"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.
Day one has just begun and I'm burnt, broken, dazed and numb.
Beginnings feel more like ends, friends feel less and less like friends.
Shake, shake, shake, shake off another dumb mistake.
I'm stupider than you; you can see it in my face.
See it in my sloping brow and forehead?
I'm missing all the missives 'cause I’m stone dead.
We’re fuck ups and perverts; we're dickweeds and drunks, drowning in rivers chained into trunks.
this new work is awkward, I don't like the lines. I hate all the people with pinpointed eyes.
Fuck what we say and all that we do. I'm saving myself for something beautifully true.
Beginnings feel more like ends, friends feel less and less like friends.
Shake, shake, shake, shake off another dumb mistake.
I'm stupider than you; you can see it in my face.
See it in my sloping brow and forehead?
I'm missing all the missives 'cause I’m stone dead.
We’re fuck ups and perverts; we're dickweeds and drunks, drowning in rivers chained into trunks.
this new work is awkward, I don't like the lines. I hate all the people with pinpointed eyes.
Fuck what we say and all that we do. I'm saving myself for something beautifully true.
Lyrics submitted by Rock Duck #54
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
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”
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
Yeah, I added my first Lawrence Arms song that I got to know. This one's still one of the best ass-kicking punksongs I ever heard, so I thought it's worth being added to the list.
its about someone who is sick and tired of living the same life every day it gets repetitive, boring and depressing..so all he can do is hope for better/more exciting days to come
this is always going to be one of my favorite live songs by the lawrence arms. especially when they play it at the very beginning because it's gets the crowds blood pumping. such a great band, always a great shows.
This was the first Lawrence Arms song I ever heard.
The song to me is about how boring and repetitive life can become. The person is talking about how he feels himself detaching from friends. I feel like this song clearly represents the angry side of depression. Holding stuff in until you can't bear it anymore and just say, "Fuck what we say and all that we do".
I love the last line "I'm saving my self for something beautifully true," and the instrumental in the end because it gives off a kind of hopeful feeling. The character feels that he won't just give himself over to the drudgery of life and wants to be truly happy. Genuine happiness; not for the world to see but for himself.
Also, the title. Maybe it has no real meaning, but the thing that always comes to my mind are those monkey toys with the cymbals playing them over and over. A robot with a monkey head, dancing for everyone's enjoyment but getting tired and sad of not doing anything else.