"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.
In the breathless hush of 4 a.m.
In the dark sits a sad cliché
Cloaked in the navy blue of slowly fading stars
Tell me how this came to be
Sleeplessness talk to me
She'd say over and over again
Fumbling through a cut glass vase
Passing lipstick, cotton spools
Burning jealous pictures of marriages of friends
You never asked to be
The glutton of sympathy
She says over and over again that this is the end
Cause I see it in your eyes
What you don't know, time to let go
I see it in your eyes
There is so much more out there to be learned
Such mournful words on this snow white vacant page
All the lessons that she learns she packs away
Will you never cease to be the glutton of sympathy
She writes over and over again
Tossing turning roll away
Indecision won't you ever make up your mind
Lifetime Nigh time wake the day
Cause tomorrow will see if you've had your fill of sympathy
Will you never cease to be the glutton of sympathy?
Don't you know the stars are all fading let the sunshine capture the sparkle
of your smile
In the dark sits a sad cliché
Cloaked in the navy blue of slowly fading stars
Tell me how this came to be
Sleeplessness talk to me
She'd say over and over again
Fumbling through a cut glass vase
Passing lipstick, cotton spools
Burning jealous pictures of marriages of friends
You never asked to be
The glutton of sympathy
She says over and over again that this is the end
Cause I see it in your eyes
What you don't know, time to let go
I see it in your eyes
There is so much more out there to be learned
Such mournful words on this snow white vacant page
All the lessons that she learns she packs away
Will you never cease to be the glutton of sympathy
She writes over and over again
Tossing turning roll away
Indecision won't you ever make up your mind
Lifetime Nigh time wake the day
Cause tomorrow will see if you've had your fill of sympathy
Will you never cease to be the glutton of sympathy?
Don't you know the stars are all fading let the sunshine capture the sparkle
of your smile
Lyrics submitted by cann3dheat
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Ebba Grön
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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“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.
wow, once really would have been enough there :/