"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.
Lucy, remember
The smell of that fall
The fires the fungus and the rotten leaves
I fell off the wagon
Into your arms
Into this long month of Sundays
You were my husband, my wife, my heroine
Now this is our final December
Now I'm deep in a forest
Losing all thought of spring
And nothing can help me remember
And I'm going nowhere fast
A darker day has hold at last
Deep in a dream I set the compass to spin
And your love has come too late
I wave from the garden gate
Wake me up when the bluebells are ringing
Are ringing
How can it be over
After all that we had
Now comes a river runs through the rafters
Down down down
As you leave me sleeping
Dreaming only of spring
The phone rings out
And I've no number
But I'm going nowhere fast
A darker day has hold at last
Deep in a dream I set the compass keep spinning
And your love has come too late
And I wave to the garden gate
Wake me up when the bluebells are ringing
Raining raining raining
Hoooh
Raining raining raining
Hoooh
The smell of that fall
The fires the fungus and the rotten leaves
I fell off the wagon
Into your arms
Into this long month of Sundays
You were my husband, my wife, my heroine
Now this is our final December
Now I'm deep in a forest
Losing all thought of spring
And nothing can help me remember
And I'm going nowhere fast
A darker day has hold at last
Deep in a dream I set the compass to spin
And your love has come too late
I wave from the garden gate
Wake me up when the bluebells are ringing
Are ringing
How can it be over
After all that we had
Now comes a river runs through the rafters
Down down down
As you leave me sleeping
Dreaming only of spring
The phone rings out
And I've no number
But I'm going nowhere fast
A darker day has hold at last
Deep in a dream I set the compass keep spinning
And your love has come too late
And I wave to the garden gate
Wake me up when the bluebells are ringing
Raining raining raining
Hoooh
Raining raining raining
Hoooh
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Fast Car
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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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,
Blue
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“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.
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of course it's the intro for 'bluebells'. if you hear a live version or the video at patrick's lounge, you will notice that the rhythm is exactly the same [=