm like kerosene it seems
Or D-R-E-W-B with incendiary schemes,
Blowin' up makin' cream, I am just like Howard Dean
When I scream I get red, I get mean
Can't believe you be buyin' what I be shuckin' and jivin'
Fuck it if I am the next big thing with promotional tie-ins
I am just a cartoon-making rapper, you think that I'm lying
Everyone bust a move like it is a rave in Zion
My self-aggrandizing and deprecation keeps 'em guessing
Call me venus fly trap 'cause my DJ's Howard Hessman
Word 'em up yo, word 'em up yo
I just let the rap game out of a choke hold.
[Chorus]
And the best thing about what you see here, is that everything works with everything else.
In other words, it's a system. With a system it's no big deal to use. Look. With any
computer you have to learn a few new things. See, it's testing itself.
[Chorus]
MC Chris ownz
I wanna go to an MC Chris show
but he dosen't tour so in the meantime
I'm gonna memorize all of his lines
[Repeat 1x]
I spell word with a three, name's MC
Other rappers flow weak like window unit A/Cs
Latinas on my penis, Japanese on they knees
I love all the ladies as long as they 18
I got bling up the ying, a plethora of Porsches
I'll say anything cause my mouth is remorseless
Even the Source says my hip hop's a vortex,
Leave horse heads on door steps, my mic checks cost Corvettes
The strobe light explodes white as I step on the floor
The bar keep knows the code so he throws me a Stroh's
Weak MCs decompose, 'cause they know I can flow
Like Wessel comma Zam through Corruscant corridors
Humidor filled with Stoges, filled with 'dro
Like 90210 it's filled with the word "bro"
Fuck the lexicon of octagons, I'm all about go
These amateurs got catheters I'm all about prose by pros
[Chorus]
I'm lit like a Branch Davidian
I'm what's left of the lithium in Cobain's cranium
I fill Whimbley Stadium
I'm once-bitten, twice-shy call it pyromania
When I roll up in Kashykk, I roll three Jedis deep
The fleet of peeps that I creep all got vests underneath
There's no need to beleive, in the heat that I keep
The squares that I [bleep], or the heiresses I freak
It's embarrassing to me, I'm like kerosene it seems
Or D-R-E-W-B with incendiary schemes,
Blowin' up makin' cream, I am just like Howard Dean
When I scream I get red, I get mean
Can't believe you be buyin' what I be shuckin' and jivin'
Fuck it if I am the next big thing with promotional tie-ins
I am just a cartoon-making rapper, you think that I'm lying
Everyone bust a move like it is a rave in Zion
My self-aggrandizing and deprecation keeps 'em guessing
Call me venus fly trap 'cause my DJ's Howard Hessman
Word 'em up yo, word 'em up yo
I just let the rap game out of a choke hold.
[Chorus]
Lyrics submitted by tsigo
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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."
Gentle Hour
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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.
Page
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
I made most of your changes. Thanks for all those Star Wars references, I never would have picked them up in a million years.
"Fuck the lexicon of octagons, I'm all about go" - I left mine the same, since Google turned up nothing for "lexicon of octagons" and all of Chris' other references were real things.
And what exactly is "Drewb"?