"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.
Doctor, what is happening to me?
Palpitations, my mind's diseased
Even my vision is impaired
I'm losing my hair
'Coz when I hold her in my arms
I feel like Fred Astaire
Lovesick, my temperature's high
Just met a girl who believes we can fly
I'm a bull, not a bear
I'm a millionaire
'Coz when I hold her in my arms
I feel like Fred Astaire
I believe in happiness
I believe in Love
I believe she fell to earth
From somewhere high above
I believe in Hollywood
Don't believe that love must bring despair
'Coz when I hold her in my arms
I feel like Fred Astaire
He said love is just a disease
A plague for the naïve
These days no one believes
Meteors may strike the earth
Nations live and die
I'm the boy who got the girl
And now we're gonna fly
We can cross the race divide
Bridge a gap that wasn't really there
'Coz when I hold her in my arms, I feel like Fred Astaire
I'm gonna hold her in my arms, just like Fred Astaire
I'm gonna hold her in this charm, like Fred Astaire
Like Fred Astaire
Like Fred Astaire
Palpitations, my mind's diseased
Even my vision is impaired
I'm losing my hair
'Coz when I hold her in my arms
I feel like Fred Astaire
Lovesick, my temperature's high
Just met a girl who believes we can fly
I'm a bull, not a bear
I'm a millionaire
'Coz when I hold her in my arms
I feel like Fred Astaire
I believe in happiness
I believe in Love
I believe she fell to earth
From somewhere high above
I believe in Hollywood
Don't believe that love must bring despair
'Coz when I hold her in my arms
I feel like Fred Astaire
He said love is just a disease
A plague for the naïve
These days no one believes
Meteors may strike the earth
Nations live and die
I'm the boy who got the girl
And now we're gonna fly
We can cross the race divide
Bridge a gap that wasn't really there
'Coz when I hold her in my arms, I feel like Fred Astaire
I'm gonna hold her in my arms, just like Fred Astaire
I'm gonna hold her in this charm, like Fred Astaire
Like Fred Astaire
Like Fred Astaire
Lyrics submitted by Marco_V
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
I was just at a James concert and Tim Booth said the song was "an unabashed love song" and something about it being written on a rare happy day. Dedicated it to Kate "where ever she was".
I've heard this song is about how you feel when you fall in love with someone. It makes me think of the girl who i am falling for big time.
i`ve been looking for this song long long time ago.
It's a very sweet love song. A little unusual for James, but I think they get a kick out of being unpredictable.
Anyway, for those who don't know Fred Astaire was a dance, perhaps the best of the 20th century. Being with her makes him feel smooth, like Feed Astaire.
I also think most of the lines are sweet and somewhat amusing. Getting a temperature from being lovesick is, I think, very witty.
Kate is his wife. So it's sweet, but surely he should know where she is?
he means that he wrote this hoping that he would feel this way for someone, but before he met kate. Now he has met her he reaslises that this was for her.
I don't know what the lyrics are meant to mean, but to me they are about a very special person that I was fortunate to have a very, very brief and intimate relationship with.
That relationship lasted just 4 weeks but in my mind it has lasted for over a decade and a half, even more so as that person is now no longer with us as they were taken in Iraq.
My life goes on and the music of "James" remains as special to me today as it did back then.
R.I.P. Sweet Angel