"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
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Little Feat
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The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
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The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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I think this is supposed to represent how carefree and light he feels while he's falling off the building (it's continued off of All Cowboys).
It's a good link between the two songs.
It's the right way of transition
The last 3 songs are definately connected in a really strong way. Cowboy's is obviously about his lead up to suicide, negative space is most like the bliss he experiences while falling, that sort of where you've made your choice and all is right feeling, and priest and the matador is the aftermath.
ths last three songs are connected and i think this instrumental came in the middle to show there connection.
this is so beautiful... in terms of artistic composition, negative space is the void areas that the figure(positive space) are suspended in. so the title literally means his lonesome fall from the top of a building, suspended in the moment of his peaceful journey to the fatal impact with the concrete below.
great transition from cowboys to priest.