"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.
I can read the lines
On your face and they're telling me
Everything I already know
Yeah
I hold you in my arms
But your light is away from me
Slowly sinking under, alone
Yeah
So I act cool
On the outside
But it's eating me alive
'Cause when it comes to you
There's nothing I can do
I can't make you love me when you don't
I see it in your eyes
All the compromise
No, I can't take another slow goodbye
Sitting in the park, after dark, smoking cigarettes
Biting all the black off of my nails
'Cause all I ever was what you took away from me
Try to make it right, but it's too late
I'm a hopeless case on the inside
And it's eating me alive
'Cause when it comes to you
There's nothing I can do
I can't make you love me when you don't
I see it in your eyes
All the compromise
No, I can't take another slow goodbye
No
I die
A million times every time when you look me in the eye
I die
'Cause I've heard it all before
The same pain
You throw around and around
But I still end up with nothing
But heartache
'Cause when it comes to you
There's nothing I can do
I can't make you love me when you don't
I see it in your eyes
All the compromise
No, I can't take another slow goodbye
No
There's nothing I can do
I can't make you love me when you don't
I see it in your eyes
All the compromise
No, I can't take another slow goodbye
On your face and they're telling me
Everything I already know
Yeah
I hold you in my arms
But your light is away from me
Slowly sinking under, alone
Yeah
So I act cool
On the outside
But it's eating me alive
'Cause when it comes to you
There's nothing I can do
I can't make you love me when you don't
I see it in your eyes
All the compromise
No, I can't take another slow goodbye
Sitting in the park, after dark, smoking cigarettes
Biting all the black off of my nails
'Cause all I ever was what you took away from me
Try to make it right, but it's too late
I'm a hopeless case on the inside
And it's eating me alive
'Cause when it comes to you
There's nothing I can do
I can't make you love me when you don't
I see it in your eyes
All the compromise
No, I can't take another slow goodbye
No
I die
A million times every time when you look me in the eye
I die
'Cause I've heard it all before
The same pain
You throw around and around
But I still end up with nothing
But heartache
'Cause when it comes to you
There's nothing I can do
I can't make you love me when you don't
I see it in your eyes
All the compromise
No, I can't take another slow goodbye
No
There's nothing I can do
I can't make you love me when you don't
I see it in your eyes
All the compromise
No, I can't take another slow goodbye
Lyrics submitted by thoseguiltyeyes
Slow Goodbye Lyrics as written by Lesley Roy Katy Perry
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
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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Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
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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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“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.
I think this song can almost have two meanings: 1) Her boyfriend is acting distant and she can sense it ('I can read the lines on you face...'). She can feel that he is no feeling the same he used to and she knows it's only a matter of time before they break-up. She, however, doesn't want to do the breaking up, so in the meantime, the knowledge that he will inevitably dump her eats her up inside. She hates the way things turned out, but she realizes she can't force him to love her. The part where she's in the park is sort of sad. She feels all alone and confused and hurt. He took away her innocence, her chance at love, and although he tried to make it work, the effort wasn't enough cus she's going to end up alone. He made her complete (metaphorically cus of love)but now she's left with the after-sting. He left her (maybe he cheated on her, hence the original distance) and although he tried to make it right by leaving her instead of lying, he took away his love, the thing she wanted most. That would explain the hopeless part cus she feels hopeless for loving such a jerk. She just wanted a quick goodbye but instead she watched it be dragged out as she waited for his confession and breakup. Slow goodbyes are the worse cus you know it's gonna happen but you don't want it to so the pain is worse. She sorta wants to keep hanging on, but she doesn't want this to be dragged out. She knows that time will not make him love her cus nothing can if he truly doens't... 2)She liked this guy who was just a friend but he only thought of her as a friend. So when she's sitting with him, hanging out, and maybe flirting a little, she can feel the distance he puts between them cus he doesn't feel the same way. Maybe he even flirts back a little, but it's empty to her cus she knows he will never be more than a friend. She tries to keep her cool, but inside, it's killing her. She knows she can't make him fall for her. She knows that he's just flirting with her cus he's being a guy and having fun, but she wishes it was more. Maybe he tried to fix things by breaking away from her or telling her that she was just a friend. But in the process, that kills her cus all she ever wanted was to be his. So she feels a bit hopeless cus she's wasted all this energy and love and time on this guy who was being a tool. She doesn't want to drag out the pain of getting over him, but she knows it won't be fast (since they're friends they probably see eachother at school everyday or at work or whereever). She just wants it to be quick but on the other hand, he's a part of her, and she wants to savour ever moment while it's there and doesn't want it all brutally cut out in an instant. She hates that he keeps playing her and screwing with her mind. Maybe he's flirting, but then refusing to go out with her.It's just a bunch of circles to her and all that she ends up with is pain and she doesn't get the guy. I guess she just wishes that he'll just disappear off the face of the earth so that everything will end, just like that. Then maybe she could get over him, rather than have to face the reality everyday that he's just using her but she still loves him.