"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.
My Mama mapped out the road that she knows
Which hands you shake and which hands you hold
In my hand-me-down Mercury, ready to roll
She knew that I had to go
And hangout, make lots of noise
And lay out late with a boy
Make the mistakes that she make 'cause she knew all along
I was already gone
I was already gone
I was already gone
Life is a runaway train you can't wait to jump on
They say the first time won't ever last
But that didn't stop me the first time he laughed
All my friends tried to warn me the day that we met
"Girl, don't you lose your heart yet"
But his dark eyes dared me with danger
And sparks fly like flame to a paper
Fire in his touch burning me up, but still I held on
'Cause I was already gone
I was already gone
I was already gone
Life is a runaway train you can't wait to jump on
The last time I saw him, we packed up my things
And he smiled like the first time he told me his name
And we cried with each other
We split the blame for the parts that we couldn't change
Pictures, dishes and socks
It's our whole life down to one box
There he was waving goodbye on the front porch alone
But I was already gone
I was already gone
I was already gone
I was already gone
I was already gone
Hangout, make lots of noise
And lay out late with a boy
Make the mistakes that she made, life is a runaway train
My mama mapped out the road that she knows
Which hands to shake, which hands you hold
In my hand-me-down Mercury
Life is a runaway train you can't wait to jump on
Which hands you shake and which hands you hold
In my hand-me-down Mercury, ready to roll
She knew that I had to go
And hangout, make lots of noise
And lay out late with a boy
Make the mistakes that she make 'cause she knew all along
I was already gone
I was already gone
I was already gone
Life is a runaway train you can't wait to jump on
They say the first time won't ever last
But that didn't stop me the first time he laughed
All my friends tried to warn me the day that we met
"Girl, don't you lose your heart yet"
But his dark eyes dared me with danger
And sparks fly like flame to a paper
Fire in his touch burning me up, but still I held on
'Cause I was already gone
I was already gone
I was already gone
Life is a runaway train you can't wait to jump on
The last time I saw him, we packed up my things
And he smiled like the first time he told me his name
And we cried with each other
We split the blame for the parts that we couldn't change
Pictures, dishes and socks
It's our whole life down to one box
There he was waving goodbye on the front porch alone
But I was already gone
I was already gone
I was already gone
I was already gone
I was already gone
Hangout, make lots of noise
And lay out late with a boy
Make the mistakes that she made, life is a runaway train
My mama mapped out the road that she knows
Which hands to shake, which hands you hold
In my hand-me-down Mercury
Life is a runaway train you can't wait to jump on
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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,
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
To me, this song is about first loves and learning to move on, and realizing there's a lesson with the pain. Because in the beginning the mom is telling her to go out and meet boys and make mistakes, then she meets the boy and her friends are telling her not to lose it yet, because they know it won't work. then at the end she realizes she's got to leave him because she's "already gone" from the relationship. But she knows life will have more in store.
wow. thats great. =)
It's about finding what you want in life. The girl has to leave home to find herself, and then she has to leave her relationship to move on. She's running to different parts of life.
this part is the most...i dont know relli just the best part to me:
but his dark eyes dared me with danger and sparks fly like flame to a paper fire in his touch burning me up, but still i held on
i atotally agree.x
I feel like shes trying to say that shes always been waiting for this. shes always been "already gone" and ready to move on to bigger, and better things. she knows she made mistakes, and thats a part of life. but know its time to move on.
a box in my closet contains what was, at one time, my whole life...
we split the blame for the parts that we couldn't change pictures, dishes, and socks it's our whole life down to one box
always gives me chills for some reason. Its just so real. This is why I love country music so much.
I agree about the "Pictures, dishes and socks / It's our whole life down to one box" line. It's so simple, sad and true. I don't think I'd come back to this song as often if not for that verse. The rest of the song is good, but that's one of the best lyrics I've heard in quite a while.
this song breaks my heart every time i hear it, reminds me of a girl starting out, experimenting, trying things out for her own experience and then she falls in love and it just falls apart because of problems between them they couldn't fix, so she starts all over again. it makes me cry every time!! one of my favorite sugarland songs <3
wow. thats great. =)
sorry. that was supposed ta go up there :P
This song really hits home for me. I was with my first boyfriend for 4 years, it started out with my family telling me I'm young I need to live and go out and find myself. So I did. Along with finding myself I found him as well. I lived with him for 2 of the 4 years we were together and although we had good days, there was quite a few bad ones, it became a 50/50 life for us. We were settling for what we had because it was what we knew. We were afraid to be alone and accept that we weren't meant to be together. Until one day we had to sit down and talk because it was over and it had been over for a long time. As we sat packing up my things for me to move out and on with my life, there was such pain in everything we were doing and wonder on why we couldn't fix things but we knew this was the only way now. Both of us cried, and shared some final laughs together at some of the pictures we had taken over the years. But it broke both our hearts to come to that ending. When I first heard this song, I bawled my eyes out and to this day I still do. I'll never forget him, or our life we had, but I was already gone.
not to be a jerk, but although I know this is like a psycho-therapeutic outlet for some, unless you start separating your diatribes into paragraphs, few are going to actually read it .. in today's A.D.D. culture. <br /> <br /> Jason<br /> wehaveissues.org
@kassiebby
@kassiebby 6 years later and I read the entire thing! That person obviously has nothing to relate to this song. He probably can't sustain a ltr since he has ADD.