"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.
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Son Şansın - Şarkı Sözleri
Hayalperest
Hayalperest
This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
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.
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.
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.
Henley's "Heart of the Matter" was the song that I always carried with me in my head to accept the lost love of my life twenty years ago. That was until she looked me up last year and I found out things were not what I had always thought. She had always regretted losing me, we began talking again, and then she confessed that she still loved me, more today than back then. I played that song again, and the rest of Henley's Greatest Hits, and suddenly I came upon "Boys of Summer", a song I had heard many times, and always thought of it as a good song of reminiscing of lost youth. Now I see the real genius of the song.
He sings of his lost love for most of the song, he's gonna get her back, he's gonna show her what he's made of. There's going to be a happy ending. Then the bridge leads to the classic line:
Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac Little voice inside my head said don't look back, you can never look back Though I knew what love was, what did I know? Those days are gone forever, I should just let em go
A lot has been made of the reference to the irony of a non-conformist Deadhead driving a Cadillac, which deserves some merit. But for me, it's the next lines that hold the most weight for me. I didn't know what love was, I only thought I did, and I thought I was in love with her. I've grown and changed so much in twenty years. I don't love her anymore. I can't look back that way anymore. It's just a memory, it's gone.
@landed09 This may be irrelevant, but have you ever likened your love to that of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O' Hara? Sorry to pry.
@landed09 This may be irrelevant, but have you ever likened your love to that of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O' Hara? Sorry to pry.
@rieta11513, I can't say that I ever did! I can see where you're going with it for certain. I think mine and her personalities are too different from Rhett and Scarlett to relate though. I think, outside of this song, the other comparison that I have connected is Wrapped Around Your Finger by The Police. She was older than me, I was a naive kid. Years later, after so much experience in life and relationships, "you will find your servant is your master". That song gets me every time.
@landed09 Okay, sorry. (I had just read Gone With the Wind, so I was kind of in the mood, as I get sometimes) That is a great song! Thank you, and once again, I'm so sorry!
Whoa, fasten yr safety belts, because my interpretation of this haunting song was always way, way different that anyone else's! In the late 1950s I hit the road and got involved in the urban folk scene, doing a lot of writing and backup guitar stuff, deeply influence by the Beat Generation writers but also by the emerging folk-rock sound in LA and New York. I got into the habit of working summers at resorts, usually by a lake or by the ocean, through the summer season, then collecting unemployment in the winter. You'd always have a wonderful and incredibly sweet romantic fling with one of the college girls during the summer--the hottest memories imaginable--then you'd go visit them in their university digs, and they'd show you off to their college friends. Then in a couple of months, when the chilly winds started to blow, they get tired of you and send you on your way. (No complaints here, cause I wrote some nice songs behind it.)
I created an account here JUST to tell you how awesome that was and how much I enjoyed your take on this song!
I also created an account here JUST to tell you how awesome your vision of this song's meaning is. It's a very moving song and your description was beautiful. Thanks so much! I'll never hear this song without thinking of your post.
the 60s must have been a crazy and amazing time. thanks for the insight into the 60s and the vibe of those years.
@SongDreams i love this story and explanation. only one thing, though, ive heard don henley himself explain the part about the deadhead sticker..he was definately referring to the band not the practice of moving a car one way coast to coast
Great, great song. I think a few on here are making it more complicated than it is. He had the classic summer romance when he was younger. Come Fall, the relationship ended as it was fated too when he went back to school or whatever. Except he, somewhat surprisingly to him, never gets over her.
I think the "Deadheads sticker on the Cadillac" line just represents the passage of time. The car driven by a former idealist hippie kid who has grown up and is now making good money with a corporation or something and is driving a Cadillac.
@Digginit i agree with your interpretation 100 percent this is my favorite song all time I was checking the comments to see if someone could explain how i interpret the song as well great call
drummer4514's got it right on. I think this song is about a couple who was in love, but the girl broke things off over the summer, so she could mess around with other guys. He's saying that he loved her so much that he will still love her "after the boys of summer" have gone, as in, when the summers over and she realizes that she loves him too.
