"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.
Yeah,
It’s so hard to remain authentic
Everything around me is changing,
Even the earth is moving in 2 different places in outer space
But..
One thing remains the same..
till the end of time
I think I’ll remain,
I think I’ll just stay…
A B-Boy standin in my B-Boy stance (x8)
From the top of the highest summit, again we run it.
A hundred and forty four shimmering lights stunnin
to quick for the human eye to catch a glimpse
You know pimps cannot convince with bigger attempts of emcee’in,
blowing word to the wind,
While we conscend to limit the sins and pretend
We’re still human, when if fact were only half, the other path extends infinity do the math
I try to laugh, but they pull me down like crabs in a bucket
With hands in my pocket, I don’t really laugh
Heaven only knows, the ???? keeps invading the flows that turns black pros
To white foes… Your just supposin have you heard my words moving at light speed and getting blurred. It’s all so incredible decibles at glance standing in a b-stance
This one leads the way…
Now cut it up, cut it up back to back, on the wheels of steel, cut it up back to back
Elevate, Meditate, eliminate-thoughts from my past keep knocking upon my gate
Shouldn’t let em in, the answers not to debate
But to observe the debating and then we can understate
Yo party people listen up at the drop of dime,
They took cameras to africa for pictures to rhyme
Over old.. yes, the great pretenders
Religeous entertainers who want to be life savers
Damn.. another dollar for the mind, another cold ??? hoping
They can’t find, they can’t copy or get pictures with no lines,
I guess it’s just a case of the blind leading the blind
But, I’m flippin and steppin and rockin the roll, take the control
Payin my tolls, whose in control?
I’m playin a roll so people will remember that
I’m just a servent of rap, hopin to bring it back
It’s so hard to remain authentic
Everything around me is changing,
Even the earth is moving in 2 different places in outer space
But..
One thing remains the same..
till the end of time
I think I’ll remain,
I think I’ll just stay…
A B-Boy standin in my B-Boy stance (x8)
From the top of the highest summit, again we run it.
A hundred and forty four shimmering lights stunnin
to quick for the human eye to catch a glimpse
You know pimps cannot convince with bigger attempts of emcee’in,
blowing word to the wind,
While we conscend to limit the sins and pretend
We’re still human, when if fact were only half, the other path extends infinity do the math
I try to laugh, but they pull me down like crabs in a bucket
With hands in my pocket, I don’t really laugh
Heaven only knows, the ???? keeps invading the flows that turns black pros
To white foes… Your just supposin have you heard my words moving at light speed and getting blurred. It’s all so incredible decibles at glance standing in a b-stance
This one leads the way…
Now cut it up, cut it up back to back, on the wheels of steel, cut it up back to back
Elevate, Meditate, eliminate-thoughts from my past keep knocking upon my gate
Shouldn’t let em in, the answers not to debate
But to observe the debating and then we can understate
Yo party people listen up at the drop of dime,
They took cameras to africa for pictures to rhyme
Over old.. yes, the great pretenders
Religeous entertainers who want to be life savers
Damn.. another dollar for the mind, another cold ??? hoping
They can’t find, they can’t copy or get pictures with no lines,
I guess it’s just a case of the blind leading the blind
But, I’m flippin and steppin and rockin the roll, take the control
Payin my tolls, whose in control?
I’m playin a roll so people will remember that
I’m just a servent of rap, hopin to bring it back
Lyrics submitted by Polish91
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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”
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.
Magical
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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.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
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“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
the line busting on k'naan is unecessary. joyful rebellion gets annoying after awhile just cuz of all the insults. atlantis is much better.