"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.
Hey Jack it's me,
I don't mean to bother you but somethings been on my mind.
At the end of this road that climbs the horizon, will be reached in a matter of miles.
And when the wheels cease to spin, the walls and the fences will grow higher than redwood trees.
And I know your demise.
And I fear what will happen when the road fails to flow under me.
Oh Jack you see, I felt like your mirror with the wind ripping through my hair.
When the wheels ceased to spin and I incase my surroundings, I realized I hadn't gone anywhere.
When the problems I'd left with couches in alleys, where no one would ever claim.
And the hardest part was sifting through the pieces of the rain soaked and rotten remains when I got home.
I don't mean to bother you but somethings been on my mind.
At the end of this road that climbs the horizon, will be reached in a matter of miles.
And when the wheels cease to spin, the walls and the fences will grow higher than redwood trees.
And I know your demise.
And I fear what will happen when the road fails to flow under me.
Oh Jack you see, I felt like your mirror with the wind ripping through my hair.
When the wheels ceased to spin and I incase my surroundings, I realized I hadn't gone anywhere.
When the problems I'd left with couches in alleys, where no one would ever claim.
And the hardest part was sifting through the pieces of the rain soaked and rotten remains when I got home.
Lyrics submitted by marexvitalis
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Yo La Tengo
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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,
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
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This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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Blink-182
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Ed Sheeran
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.
Woah. This song is really cool, man. :) listen to it, and comment!! :D
I don't get what this song means.. .
It sounds like he is trying to get away from his problems. that no one will take claim of them and they just sit there never going away. That he goes and goes and he is afraid that he is not getting anywhere, that he is stuck and cannot escape. Jack? i guess thats who he is talking to. confiding to about what he is struggling with.
thats how i hear it. i like this song alot. just a guy who is stuck and asking for help.
I heard this for the first time the other day, and I've been listening to it all day today (the artist is Styrofoam, since that doesn't appear to be listed on here) and I'm a little lost on the lyrics.
I get the feeling that Jack is dead since the lyrics deal with some kind of a journey. The lines "I felt like your mirror," "what will happen when the road fails to flow under me" stood out in particular. It sounds to me like he's headed down the same road as Jack and is worried about what might happen to him, so he's asking Jack's advice.
Complete shot in the dark there.
Something I left out...he also refers to some kind of disaster at the end. Basically I think he's singing about mortality.
I've heard that the "Jack" he's referring to is Jack Kerouac, famous "On The Road" author who has a penchant for wanting to see the world/get away. When he wants to leave his problems like couches in alleys (fantastic visual image by the way) he feels like Kerouac's "mirror". The rest of the song seems rather self-explanatory.
he once said in an interview that his favorite book was On The Road by Jack Kerouac. Ben Gibbard is a beat-nic to the bone.
Yes, it is about Kerouac. Anyone who has read On the Road would pick up on the refrences easily.
the previous posters are correct, ben is talking to kerouac in the song. it's summed up in the line 'i fear what will happen when the road fails to flow under me', in other words, what happens when ben reaches the end of the road, and his endless search of self-discovery and search of a home actually ends?
but that's when he realizes that 'he hasn't gone anywhere', and that any journey along a road he thought he took was mostly for naught, because all the problems he had sought to leave behind by going down this road in the first place are 'couches in alleys' that he's simply got to deal with once he gets home, only now they're 'rainsoaked and rotted'.
so there's an obnoxious line-by-line translation of an extremely depressing but wonderful song.
wow, i really like when artists write about books. it becomes really personal, when you've actually read the book yourself too. I should probably pick this "on the road" up.