"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.
Huh-huh-huh, my luck she is running very good!
I got a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin
They keep the hunger out and the happiness in
I got a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin
My luck she is running very good
I fly over jungle and my aeroplane boil
No gasoline and I run out of oil
I fill the tank with the gin and the banana oil
My luck she is running very good
(Oo-lay, oo-lay-ee-dee)
That zebra is red hot mama
(Oo-lay, oo-lay-ee-dee)
She is horse in lounging pyjama
We land in the jungle by the teeth of my skin
All the animals crowd around the flying machine
Big gorilla walk up to me and talk very mean
He put up his mits, I sock him on the chin
Then gorilla and me we begin the Beguine
With a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin
A bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin
Make a crazy sandwich full of vitamin
Outside you put the bananas and the gin in-between
My luck she is running very good
Today I meet tiger, he is hungry for meal
So I fed him gin to obtain his goodwill
Then when he chase me, he slip on the banana peel
My luck she is running very good
(Oo-lay, oo-lay-ee-dee)
He got girls like Indian Rajah
(Oo-lay, oo-lay-ee-dee)
I don't need no Rita or Zsa-Zsa
On Congo we meet a pretty cannibal Queen
We are posing for pictures in the Life magazine
She propose poker game to pass the time in-between
She promise she make me her King if I win
But if I lose, I wind up in her big soup tureen
With a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin
I got a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin
They keep the hunger out and the happiness in
I got a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin
My luck she is running very good
I fly over jungle and my aeroplane boil
No gasoline and I run out of oil
I fill the tank with the gin and the banana oil
My luck she is running very good
(Oo-lay, oo-lay-ee-dee)
That zebra is red hot mama
(Oo-lay, oo-lay-ee-dee)
She is horse in lounging pyjama
We land in the jungle by the teeth of my skin
All the animals crowd around the flying machine
Big gorilla walk up to me and talk very mean
He put up his mits, I sock him on the chin
Then gorilla and me we begin the Beguine
With a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin
A bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin
Make a crazy sandwich full of vitamin
Outside you put the bananas and the gin in-between
My luck she is running very good
Today I meet tiger, he is hungry for meal
So I fed him gin to obtain his goodwill
Then when he chase me, he slip on the banana peel
My luck she is running very good
(Oo-lay, oo-lay-ee-dee)
He got girls like Indian Rajah
(Oo-lay, oo-lay-ee-dee)
I don't need no Rita or Zsa-Zsa
On Congo we meet a pretty cannibal Queen
We are posing for pictures in the Life magazine
She propose poker game to pass the time in-between
She promise she make me her King if I win
But if I lose, I wind up in her big soup tureen
With a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
A Bunch of Bananas (The Heming Way) Lyrics as written by Ogden Nash Dick Manning
Lyrics © MUSIC SALES CORPORATION, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
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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.