"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.
You'll never come back down to the real world
Just think of me as understanding
'Cause this shit's over my head
Everybody's got their own masturbations
Everybody's got a need to be cool
Everybody gets some wrong information
They're gonna pack it up and wrap it up and sell it in the schools, yeah
But we won't be fooled
If you ever come back down to the real world
Just drink with me and understand
The words that stuck in your head
How many times have you said
"I just need to be loved"?
How many times have you heard
"I can't afford it"?
How many times have you wished you were
Somebody who would not pass it off as fodder
When we used to say back in the day
We will never get old
Remember when we used to think
We will never get old
Remember when we used to believe
We will never get old
No, that can't happen to us
We will never get old
And we'll never come down
Dodging bullets
Pumping gas
Unreality shows
Shake it, just don't break that ass
The smog is lifting
Might just get a chance to breathe
Keep your eyes shifting
There's nothing in my head or up my sleeve
Be sure to dust the mail
If we all pull together, we could just about make bail
These are good times
And good friends
We will never get old
Remember when we used to think
We will never get old
Remember when we used to believe
We will never get old
No, that can't happen to us
We will never get old
And we'll never come down
I like it up here
So I'm never coming down
You'll have to call
The fire department
Get the hook and ladder
Come up and get me
'Cause I'm never coming down
Never coming down
Just think of me as understanding
'Cause this shit's over my head
Everybody's got their own masturbations
Everybody's got a need to be cool
Everybody gets some wrong information
They're gonna pack it up and wrap it up and sell it in the schools, yeah
But we won't be fooled
If you ever come back down to the real world
Just drink with me and understand
The words that stuck in your head
How many times have you said
"I just need to be loved"?
How many times have you heard
"I can't afford it"?
How many times have you wished you were
Somebody who would not pass it off as fodder
When we used to say back in the day
We will never get old
Remember when we used to think
We will never get old
Remember when we used to believe
We will never get old
No, that can't happen to us
We will never get old
And we'll never come down
Dodging bullets
Pumping gas
Unreality shows
Shake it, just don't break that ass
The smog is lifting
Might just get a chance to breathe
Keep your eyes shifting
There's nothing in my head or up my sleeve
Be sure to dust the mail
If we all pull together, we could just about make bail
These are good times
And good friends
We will never get old
Remember when we used to think
We will never get old
Remember when we used to believe
We will never get old
No, that can't happen to us
We will never get old
And we'll never come down
I like it up here
So I'm never coming down
You'll have to call
The fire department
Get the hook and ladder
Come up and get me
'Cause I'm never coming down
Never coming down
Lyrics submitted by BleedorBreathe
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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."
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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.