"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.
Our house wrapped in disrepairs
A small mouse peeked out from a hole beneath the stairs
nearby to where my dad sat in his favorite chair,
thinking about the government and, muttering a prayer.
So I scattered some oats in hope she'd stay
Then sat still to stop from scaring her away
but she hurried on her little way,
scurried around my mind ever since, every day
Open wide, my door,
My Lord, my Lord.
Open wide, my door,
to whatever makes me love you more.
Open wide, my door,
while there's still light to run towards
Open wide, my door
Like water on the drywood
equal parts misguided and misunderstood
But all the neighborhood
watched the fire burn from where they stood
as the smoke said,
"We're not half as bad as God is good."
Still there's a whisper in my ear,
the voice of loneliness and fear
And I say, "Devil, disappear!"
I'm still technically a virgin after 27 years,
which never bothered me before,
what's maybe fifty more?
Open wide, my door,
My Lord, my Lord.
Open wide, my door,
to whatever makes me love you more.
Open wide, my door,
while there's still light to run towards
Open wide, my door
She came back for the oat,
but she brought along a "friend"
It never ends, it never ends
The harder the rain
the lower those flowers in the garden bend
It never ends, it never ends
I'd rather never talk again
than to continue to pretend this never ends
It never ends, it never ends
It never ends, it never ends
A small mouse peeked out from a hole beneath the stairs
nearby to where my dad sat in his favorite chair,
thinking about the government and, muttering a prayer.
So I scattered some oats in hope she'd stay
Then sat still to stop from scaring her away
but she hurried on her little way,
scurried around my mind ever since, every day
Open wide, my door,
My Lord, my Lord.
Open wide, my door,
to whatever makes me love you more.
Open wide, my door,
while there's still light to run towards
Open wide, my door
Like water on the drywood
equal parts misguided and misunderstood
But all the neighborhood
watched the fire burn from where they stood
as the smoke said,
"We're not half as bad as God is good."
Still there's a whisper in my ear,
the voice of loneliness and fear
And I say, "Devil, disappear!"
I'm still technically a virgin after 27 years,
which never bothered me before,
what's maybe fifty more?
Open wide, my door,
My Lord, my Lord.
Open wide, my door,
to whatever makes me love you more.
Open wide, my door,
while there's still light to run towards
Open wide, my door
She came back for the oat,
but she brought along a "friend"
It never ends, it never ends
The harder the rain
the lower those flowers in the garden bend
It never ends, it never ends
I'd rather never talk again
than to continue to pretend this never ends
It never ends, it never ends
It never ends, it never ends
Lyrics submitted by andreaaaa
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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.
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those who like the horns can thank anathallo. they're amazing .
Oh man. This is such a good song. I love the images one gets from the first verse.
Sounds more like a bout with temptation. The whole thing is an extended metaphor The house although shakey was a house of God ("muttering a prayer"). This represents his faith in God.
He met a girl. She was likely a poor influence, judging from the state of his faith in her presence(disrepair). He laid the foundation of this relationship in the traditional Christian way (the oats), but she wanted more, sinful behavior (judging from this song, sex out of wedlock) and she left him. This left him very troubled, and he couldn't stop thinking of her.
He figures why would God want him to lose the girl and feel such pain so the house of God burns down, i.e. he loses faith. The Devil whispers if he succumbs to temptation and gives up God it won't be half as bad as losing the girl.
The girl comes back as a test, she comes back as though she was interested in him because of the original thing they had(the oats), but she brought along "a Friend", this could be any number of things, Lust, sinful ways, impurity etc. i.e. she probably wanted to have sex, and wanted to in the first place.
He doesn't give up his faith. He learns from this situation that there will always be people like this in his life and there will always be tempatation to overcome, "it never ends"
The whole album appears to be a series of tests of faith, this one being temptation of Lust.
P.S. I love how delicatly he writes about this subject, very subtle innuendo but never vulgar in the least.
"the harder the rain the lower the flowers in the garden bed"
She has been "rained on", deflowered, apparently very hard, that it has lowered her from God's grace, a flower weighed down so much by the "rain" that it perhaps can't even see the light of God anymore it is so low in the garden. It is proabbly this presence that is "the friend" she brought. Beautiful.
you make some great observations but I feel the true meaning of the song is far more simpler than that. During a live show I once saw Aaron said the song was about his parents. I understand Aaron may have several meanings to what he writes but I think he was really just thinking of his home life and growing up as a kid literally playing with animals around the house. If we are to make any more connections I'd say yes this song is about relationships in his life and the fact that he's had to rely on God to help him with the failures in his life even way back when he tried to make friends with the tiny mouse. He scattered some oats in hope she'd stay but the scurried on her way and he hasn't forgot about that. The bit about the water on dry wood I think refers to his ambitions with women that sometimes we may lust so much like dry wood does for water that we make mistakes and things become misunderstood. However if there really was a fire he watched as a child or not I think the metaphor suggests that we ought to forget about our mistakes because God is so good that it doesn't matter what we've done. He tan refers to hearing the devil in his ear which in my opinion simply means he thinks the devil in this case is self-doubt. He's trying to say there's still a part of him that knows his imperfections and he doesn't want to become too self conscious about still being a virgin. You may be right with the connection between his ex girlfriend and the possible metaphor of the mouse but if we look at it literally in connection with what I've been able to see, I'd make the connection that he's trying to say that even if others in our life move on i.e. his ex girlfriend, than we can't keep crying about it, we have to recognize that it's a part of life and you'll run into sadness everywhere you go.
"Our house racked with disrepair" "Then sat still to stop from scraring her away"
"Like water on the driveway" "What's maybe 50 more?"
i am pretty sure it's "devil disappear!"
This song is great!
It's "nearby where my dad sat in his favorite chair".
it's "Nearby FROM WHERE my dad sat in his favorite chair."
"She came after You, but she brought all of her friends Hark the rain that lowers the flowers in the garden bed I'd rather never talk again then to pretand this never ends."
the Garden appears to be a recurring theme on this album.