"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.
Went to the corner of second and main
And there was someone there
Who mentioned that they hoped that it would rain forever, forever,
So they could drown in peace.
Went down to the hodskin p.l.
But there was nobody to answer
When I rang the doorbell forever, forever
So now I'm sad all the time.
Sick and sad again. Sometimes I'd like the rain to end. Sick and sad again. Sometimes I'd like to stand on my own two feet.
Today was the day
But she threw it all away
And I could never understand 'cause she was never one to play
By the rules of the game
Her and me we're so the same
I try so hard
And I never give in
And I am never satisifed until the day that I win
Agaisnt them
But I don't care I'll follow her to anywhere.
And there was someone there
Who mentioned that they hoped that it would rain forever, forever,
So they could drown in peace.
Went down to the hodskin p.l.
But there was nobody to answer
When I rang the doorbell forever, forever
So now I'm sad all the time.
Sick and sad again. Sometimes I'd like the rain to end. Sick and sad again. Sometimes I'd like to stand on my own two feet.
Today was the day
But she threw it all away
And I could never understand 'cause she was never one to play
By the rules of the game
Her and me we're so the same
I try so hard
And I never give in
And I am never satisifed until the day that I win
Agaisnt them
But I don't care I'll follow her to anywhere.
Lyrics submitted by KeasbyKnights, edited by NamaJeff
Sick and Sad Lyrics as written by
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
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,
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“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.
About a guy that goes to find a girl that he likes but she isn't there but he keeps trying and trying. He is in love with the girl and they were very much alike and he's not going to give up until she finds her because he wants the rain to end (as in he doesn't want to die) and he wants to stand and never give up.
Anyone else here catch the underlay at the end of the second verse? He throws in a line from Keasbey Nights at the same time as the last couple lines "But I don't care I'll follow her to anywhere" You can hear faintly "But I don't care I can fade away to anywhere don't stop cause you might get dropped" Thought that was interesting.
Ha! I knew I wasn't the only one in the world who heard that. I played the song over and over and over and over, trying to hear what he was saying. I was so happy when I figured it out, I called my friend who had originally introduced me to Streetlight. :)
It's also on the original, Catch 22 version.
Damn Mad Jeddai, you have good ears to hear that. I can only catch the very end when he says "you might get dropped". Good catch.
its the boys perspective from supernothing.
hahaha that is crazy cause i was listening to that today and i thought i heard that but i just thought i was hearing things but then i saw mad jeddai's comment and now i dont feel crazy hahaha
I slowed down the part with the fat singing in the back and I got this. "but i dont care i will go follow her to anywhere, don't stop 'cuz you might get dropped."
Want your mind blown? Go to youtube and watch some of the videos where he does this song acoustic then sings "the big sleep" and then "Somewhere in the between" Godly. The crowds are so amazing.
This song is about a girl he know who kills herself. If you follow along with the lyrics it makes perfect sense. it foreshadows death from the very beginning, mentioning "someone there who mentioned that they hoped that it would rain forever, forever, so they could drown in peace."
he hears this on the way to the girl's place, and when he gets there, ringing the doorbell "forever, forever" implies that he could literally ring it forever and she would never answer because she's gone and can't come back, and that's why now he's sad all the time.
"Today was the day but she threw it all away" this line is the differentiating point between the song being about suicide and just being about not having a girl. it doesnt fit with the latter. He can't understand why she did it because he saw them as similar people, trying so hard and never giving in. The difference is that ultimately, life got to her and she did give in.