"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.
I wanted to take you to prom in my ice cream truck
you made me feel twenty feet tall but I couldn't stand up
Was I just your car crash
a scribbled note in your ten year old journal
will you think of me when you're watching
your nbc sitcoms
or the sunday night movie
As long as you're happy
as long as you're happy
Now you are painted fingernails and tampons
and I am one feathered wing and one naked arm
Was I just your stunt man
a temporary stand-in for your Hollywood superman
will you think of me when you're writing
your annual christmas letters
an update of the family
As long as you're happy
as long as you're happy
You kiss so deep
I could taste you in my toes
now you're so far I wouldn't even know how to say hello
Was I just your car crash
a scribbled note in your ten year old journal
will you think of me when you're watching
your nbc sitcoms
or the sunday night movie
was I just your stunt man
a temporary stand-in for your Hollywood superman
will you think of me when you're writing your annual christmas letters
an update of the family
As long as you're happy
as long as you're happy.
you made me feel twenty feet tall but I couldn't stand up
Was I just your car crash
a scribbled note in your ten year old journal
will you think of me when you're watching
your nbc sitcoms
or the sunday night movie
As long as you're happy
as long as you're happy
Now you are painted fingernails and tampons
and I am one feathered wing and one naked arm
Was I just your stunt man
a temporary stand-in for your Hollywood superman
will you think of me when you're writing
your annual christmas letters
an update of the family
As long as you're happy
as long as you're happy
You kiss so deep
I could taste you in my toes
now you're so far I wouldn't even know how to say hello
Was I just your car crash
a scribbled note in your ten year old journal
will you think of me when you're watching
your nbc sitcoms
or the sunday night movie
was I just your stunt man
a temporary stand-in for your Hollywood superman
will you think of me when you're writing your annual christmas letters
an update of the family
As long as you're happy
as long as you're happy.
Lyrics submitted by thecuremusic
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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,
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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.
Plastic Bag
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“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.
this song makes me half really really sad, and half really really hopeful that somewhere there's a boy that cares that much for me.
this song seems to be about how you have relationships with people that at the time could mean so much to you but after you break up you wonder whether or not you'll even remember each other 10 or so years down the road
This song makes me think of a boy who's alone and never really got over the girl he fell hardest for, but she has moved on with her life and maybe is married now. He never really moved on after her. "Was I just your car crash a scribbled note in your ten year old journal will you think of me when you're watching your nbc sitcoms or the Sunday night movie" I think he thinks she may think he was just an accident to her, like a car crash, or maybe something insignificant from her past, just a scribble in her life. And he's hopeful that maybe when her mind wanders she'll think of him. My favorite lyrics are " was I just your stunt man a temporary stand-in for your Hollywood superman" How he thinks that he wasn't her real true love, that he was just a stand in for a more perfect person, but in the end all this doesn't matter because all he cares about is that she's happy.
when this album was written, he had recently divorced his wife, and his son died (note how it starts with breakfast with my shadow). When he wrote this song, he was probably really lonely, and still had feelings for his ex wife.
This song is one of the most powerful and beautiful things I have ever listened to. The lyrics are so simple, yet have so much meaning in them.