"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.
Remember when you first found love how you felt so good
Kind that lasts forever more so you thought it would
Suddenly the things you see got you hurt so bad, so bad
How come the things that make us happy make us sad
Well it seems to me that
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Love can be bitter, love can be sweet
Sometimes devotion and sometimes deceit
The ones that you care for give you so much pain
Oh but it's alright they're both one in the same
Listen, don't it seem we go through life going up and down
Seems the things that turn you on turn you around
Always hurting each other if it ain't one thing it's another
When the world is down on you love's somewhere around
And I want you to know that
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Over and over you can be sure
There will be sorrow but you will endure (you will endure)
Where there's a flower there's the sun and the rain
Oh but it's wonderful they're both one in the same
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy
Kind that lasts forever more so you thought it would
Suddenly the things you see got you hurt so bad, so bad
How come the things that make us happy make us sad
Well it seems to me that
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Love can be bitter, love can be sweet
Sometimes devotion and sometimes deceit
The ones that you care for give you so much pain
Oh but it's alright they're both one in the same
Listen, don't it seem we go through life going up and down
Seems the things that turn you on turn you around
Always hurting each other if it ain't one thing it's another
When the world is down on you love's somewhere around
And I want you to know that
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Over and over you can be sure
There will be sorrow but you will endure (you will endure)
Where there's a flower there's the sun and the rain
Oh but it's wonderful they're both one in the same
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain
Joy
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Joy And Pain Lyrics as written by Jeremy Peter Godfrey Bill Padley
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Kassner Associated Publishers Ltd
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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.
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.
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 line sums it all up imho - "Where there's a flower there's the sun and the rain".
The flower needs both to grow. And the the same vain, life or love is never fully ideal - In reality, it is a rollercoaster.