"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.
Doesn't seem that selfish
No, not in the least
What's so self-righteous
About this curiosity
This want for a meager exchange
So much time has passed but still it remains
This need for you
Is a reoccurring theme in my life
Don't you think I'm lonely
Eager to complete this story
Confused and still haunted
With why
You'd start over
And ignore me
It takes time to realize
The other side of you
That's controlling
Blind in hindsight
Of our lives
Even if you left me and my brother
Even if you left us and our mother
Want nothing more than to catch your eye
Would you be impressed with how far I've climbed
Without your assistance
With you nowhere in sight
Don't you think I'm lonely
Eager to complete this story
Confused and still haunted
With why
You'd start over
And ignore us
It takes time to realize
The other side of you
That's controlling
Blind in hindsight
Of our lives
Even if you left me and my brother
Even if you left us and our mother
She's had her share
More than we'll know
My brother won't
He just won't let go
They say you're sick and there's a name and a phrase
To apply and help explain
Still having trouble trying to separate
How you started a new family
Even after you left me and my brother
Even after you left us and our mother
No, not in the least
What's so self-righteous
About this curiosity
This want for a meager exchange
So much time has passed but still it remains
This need for you
Is a reoccurring theme in my life
Don't you think I'm lonely
Eager to complete this story
Confused and still haunted
With why
You'd start over
And ignore me
It takes time to realize
The other side of you
That's controlling
Blind in hindsight
Of our lives
Even if you left me and my brother
Even if you left us and our mother
Want nothing more than to catch your eye
Would you be impressed with how far I've climbed
Without your assistance
With you nowhere in sight
Don't you think I'm lonely
Eager to complete this story
Confused and still haunted
With why
You'd start over
And ignore us
It takes time to realize
The other side of you
That's controlling
Blind in hindsight
Of our lives
Even if you left me and my brother
Even if you left us and our mother
She's had her share
More than we'll know
My brother won't
He just won't let go
They say you're sick and there's a name and a phrase
To apply and help explain
Still having trouble trying to separate
How you started a new family
Even after you left me and my brother
Even after you left us and our mother
Lyrics submitted by xStickxCorex
Even If Lyrics as written by Jarrod Gorbel
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Lord Huron
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
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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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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Page
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
His voice is so beautiful.