"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.
The serpent knows,
When the curtain falls,
In denials blindfold,
It greets another day
Don't believe the mask
It attempts to lie,
The perfect ten,
When reality caves in
Don't tell me,
Tell my ghost,
Cause I blame him
For all I don't want to know
I found secrets about life untold
Life's wrapped in a riddle,
Easier said than done,
Hate to play the victim,
Rather run and hide.
I found secrets about life untold,
Let them take me far away
Call back in place,
It easier to cope behind the curtain,
Wipe the worries away
No thought about consequence
I found secrets about life untold,
Let them take me far away
When the curtain falls,
In denials blindfold,
It greets another day
Don't believe the mask
It attempts to lie,
The perfect ten,
When reality caves in
Don't tell me,
Tell my ghost,
Cause I blame him
For all I don't want to know
I found secrets about life untold
Life's wrapped in a riddle,
Easier said than done,
Hate to play the victim,
Rather run and hide.
I found secrets about life untold,
Let them take me far away
Call back in place,
It easier to cope behind the curtain,
Wipe the worries away
No thought about consequence
I found secrets about life untold,
Let them take me far away
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
nature, if the secret goes along with our desires, happiness, temptaions, and these aspects, we apply it. It doesn't cause us any pain or inconvenience, no matter how bad or good it is. But when we realize something that goes against our desires, and often against our environment, we resist it completely (that's the coward's way out), hide it (which causes reoccurant internal conflicts which are actually what the writer is experiencing), or face it (despite all the pain, difficulties, or sacrifices we might have to face, we accept it and try to make peace with it-basically, change our way of life).
As for the meaning of the exact parts and some symbolisms:
The serpent knows, When the curtain falls, In denials blindfold, It greets another day
(The way most of the world lives through life (greets another day); hiding (curtain), blinding itself from the truth (blindfolds), and of course in deception (serpent) to each other and themselves.
Dont believe the mask It adapts to any lie, The perfect ten, When reality caves in
(Don't believe everything you see in the world, likewise the world shouldn't believe what they see in you because almost everyone hides his truth (mask), and constantly change according to what they want to believe superficially (adapts to any lie). I'm not so sure on this one, but I think the perfect ten is giving up when reality strikes, since one would hold both hands up when he surrenders and shows ten fingers. I think it's wrong..)
Dont tell me, Tell my ghost, Cause I blame him For all I dont want to know
(I hide the secrets inside (my ghost), so it deals with all this confusion.. I actually don't want to know the secrets of life, but they strike me, and I TRY to hide them, so don't blame me if I react wrongly and don't try to guide me because I really don't want to know.. Something along these confusing lies :D)
Life's wrapped in a riddle, Easier said than done, Hate to play the victim, Rather run and hide.
(Life is too complicated (riddle), where we say we CAN or we KNOW things around us, but the truth is we are too week to do many things or accept secrets (easier said than done.. pretty obvious). I don't want to be lost in it and have to figure it out (victim), as I actually just want to be away from this confusion (run and hide) and be in peace; yet in ignorance)
Call back in place, It's easier to cope behind the curtain, Wipe the worries away No thought about consequence
(From my inside, my ghost, I go back to my place in the world, and find it so much easier to live and adapt to the ways of the world outside of me (cope behind the curtain) denying the ghost and not having to face truth, since I loose worries and thought about consequence, life, future, reality, ...)
I found secrets about life's undertow Let them take me far away
(I've discovered secrets about the world, and I loose myself in them through internal conflicts and confusion. They make me step away from the world around me to reality, imagination, thinking, dreaming, and maybe obsessions XD.. Beyond the surface...)
*Alias is the ghost.. our other personna.. alter ego.. mask.. disguise.. and fits other similar definitions too. **I know this is too much (probably no one is going to read it), but I REALLY like the song, deeply relate to it, and think about it a lot :D ALIAS<3