"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'm a ticking time bomb
Waiting to blow my top
No one would ever know
Not til I grew up
No one would believe it
He was such a normal guy
Shake their heads and wonder why
Martians fell from the sky
What would that do to god?
Would we put the weapons down
Or aim it up at the sky
No one would believe it
Except the fucking nut jobs
They laugh and cry we told you so
Baby when I get home
I want to believe in Jesus
Hammer in the final nail
Help me pick up the pieces
When everything starts to fall
So fast that it terrifies you
When will you hit the wall?
Are you gonna learn to fly?
No one would believe it
Except for all the people
Watching as you fly away
Baby when I get home
I want to pick up the pieces
Hammer in the final nail
And lean me up against Jesus
Baby when I get home
I want to pick up the pieces
Hammer in the final nail
I want to believe in Jesus
Waiting to blow my top
No one would ever know
Not til I grew up
No one would believe it
He was such a normal guy
Shake their heads and wonder why
Martians fell from the sky
What would that do to god?
Would we put the weapons down
Or aim it up at the sky
No one would believe it
Except the fucking nut jobs
They laugh and cry we told you so
Baby when I get home
I want to believe in Jesus
Hammer in the final nail
Help me pick up the pieces
When everything starts to fall
So fast that it terrifies you
When will you hit the wall?
Are you gonna learn to fly?
No one would believe it
Except for all the people
Watching as you fly away
Baby when I get home
I want to pick up the pieces
Hammer in the final nail
And lean me up against Jesus
Baby when I get home
I want to pick up the pieces
Hammer in the final nail
I want to believe in Jesus
Lyrics submitted by MidwestDrummer
Time Bomb Lyrics as written by David John Matthews
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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"
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
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.
Dave was raised a Quaker, but is Agnostic. Here's an excerpt from a 2001 Boston Globe interview:
""'It would be safe to say that I'm agnostic,' Matthews says. 'However, I do feel as though we owe a faith to the world and to ourselves. We owe a grace and gratitude to things that have brought us here. But I think it's very ignorant to say,
Well, for everything, God has a plan.' That's like an excuse. ... Maybe the real faithful act is to commit to something, to take action, as opposed to saying,Well, everything is in the hand of God.'"My take on this song may be a little different from what Dave intended, but I instantly related to it. I was raised in a Christian Fundamentalist-type church, which fervently believes in a literal interpretation of the Old Testament and New Testament. I've not gone to church for about 5 years, and in that time, my views have changed completely. (I always had nagging doubts about what I was taught as a child anyway.) I am now somewhere between Agnostic and Atheist. I have learned so much since escaping that suppressive state of mind, and the more I learn, the more I evolve as a person.
While I don't regret changing my views, there are times I wish I could revert to the Christian state of mind, because sometimes it made life easier to be able to say "God has a reason for everything and Jesus is taking care of me." As they say, "Ignorance is Bliss." It's kind of like wishing to be a child and believing in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. I grew up, though, and have learned to embrace the beauty in the not knowing. You can never go back home.
Also, refer to the song "Dive In" on this album. I love the part that says: "though we would like to believe we are we are not in control though we would love to believe"
Eh-Hee, What You Are, Proudest Monkey, One Sweet World come to mind regarding the subjects of religion and evolution.
People love clinging onto the idea that they have all the answers. They want to believe that they can be forgiven for the crap they can't forgive themselves for doing (sin) or "wash away" all the things they regret. People want to believe they'll go somewhere better when they die. That's a basic emotional need, and God fills it for some people. I understand this. I know why people do it. Maybe Dave sometimes wishes life could be that easy. Just my thoughts, but I'm probably a fucking nut job. :p