"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.
Lights out, shoot up the station
Tv's dead where's there to run?
Watch everybody come undone (lights out)
Won't make it easy, won't make it fun
Won't let them see now, how they have one
Still I'll go another round
Darlin'
Don't got to worry you're locked in tight
Darlin' (must be worth it 'cause the more)
(I try the more it gets uneven)
Now don't you worry turn out the lights (I can shake it I keep thinking)
(But it's with me for a reason)
Wiped out, no concentration
They got us basking in a storm
I watch it as it loses form, I doubt
They even see me, guess what I want
A casualty but I am up front
And I know what it's about
Darlin'
Don't got to worry you're locked in tight
Darlin' (must be worth it 'cause the more)
(I try the more it gets uneven)
Now don't you worry turn out the lights (I can shake it I keep thinking)
(But it's with me for a reason)
I'm still here shaking my head
The one you can't account for
I keep just one step ahead
There's no place to run
Darlin'
Don't got to worry you're locked in tight
Darlin' (must be worth it 'cause the more)
(I try the more it gets uneven)
Now don't you worry turn out the lights (I can shake it I keep thinking)
(But it's with me for a reason)
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah ah
Darlin'
Don't got to worry you're locked in tight
Darlin' (must be worth it 'cause the more)
(I try the more it gets uneven)
Now don't you worry turn out the lights (I can shake it I keep thinking)
(But it's with me for a reason)
Darlin'
Don't got to worry you're locked in tight
Darlin' (must be worth it 'cause the more)
(I try the more it gets uneven)
Now don't you worry turn out the lights (I can shake it I keep thinking)
(But it's with me for a reason)
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah ah
Tv's dead where's there to run?
Watch everybody come undone (lights out)
Won't make it easy, won't make it fun
Won't let them see now, how they have one
Still I'll go another round
Darlin'
Don't got to worry you're locked in tight
Darlin' (must be worth it 'cause the more)
(I try the more it gets uneven)
Now don't you worry turn out the lights (I can shake it I keep thinking)
(But it's with me for a reason)
Wiped out, no concentration
They got us basking in a storm
I watch it as it loses form, I doubt
They even see me, guess what I want
A casualty but I am up front
And I know what it's about
Darlin'
Don't got to worry you're locked in tight
Darlin' (must be worth it 'cause the more)
(I try the more it gets uneven)
Now don't you worry turn out the lights (I can shake it I keep thinking)
(But it's with me for a reason)
I'm still here shaking my head
The one you can't account for
I keep just one step ahead
There's no place to run
Darlin'
Don't got to worry you're locked in tight
Darlin' (must be worth it 'cause the more)
(I try the more it gets uneven)
Now don't you worry turn out the lights (I can shake it I keep thinking)
(But it's with me for a reason)
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah ah
Darlin'
Don't got to worry you're locked in tight
Darlin' (must be worth it 'cause the more)
(I try the more it gets uneven)
Now don't you worry turn out the lights (I can shake it I keep thinking)
(But it's with me for a reason)
Darlin'
Don't got to worry you're locked in tight
Darlin' (must be worth it 'cause the more)
(I try the more it gets uneven)
Now don't you worry turn out the lights (I can shake it I keep thinking)
(But it's with me for a reason)
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah ah
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Bee Gees
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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."
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
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“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.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
To me this is about her sort of taking on this persona in which she's snapped due to all the pressures and hypocrisy of day-to-day life, technology, the media, etc., and starts wreaking havoc and chaos (or at least imagining/fantasizing about herself doing so). At the same time, she's reassuring someone she loves, who possibly feels similarly lost in the modern world but doesn't hold the same rage towards it, that her "darling" is safe and has nothing to fear from her, and should just turn away and ignore what she's doing. So basically, someone who's snapped and has gone insane is professing their love for this person who's afraid of them while intertwined with their fantasis of rampage and destruction. I don't know, I just kind of envision these random scenarios in my head whenever I hear a good song with ambiguous lyrics, probably not actually the case, but it's what I imagined. :)