"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.
If dreams come true then you and I would make a two
And if I had one more I'd dream that I stayed on your floor
And while my parents were alive
They'd say Rebecca knows the time to play the next card to your chest
You thought about me and you said go
I thought about that and I said no
You couldn't understand why a girl like me thinks the way I do
But I can't stand a boy who thinks things through like you
Lets go back to the beginning of the nights that I've been regretting
Lets go back to the beginning of the nights I've been regretting
Now with you I always thought we lived behind a front door
Right now you don't think that you can live any more
And I'll call and call and call and call and call and call and call
Anyone on the phone, so tonight I'm not alone
Lets go back to the beginning of the nights that I've been regretting
Lets go back to the beginning of the nights that I've been regretting
And you say baby a lot in your song
It takes all my courage not to sing along
And now my beating heart belongs to my drum
I met a boy who grew up in the mountains
He really loved God and got me thinking about things
Like appreciating everyone that I can call a friend
Seeing life as a group of tests to see through to the end
But I'm a quitter, I don't think he knew
That I'm still thinking about you
I'm a quitter and I'm ashamed
He said he'd come back for my brain
And you say baby a lot in your songs
It takes all my courage not to sing along
And now my beating heart belongs to my drum
I just wanted to see that new Tim Burton movie
Or hang around with Laura, Jane and Suzy
And I definitely want to be a rapper
But I'm just a northern girl from where nothing really happens
And the bones inside my shins are crumbling
The bones inside my shins are crumbling
The bones inside my shins are crumbling
The bones inside my shins are crumbling
The bones inside my shins are crumbling
It's from all the crunking I've been doing
And if I had one more I'd dream that I stayed on your floor
And while my parents were alive
They'd say Rebecca knows the time to play the next card to your chest
You thought about me and you said go
I thought about that and I said no
You couldn't understand why a girl like me thinks the way I do
But I can't stand a boy who thinks things through like you
Lets go back to the beginning of the nights that I've been regretting
Lets go back to the beginning of the nights I've been regretting
Now with you I always thought we lived behind a front door
Right now you don't think that you can live any more
And I'll call and call and call and call and call and call and call
Anyone on the phone, so tonight I'm not alone
Lets go back to the beginning of the nights that I've been regretting
Lets go back to the beginning of the nights that I've been regretting
And you say baby a lot in your song
It takes all my courage not to sing along
And now my beating heart belongs to my drum
I met a boy who grew up in the mountains
He really loved God and got me thinking about things
Like appreciating everyone that I can call a friend
Seeing life as a group of tests to see through to the end
But I'm a quitter, I don't think he knew
That I'm still thinking about you
I'm a quitter and I'm ashamed
He said he'd come back for my brain
And you say baby a lot in your songs
It takes all my courage not to sing along
And now my beating heart belongs to my drum
I just wanted to see that new Tim Burton movie
Or hang around with Laura, Jane and Suzy
And I definitely want to be a rapper
But I'm just a northern girl from where nothing really happens
And the bones inside my shins are crumbling
The bones inside my shins are crumbling
The bones inside my shins are crumbling
The bones inside my shins are crumbling
The bones inside my shins are crumbling
It's from all the crunking I've been doing
Lyrics submitted by Macphisto12
Boys On Their Birthdays (Our most brilliant friends part 2) song meanings
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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"
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."
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,
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.
This song is about that person in the relationship who would like something more out of it.
They feel as if they aren't being treated as well as they are treating the other person and it leads to the idea of wanting to start over from scratch and hoping the same mistakes won't be made a second time. "Lets go back to the beginning of the nights that I've been regretting"
Unfortunately, he is that person who knows what to say and when to say it and she is having trouble because she continues to fall those lines. "And you say baby a lot in your song It takes all my courage not to sing along"