"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.
[sex noises]
(food clothes medicine)
Heh. So y'all know it's nearly a hundred and ten degrees in this fuckin' vulgar room domain.
Got the motherfuckin face paint on, lets go.
(food clothes medicine)
(food clothes medicine)
(fuck me)
Two shoes chewed up, colluded with the fueds rogue veterans
food clothes medicine
Weilding out the smokestack factory trained to capture in the zoo's ghost predators
food clothes medicine
I think I'd funk a bunk colony to possibly amuse grown delegates
food clothes medicine
Peace, the whippersnapper generation greet 'em with a full-blown pistol pull
food clothes medicinal variety
for every plastic orange bottle
for tarnished pharmacy labels chafed in abrasive pockets
suit the hellhounds with blades and chainlinks
for the dead walk a little less clumsy than you think
hunger pains chump change
tell it to how his belly get when booji hopes hellions
food clothes medicine
alumni bum i got the skin of my teeth between my fingertip and stellar
lets bet it melts together
let's get these men some shelter
three hops on a cot with quaaludes on a pillowcase left on an ultimately cordial gesture
by the staff it's a bathhouse for brave soldiers
where they coordinate the fornicating whores in maid's clothing
sip a hot mug of kick a chump up to the apple box
frankie says "relax", twenty says he snaps
safe wager,
hell ninety percent sensitive jubilee never return to brag about that fish bigger than you and me
Walk on glass, cruise closed residence
bang on doors, food clothes medicine
united we stand 'til all our parties click
I divide and conquer 'cuz frankly I'd rather sit
These are them rat races,
machine a man sprocket of fat laces
Hatchback and flashbacks from a heyday full of bad lasers
now major ace route the following orders to all his crews, clones, generals
food clothes medicine
walk on glass, bang on doors,
talk all trash, hang on whores,
hock all cash, bank on wars like
(food clothes medicine)
it's yours (x4)
(food clothes medicine)
(*moans* fuck my pussy hard *moans*)
We rotate protocol on a ring finger neighbor to peruse gross negligence
food clothes medicine
martyrs leak faster if the carver tweaks the dagger ninety moves choke citizens
food clothes medicine
well yeah pull frickin's apple you've sapped this commitment's castle cool dope excellent
food clothes medicine
it's tough to legislate when scum tongue down a dinner plate of booze coke heroin
...
I'll bite the hand that feeds chew the steak and spit the knuckles back
stitch 'em up and give 'em dap before his brothers rubberneck
Iron chef like a wainia christen kitchen stadium
with chicken and mashed serotonin driftin' into gravydom
Save me some, scallywags hold your breath
Their curmudgeon's gun dusty like the road to death
ya I could pinstripe my lizard kisser no killswitch
just a guilty gizzard with a recommended pill slip
I wipe placenta off my face in the height of the disco era
groove through liquid bubblegum, fevered death, and christmas sweaters
groove through saccharin, fast food, study hall, and cliffnotes benders
now holds a bachelors in training ninjas to tiptoe better
These are them sham city kidney kicks to the loose bolts belly-ache
tailored for clans who stand iffy on food clothes medicate
Pollywog hog a spot lit with bigger lizards in a land of hot milk and honey with stingers in it
Zinger
Jimmy the gist up check a tip cup mothers watch your babies near the preachers keen on fist fucks
keep your schnoz clean ears open choppers zipped up
food clothes medicine 'cuz hungry naked sick sucks
Collide your worker ants with autobahn inertia dance and curb them herped love bugs by the cursed final curtain clamp
Another savior with his foot cold stuck in his mouth I play that who knows food clothes fuck it amount
walk on glass, bang on doors,
talk all trash, hang on whores,
hock all cash, bank on wars like
(food clothes medicine)
it's yours (x4)
(food clothes medicine)
(food clothes medicine)
Heh. So y'all know it's nearly a hundred and ten degrees in this fuckin' vulgar room domain.
Got the motherfuckin face paint on, lets go.
(food clothes medicine)
(food clothes medicine)
(fuck me)
Two shoes chewed up, colluded with the fueds rogue veterans
food clothes medicine
Weilding out the smokestack factory trained to capture in the zoo's ghost predators
food clothes medicine
I think I'd funk a bunk colony to possibly amuse grown delegates
food clothes medicine
Peace, the whippersnapper generation greet 'em with a full-blown pistol pull
food clothes medicinal variety
for every plastic orange bottle
for tarnished pharmacy labels chafed in abrasive pockets
suit the hellhounds with blades and chainlinks
for the dead walk a little less clumsy than you think
hunger pains chump change
tell it to how his belly get when booji hopes hellions
food clothes medicine
alumni bum i got the skin of my teeth between my fingertip and stellar
lets bet it melts together
let's get these men some shelter
three hops on a cot with quaaludes on a pillowcase left on an ultimately cordial gesture
by the staff it's a bathhouse for brave soldiers
where they coordinate the fornicating whores in maid's clothing
sip a hot mug of kick a chump up to the apple box
frankie says "relax", twenty says he snaps
safe wager,
hell ninety percent sensitive jubilee never return to brag about that fish bigger than you and me
Walk on glass, cruise closed residence
bang on doors, food clothes medicine
united we stand 'til all our parties click
I divide and conquer 'cuz frankly I'd rather sit
These are them rat races,
machine a man sprocket of fat laces
Hatchback and flashbacks from a heyday full of bad lasers
now major ace route the following orders to all his crews, clones, generals
food clothes medicine
walk on glass, bang on doors,
talk all trash, hang on whores,
hock all cash, bank on wars like
(food clothes medicine)
it's yours (x4)
(food clothes medicine)
(*moans* fuck my pussy hard *moans*)
We rotate protocol on a ring finger neighbor to peruse gross negligence
food clothes medicine
martyrs leak faster if the carver tweaks the dagger ninety moves choke citizens
food clothes medicine
well yeah pull frickin's apple you've sapped this commitment's castle cool dope excellent
food clothes medicine
it's tough to legislate when scum tongue down a dinner plate of booze coke heroin
...
I'll bite the hand that feeds chew the steak and spit the knuckles back
stitch 'em up and give 'em dap before his brothers rubberneck
Iron chef like a wainia christen kitchen stadium
with chicken and mashed serotonin driftin' into gravydom
Save me some, scallywags hold your breath
Their curmudgeon's gun dusty like the road to death
ya I could pinstripe my lizard kisser no killswitch
just a guilty gizzard with a recommended pill slip
I wipe placenta off my face in the height of the disco era
groove through liquid bubblegum, fevered death, and christmas sweaters
groove through saccharin, fast food, study hall, and cliffnotes benders
now holds a bachelors in training ninjas to tiptoe better
These are them sham city kidney kicks to the loose bolts belly-ache
tailored for clans who stand iffy on food clothes medicate
Pollywog hog a spot lit with bigger lizards in a land of hot milk and honey with stingers in it
Zinger
Jimmy the gist up check a tip cup mothers watch your babies near the preachers keen on fist fucks
keep your schnoz clean ears open choppers zipped up
food clothes medicine 'cuz hungry naked sick sucks
Collide your worker ants with autobahn inertia dance and curb them herped love bugs by the cursed final curtain clamp
Another savior with his foot cold stuck in his mouth I play that who knows food clothes fuck it amount
walk on glass, bang on doors,
talk all trash, hang on whores,
hock all cash, bank on wars like
(food clothes medicine)
it's yours (x4)
(food clothes medicine)
Lyrics submitted by Graft
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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Little Feat
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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”
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.
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
cuz hungry naked sick sucks