"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 don't want you and I don't need you
Don't bother to resist, or I'll beat you
It's not your fault that you're always wrong
The weak ones are there to justify the strong
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
It's all relative to the size of your steeple
You can't see the forest from the trees
And you can't smell your own shit on your knees
There's no time to discriminate
Hate every motherfucker
That's in your way
Hey you, what do you see
Something beautiful, something free
Hey you, are you trying to be mean
If you live with apes, man, it's hard to be clean
The worms will live in every host
It's hard to pick which one they eat most
The horrible people, the horrible people
It's as anatomic as the size of your steeple
Capitalist pigs has made it this way
Old-fashioned fascism
Will take it away
Hey you, what do you see
Something beautiful, something free
Hey you, are you trying to be mean
If you live with apes, man, it's hard to be clean
There's no time to discriminate
Hate every motherfucker
That's in your way
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
Um, dois, tres
Hey you, what do you see
Something beautiful, something free
Hey you, are you trying to be mean
If you live with apes, man, it's hard to be clean
Hey you, what do you see
Something beautiful, something free
Fuck you, are you trying to be mean
If you live with apes, man, it's hard to be clean
Don't bother to resist, or I'll beat you
It's not your fault that you're always wrong
The weak ones are there to justify the strong
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
It's all relative to the size of your steeple
You can't see the forest from the trees
And you can't smell your own shit on your knees
There's no time to discriminate
Hate every motherfucker
That's in your way
Hey you, what do you see
Something beautiful, something free
Hey you, are you trying to be mean
If you live with apes, man, it's hard to be clean
The worms will live in every host
It's hard to pick which one they eat most
The horrible people, the horrible people
It's as anatomic as the size of your steeple
Capitalist pigs has made it this way
Old-fashioned fascism
Will take it away
Hey you, what do you see
Something beautiful, something free
Hey you, are you trying to be mean
If you live with apes, man, it's hard to be clean
There's no time to discriminate
Hate every motherfucker
That's in your way
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
Um, dois, tres
Hey you, what do you see
Something beautiful, something free
Hey you, are you trying to be mean
If you live with apes, man, it's hard to be clean
Hey you, what do you see
Something beautiful, something free
Fuck you, are you trying to be mean
If you live with apes, man, it's hard to be clean
Lyrics submitted by cyco86
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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."
No Surprises
Radiohead
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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.
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Ed Sheeran
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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.
people take the lyrics far far too litrally. maybe hes not talking about religion, like when hes talking about the size of your steeple, look between the lines hes talking about the vein ideals, how big your penis is for steeple. and how if you dont fit into sosciety and how they want to cahnge you so you look like all the other people. you cant see the forest from the trees, or you cant see the better stuff from your vantage point, and talking about the capitalist pigs and old fastiond facishum made us all the same, schools make us look the same, law makes it impossible to wear things for one reason or another, living with the apes, we are descended from apes and some people still act like apes and its hard to stay clean when you looking after old or diabled people with barely any money and genral life, its also hard to stay clean from sin. and if you listen to the way hes singing it, its like hes shying away, like he is shying away from steryotypes and what people think of as ideal.
@lilmog in reference to the steeple, I always got the impression it was sort of those that look down from their Ivory Towers (that is those who think their shit doesn't stink). His line about shit on knees sort of makes me think this is right too)