"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.
[Ron Isley]
Well well well, yeah
[Chorus: R. Isley]
There's this girl, and, I see her every day
But she don't know me (she don't know my name)
And it ain't all that strange to me
Cause I know hers, and, it won't be long
'til she's convinced that I'm her man
The one that's gon' take her away
[Nelly]
Yo, yo, yo
Hey yo it's three in the morning and the party's still going
Bass still knocking, "Pimp Juice" still flowing
'Tics in the back, you can smell the chronic blowing
I got girls all around, I got my Hef' game going
Baby girl right but her partner got ass
Baby girl left but her partner got ass
She got 'em stuffed in them boy shorts covered up with lil' hearts
Her partner got 'em laced, cut right below the waist
You can tell they got taste by they ensemble
One like to salsa, the other the mambo
Why settle for one when I can have the combo?
Why do Cancun when I can go to Cabo?
They like to work out, and I ain't talking Tae-Bo
They like fast cars, I ain't talking Volvos
They both are the devil but they like it diablo
Don't worry got it covered just listen to Ronald
[Chorus]
[Snoop Dogg]
She say them suckers agitate her, told her I'm a regulator
Man I want to lay down with ya, maybe we can do it later
I ain't got no time to waste, another move I got to make
Cold thing, she ain't even know my nizzame (damn)
I didn't even have to say it, baby want to stop and play it
Rewind that, pop and grind that
You'll find that, a woman like yourself can't keep cumin by yourself
Get in where you fit in, now enjoy yourself
Cute bright skin brown skin take me to the mountain
Get you wet like a fountain
Then get your counseling, have a seat have a drink have a toke
It's a "Doggy Dogg World", you can have whatever you want
Or whatever you need, all you got to do it follow my lead
Take my hand, and roll with me
And live it up, with a D-O-double-G, lavishly
[Chorus]
[Ron Isley]
Hey girl, what's yo' fantasy?
Can I take you home? I want you here with me
Ooh girl you blow my mind, I want to be yo' freak
Let me take you there, to that ecstasy,
Oh ba-by, baby
Gotta get you home with me tonight
Oh oh oh oh oh, what's your name?
What's your name? Gotta get you home with me tonight dear
[Chorus]
Well well well, yeah
[Chorus: R. Isley]
There's this girl, and, I see her every day
But she don't know me (she don't know my name)
And it ain't all that strange to me
Cause I know hers, and, it won't be long
'til she's convinced that I'm her man
The one that's gon' take her away
[Nelly]
Yo, yo, yo
Hey yo it's three in the morning and the party's still going
Bass still knocking, "Pimp Juice" still flowing
'Tics in the back, you can smell the chronic blowing
I got girls all around, I got my Hef' game going
Baby girl right but her partner got ass
Baby girl left but her partner got ass
She got 'em stuffed in them boy shorts covered up with lil' hearts
Her partner got 'em laced, cut right below the waist
You can tell they got taste by they ensemble
One like to salsa, the other the mambo
Why settle for one when I can have the combo?
Why do Cancun when I can go to Cabo?
They like to work out, and I ain't talking Tae-Bo
They like fast cars, I ain't talking Volvos
They both are the devil but they like it diablo
Don't worry got it covered just listen to Ronald
[Chorus]
[Snoop Dogg]
She say them suckers agitate her, told her I'm a regulator
Man I want to lay down with ya, maybe we can do it later
I ain't got no time to waste, another move I got to make
Cold thing, she ain't even know my nizzame (damn)
I didn't even have to say it, baby want to stop and play it
Rewind that, pop and grind that
You'll find that, a woman like yourself can't keep cumin by yourself
Get in where you fit in, now enjoy yourself
Cute bright skin brown skin take me to the mountain
Get you wet like a fountain
Then get your counseling, have a seat have a drink have a toke
It's a "Doggy Dogg World", you can have whatever you want
Or whatever you need, all you got to do it follow my lead
Take my hand, and roll with me
And live it up, with a D-O-double-G, lavishly
[Chorus]
[Ron Isley]
Hey girl, what's yo' fantasy?
Can I take you home? I want you here with me
Ooh girl you blow my mind, I want to be yo' freak
Let me take you there, to that ecstasy,
Oh ba-by, baby
Gotta get you home with me tonight
Oh oh oh oh oh, what's your name?
What's your name? Gotta get you home with me tonight dear
[Chorus]
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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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,
When We Were Young
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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.