This song is about love, but the youthful, passionate kind of love. In our lives, we've all known the girl who would "wlak reall slow and smile at everyone". All the guys wanted her, and she wanted each one of the guys at some point. But, she changes her mind so often that it seems like summer brings different groups of boys. And while she may be 100% past the relationship, the boys aren't, and they don't even care that she's had many other "boys of summer". I've been in this situation with a flirty girl such as this. I wanted her so badly, but I was kind of just her toy. And, yes, sometimes I would go the long way home to drive past her house. Now, though, I no longer need her love, but the love I had for her is still buried inside of me, and honestly, it will never go away. Like the song says, I really go back to this time, but I still remember her and love her just the same. Also, this song sounds like summer love. It's sexy, hot, and steamy. Plus, the video is just perfect. I love this version over any of the other covers, even though those covers are very good.
There has been a lot of comments about this song, but it seems to me that none got it the way I got. But this is because the song has clearly a LOT of meanings.. It takes part in lot of subjects. That's the geniusness in lyrics! As one can't ever tell EXACTLY what are they all about.. People tend to reach to these lyrics from the girls point of view, but I thought it as the guy.
I'm sure this isn't the most common approach to this song but my 2 cents and what has hit me like a million volts is the feeling that the GUY is confused about his relationship with the girl he loves. As he is this boy of the summer, and I see this "boys of summer" more like a metaphor or a period of a guy who decides to live/explore his youth more and so leaves his loved girlfriend. He knows his love to her will still be strong even after he's "exploration" -period..
And now as he's older he misses her, as he thought he knew what love was (something else than what he had with her back then) and now knows it was that what he had with her. He knows looking back at it hurts. He sees other boys of summers established with their cadillacs, but he is still without his true love. But determined to get her back :)
Touches me a lot
Boys of summer refers to baseball players, but this song is not about baseball at all.<br /> <br /> In general, i think Metsuri has it right. this song is written from the GUYs point of view. Most of the comments I think are incorrect. Boys of summer has nothing to do with boys, or summer. it has to do with the phase of ones life (sorry my keyboard apostrophe isnt working tonite)<br /> <br /> spring is your youth, 0-20 years old<br /> summer is your early adulthood, 20-40 years old<br /> <br /> boys of summer being gone, and the beaches being empty and roads without cars, is a way of saying, that he has gone past mid-life, he is now over 40, and his love for her would last through time and not fade away as time and the years go by.<br /> <br /> fall: 40-60 years old<br /> winter 60-80 years old<br /> death<br /> <br /> <br /> this song is about the guy, who moved on a from a girl, then in his mid-life as he moves into his 40s (after the boys of summer have gone), that his love for her is still strong.<br />
I was raised in a house where the likes of Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen and other writing geniuses were always being played (not disputing the genius of DH and The Eagles, Im a huge fan), but this song has always been the one that speaks to me.
I dont even understand why, it just has so much emotion in it. Brilliant.
"A dead head sticker on a cadillac"-was his interpretation of looking back @ the old days with The Eagles. I hadn;t heard this in like ages and one day it just happened to come on and I actually started crying-the sentimentality actually got me! :) Great song.
"And those Wayfarers on, baby"...
To me i think the song is love in the teenage years, maybe throughout high school. and when graduation came in the summertime. The love between the two people went out the door. One of them begins to realize what is going on and begins to miss the other person. Throughout the song it talkes about all the good times they shared in the past. "I never will forget those nights I wonder if it was a dream Remember how you made me crazy? Remember how I made you scream? Now I don't understand what's happened to our love, But babe, I'm gonna get you back I'm gonna show you what I'm made of I can see you- Your brown skin shinin' in the sun I see you walkin' real slow and you're smilin' at everyone I can tell you my love for you will still be strong"
The "boys of summer" are baseball players. Sometimes I imagine it as a guy being like "yeah I'll tell you I love you after the game is over." I do admit though, this song transcends the boundaries of age.