"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.
Same car, same parking lot
In the park one mile from your house
We make laughter to stop tears
We don't know where to go from here
We come tired from chasing dreams
With you I swear nothing's changed
Though they have come half true
Reawake in minor view
Could it be that easy?
I don't know
How many times do you set love free
Before you know it's supposed to be?
And how long do you wait and see
Before you know to run to me?
Before you know, ay ay
Poster children of young love
Scared to hold on tight enough
We're told to stay the course
I'm barging my way into yours
Oh, love, you see me through
A fire I surrender to
Our plans so big and bright
We'll think about them twice tonight
Could it be that easy?
I don't know
How many times do you set love free
Before you know it's supposed to be?
And how long do you wait and see
Before you know to run to me?
Before you know, oh oh
And all your fears and all your doubts
They never came to bail you out
Like every tear hits your shirt
Reminds you of the fireworks
How many times do you set love free
Before you know it's supposed to be?
And how long do you wait and see
Before you know to run to me?
Before you know, oh oh
Same car same parking lot
We used to sit and share out thoughts
We used to call it love
And then one day we learned to run
In the park one mile from your house
We make laughter to stop tears
We don't know where to go from here
We come tired from chasing dreams
With you I swear nothing's changed
Though they have come half true
Reawake in minor view
Could it be that easy?
I don't know
How many times do you set love free
Before you know it's supposed to be?
And how long do you wait and see
Before you know to run to me?
Before you know, ay ay
Poster children of young love
Scared to hold on tight enough
We're told to stay the course
I'm barging my way into yours
Oh, love, you see me through
A fire I surrender to
Our plans so big and bright
We'll think about them twice tonight
Could it be that easy?
I don't know
How many times do you set love free
Before you know it's supposed to be?
And how long do you wait and see
Before you know to run to me?
Before you know, oh oh
And all your fears and all your doubts
They never came to bail you out
Like every tear hits your shirt
Reminds you of the fireworks
How many times do you set love free
Before you know it's supposed to be?
And how long do you wait and see
Before you know to run to me?
Before you know, oh oh
Same car same parking lot
We used to sit and share out thoughts
We used to call it love
And then one day we learned to run
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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"
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,
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
my take on this song is that he goes back home and finds his way to his ex and they reminice on old memories together.. fall in love all over again and think "how many times do we forgive, how do we know its real this time?" and realize you just gotta go with your gut feeling and run with it.