"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.
Say goodbye, my one true lover
And we'll steal a lover's song
How it breaks my heart to leave you
Now the carnival has gone
Oh my love, the dawn is breaking
And my tears are falling rain
For the carnival is over
We may never meet again
Like a drum my heart was beating
And your kiss was sweet as wine
But the joys of love are fleeting
For Pierrot and Columbine
Now the cloak of night is falling
This will be our last goodbye
Though the carnival is over
I will love you 'til I die
Though the carnival is over
I will love you 'til I die
Oh, I will love you 'til I die
I will love you 'til I die
And we'll steal a lover's song
How it breaks my heart to leave you
Now the carnival has gone
Oh my love, the dawn is breaking
And my tears are falling rain
For the carnival is over
We may never meet again
Like a drum my heart was beating
And your kiss was sweet as wine
But the joys of love are fleeting
For Pierrot and Columbine
Now the cloak of night is falling
This will be our last goodbye
Though the carnival is over
I will love you 'til I die
Though the carnival is over
I will love you 'til I die
Oh, I will love you 'til I die
I will love you 'til I die
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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"
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.
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,
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Aw - a trip down memory lane! I loved this song when I was a kid, it was sung by The Seekers, Judith Durham, wonderful voice. I was a bit queasy when I saw Nick Cave had covered it, I thought he might spoil it for me. But he could have been born to sing it, his version is just as good as the original. Love it! Anybody who hasn't heard the older version, it's well worth a listen.
The song took an unusual road for me. The surface includes a bittersweet parting, but this is only what happens. What it means is the beauty of interpretation, unique to each listener.
The song made me think of the transition in life and relationships from heat to light, possibly back again, if only in memory. The root of "carnival" lent fuel to this concept and I grew it in my mind as a reminiscence from old age back to the fires of lust that burned loud and insistent in the speaker's younger days. Lovingly, he recounts how the core of love persisted: "Though the carnival is over, I will love you `til I die"
The cloak of night, in my interpretation, fit well with the thought of someone in Autumn years, even.
Of course, there is a parting mentioned: This tangles my whole "end of flesh and youthful things", but the meaning still appeals to me.
Could the parting be a death? of the speaker, or a beloved life-mate? Perhaps there is a literal fling between a traveling performer and a resident (a literal carnival suits me just fine, with a parting required once "the carnival is over")
Here, I could tie in my light/heat concept as the one left behind likens him/herself to Pierrot, losing the only object of their affection to something else ( the literal carnival itself, or finding passion/heat with another, forsaking their dedicated, unrequited love/light. )
A great song, I'd be interested to hear the original. -Phase
The song was written by Tom Springfield and was originally sung by Judith Durham in the 60's group The Seekers. The Seekers were originally from Australia, like Nick Cave and maybe this is Nick's tribute to his fellow antipodeans.
The song is definitely about things ending and is extensively sung in Australia when public events finish (it was due to have closed the Sydney Olympics until Judith Durham broke her hip and couldn't perform). A bit of a national institution like 'Waltzing Mathilda' but a very moving song none the less.