"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.
Here I come again like the sun
The question on your thoughts' horizon
The quest is in learning theology
Pouring logic and opinion in me
One step closer
Everything comes back to you in time
One step closer
Some will find the answers
Some submit to aggression
From the dust of Adam's rib she hides
The muse in my tragic comedy of lies
Sharpened emotions imprison me
Stagnant revulsion for society
Come with me, sail the sea of possibilities
In liquid karma, I don't mean to alarm you
But the future is not written in stone
The question on your thoughts' horizon
The quest is in learning theology
Pouring logic and opinion in me
One step closer
Everything comes back to you in time
One step closer
Some will find the answers
Some submit to aggression
From the dust of Adam's rib she hides
The muse in my tragic comedy of lies
Sharpened emotions imprison me
Stagnant revulsion for society
Come with me, sail the sea of possibilities
In liquid karma, I don't mean to alarm you
But the future is not written in stone
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
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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.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
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Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Page
Ed Sheeran
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.
pjslash comes close to getting it right; this song is about the onus of free will. I could be wrong, but I'm actually pretty confident about this one. It's basically about how having free will is actually kind of disturbing in a way and that it puts us in a position to take responsibility for our actions.
The first verse is referring to how existential and philosophical bluster creeps up in our psyche on an almost daily basis, even if many of us prefer to ignore its calls. "Learning theology" refers to accepting the sort of free will stemming from the Bible, and the second verse makes this even clearer by mentioning Adam and implying Eve.
The chorus sets a sense of perspective – as each moment passes, we're "one step closer" to the end of our lives and this reality is unsettling. It's even more unsettling since we know that all of our previous actions have come to shape the world in a certain way and that after we have gone, our minute impact, as insignificant as it probably was, still lingers. "Some will find the answers..." refers to how some will become enlightened, accepting the truth of Dane's words and how others will succumb to the baser side of human existence and continue polluting the world, literally and figuratively.
The real clincher is in the part after the chorus. "I don't mean to alarm you, but the future is not written in stone." Pretty self-explanatory.
Another great song of Nevermore. I am glad to be the first one comments here. I believe that this song is about not existing fate. "the future is not written in stone" means that nothing is planned to happen in the future. What will be, depends on our decisions we come to make through life. We have plenty of possibilities, each one leads to a different result in the future. That is my opinion.Waiting yours too...!