"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.
pray for a new age
pray for information
i can hope, see
even if i don't believe
pray for a new state
pray for communication
i can hope, see
even if i don't believe
and
i believe
i think
i don't know
history will show
our progress is slow
when we win
we win in inches
the future deaf
so the few left
will need a fist
when no one will listen
know where we stand
know we pay the man
it's my flag
it's my flag
know i'm not kneeling
know what i'm feeling
my god above
or total lack of
but
i lack...
i think...
i don't know
my faith is barren
i don't believe the prayer
and it's not a sin
and it's not opinion
know i'm a man
know where i stand
in an affront
to god and country
pray for a new state
pray for assassination
i can hope, see?
even if i don't believe
and
i believe
i think
pray for information
i can hope, see
even if i don't believe
pray for a new state
pray for communication
i can hope, see
even if i don't believe
and
i believe
i think
i don't know
history will show
our progress is slow
when we win
we win in inches
the future deaf
so the few left
will need a fist
when no one will listen
know where we stand
know we pay the man
it's my flag
it's my flag
know i'm not kneeling
know what i'm feeling
my god above
or total lack of
but
i lack...
i think...
i don't know
my faith is barren
i don't believe the prayer
and it's not a sin
and it's not opinion
know i'm a man
know where i stand
in an affront
to god and country
pray for a new state
pray for assassination
i can hope, see?
even if i don't believe
and
i believe
i think
Lyrics submitted by sillymofo15
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Fast Car
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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,
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“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.
I think this song means to think for oneself in America. The song title suggests the relationship between church and state in America... And how we need to change the state? It's also got a pessimistic outlook on humans... " history will show our progress is slow when we win we win in inches"
This is one of the few songs they do that is pretty straightforward. They are asking for an end to the current political situation and suggesting it may be difficult to get out of.
"pray for a new state pray for assassination i can hope, see? "
That would help I guess.
I first paid attention to the lyrics on my last birthday, Nov. 4, 2004. As I was mulling over the early b-day present I'd been given two nights earlier, let's just say screaming along with these lyrics at the top of my lungs as i herded my car down the road was very cathartic.
Special note to the Secret Service, or anyone who might see this courtesy of Echelon or whatever else is out there:
I do not endorse any form of actual violence towards the US government or its officeholders ;)
Me neither. I guess their new album out in August is way more political than their first two.
I think its pretty clearly about his resentment that the government has a christian agenda.
When we win we win in inches.
HOLY CRAP. I rewind and play rewind and play that line. Intense.
It's my flag It's my flag
The government listens to me, I run the government, I am above the man, they can't control us if we don't allow ourselves to fall under the illusion that we are less powerful than the people we elect.
BAM.YES.
wow....it just amps me up. I wanna go protest shit and what not....