"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.
Give me mercy and a minute now
I'm a bleed a little poison out
I'm a cry a little river down
And then I'm setting this whole thing on fire
And I'm burning up the night she died
And I'm putting every last picture aside
I'm gonna say what I need to say
In my very last letter to you
'Cause you always made it clear
Said that you'd never be my pain
So here's to you and your bright baby blues
And just a pause to cool the refrain
And you said you were satisfied
And now this body's just waiting to die
And that you missed him sometimes but you said it's alright
It's just a whole lot harder alone
But I wish you knew her now
She's a better side of me now
And I'm doing the best I can
It's what you wanted
And I see you like you were there
And I know just how you'd smile
Mary, you looked just like it was 1930 that night
But here the days will eat you alive
But I won't give in tonight
You said it's not worth my time
And not to regard them
And not to settle just for piece of mind
But I can wait it out all night
If you'll just keep breathing
But Mary I found a sound
And this heart keeps pouring it out
And the glory hasn't come and it's probably gonna fade
Like a tattoo that hides the shame
And the reasons always fade
And the pain gets out some day
So I'm saying my goodbyes to your deep blue eyes
'Cause I don't know how to say, "Stay still in the pain
Stay still in the pain"
But I wish you knew her now
She's a better side of me now
And I'm doing the best I can
It's what you wanted
And I see you like you were there
And I know just how you'd smile
Mary, you looked just like it was 1930 that night
If I recall the last thing you said to me
Before it broke up, before it took you from me
And you said, "I love you more than the stars in the sky
But your name just escapes me tonight"
I'm a bleed a little poison out
I'm a cry a little river down
And then I'm setting this whole thing on fire
And I'm burning up the night she died
And I'm putting every last picture aside
I'm gonna say what I need to say
In my very last letter to you
'Cause you always made it clear
Said that you'd never be my pain
So here's to you and your bright baby blues
And just a pause to cool the refrain
And you said you were satisfied
And now this body's just waiting to die
And that you missed him sometimes but you said it's alright
It's just a whole lot harder alone
But I wish you knew her now
She's a better side of me now
And I'm doing the best I can
It's what you wanted
And I see you like you were there
And I know just how you'd smile
Mary, you looked just like it was 1930 that night
But here the days will eat you alive
But I won't give in tonight
You said it's not worth my time
And not to regard them
And not to settle just for piece of mind
But I can wait it out all night
If you'll just keep breathing
But Mary I found a sound
And this heart keeps pouring it out
And the glory hasn't come and it's probably gonna fade
Like a tattoo that hides the shame
And the reasons always fade
And the pain gets out some day
So I'm saying my goodbyes to your deep blue eyes
'Cause I don't know how to say, "Stay still in the pain
Stay still in the pain"
But I wish you knew her now
She's a better side of me now
And I'm doing the best I can
It's what you wanted
And I see you like you were there
And I know just how you'd smile
Mary, you looked just like it was 1930 that night
If I recall the last thing you said to me
Before it broke up, before it took you from me
And you said, "I love you more than the stars in the sky
But your name just escapes me tonight"
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
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.
I think it's "And you said you were satisfied / And that this body's just waiting to die"... and I'd thought it was "But your name is what scares me tonight," but you might be right on that.
Regardless, thanks so much, VoiT, for posting all of these.