"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.
The marionette made its marks, dragging on the pavement.
The dogs of sleep and sick were tangled in the strings that keep the leverage.
Come on, come with light...Illuminate and drive...
I need to leave what followed me
When I washed in from the sea...
That's taken so many of our lives
With its awful waves
This Chevrolet is done. It's sunk into the ground.
Chromes become my dining couch,
The ornament on a broken house,
And the weather's come alive
And it's leaking inside...
Knocked the breakers paralyzed,
And turned my savings on its side.
It's taken many of our lives...
With its wild ways
...So my mother says...
Heaven found on my way out...
...I took a walk one way...
And with a spark, all the lights in the city started racing
Out interstates and up the up the buildings, through the walls
and turn so filthy.
And it lights this room that we pay with our lives...Everyday...
To the toll booth of the birds of prey...
The dogs of sleep and sick were tangled in the strings that keep the leverage.
Come on, come with light...Illuminate and drive...
I need to leave what followed me
When I washed in from the sea...
That's taken so many of our lives
With its awful waves
This Chevrolet is done. It's sunk into the ground.
Chromes become my dining couch,
The ornament on a broken house,
And the weather's come alive
And it's leaking inside...
Knocked the breakers paralyzed,
And turned my savings on its side.
It's taken many of our lives...
With its wild ways
...So my mother says...
Heaven found on my way out...
...I took a walk one way...
And with a spark, all the lights in the city started racing
Out interstates and up the up the buildings, through the walls
and turn so filthy.
And it lights this room that we pay with our lives...Everyday...
To the toll booth of the birds of prey...
Lyrics submitted by TakingTheFall, edited by Mellow_Harsher
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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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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."
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
this Chevrolet is done. i love that line
I love Nick Torres writing, it mostly is all about escaping a heavy addiction. Probably heroin, but how should I know. Good to see he got out of whatever it is too write more and more beautiful music
antimusic.com/news/10/feb/17Singled_Out-_Cassino.shtml "Kingprince" is the nickname of a friend, and the song was a bit of a struggle to write. The words and music came easy, but when you deal with something this heavy, the thought of what others will think weighs on you, especially when these are people you see on a regular basis. This was the second song that was inspired by the death of someone I knew, and the first time I had no idea what my thoughts would stir up. The first time around I planned on using his name in the title of a song, but the family got wind of it and it became a big deal. Here I was in my crappy little bedroom, writing music for an album that would be on the shelves of Best Buy, writing things that deeply affected his family, people who I hardly even knew. I just thought it would make a good song, not even taking into account the circumstances of his death. I guess Music can be a powerful thing sometimes (after all it IS the language of the soul). I felt like an asshole for not talking to his family first. Honesty is the most important part of music, but I still don't know if there is a line that should not be crossed…
The song "Kingprince" is inspired by a friend who took his own life, and I say "inspired" because I don't really ever write about a certain, particular circumstance (names, dates, times etc.). I guess it's just more about the experience. I write mostly from the 1st person perspective, regardless if it is something that happened to me or someone else. Luckily I also write mostly in metaphors, so in the end it all ends up being pretty universal. I don't know why it's always a metaphor, that's just how it's always been. Anyways…He was always a great friend, a wonderful person, funny, and troubled. Before he passed, he had a couple run-ins with the law, and then was living in his car in Alabama…he tended to disappear off and on towards the end. I hope he knows his friends and family miss him, and I'm sure he's out skating on the rings of Saturn, and exploring all the dimensions we can't see. I was supposed to play at the funeral, but I got mixed up and they ended up just playing a Cassino song on the overheads…I felt really bad….So I hope he can forgive me for that. I think we would have dug this song….
Side note- the Harmonica track and the electric guitars were the "demo" very first takes…after about a couple of days of writing parts, we went back and listened, and nothing even came close.
Man, "The tollbooth of the birds of prey" gives such a creepy/depressing image.