"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.
Tinkers Blues +-
Sat down on the beggers bench
Figured it was time I rest
Thought about the things that I would do, yeah
If I just had some money Jack's been here for years
He says that he would like a beer
And I know what he means, yeah
Cos he knows what he needs
He's a man with a plan, oh yeah
A man with a plan, oh yeah
A man with a plan, oh yeah
At quarter to two there's a rush for the shop that sells pastry
Lilly just sits there taking it all in, she's rolling a big one
Cos she don't care
She's thinking about time
Cos she don't mind
Thinking about time
Keep on
Don't let no one break yer heart
Move on
Don't let no one let you down
Keep on
Don't let no one break yer heart
Move on
Don't let no one let you down
Martha said she lost her mantra
In a town that didn't matter
But all that repetition got her down
But if we sit for too long
We might just go wrong
She's thinking it over
She's thinking it over
She's thinking it over
If I had a line I'd be thinking of ways to get with it
But I got nothing just a moment to sing about nothing
Frozen in motion
We're frozen in motion
All dead ends and broken hearts
All dead ends and broken hearts
Keep on
Don't let no one break yer heart
Move on
Don't let no one let you down
Keep on
Don't let no one break yer heart
Move on
Don't let no one let you down
Martha said she lost her mantra
In a town that didn't matter
Martha said she lost her mantra
In a town that didn't matter
Martha said she lost her mantra
Sat down on the beggers bench
Figured it was time I rest
Thought about the things that I would do, yeah
If I just had some money Jack's been here for years
He says that he would like a beer
And I know what he means, yeah
Cos he knows what he needs
He's a man with a plan, oh yeah
A man with a plan, oh yeah
A man with a plan, oh yeah
At quarter to two there's a rush for the shop that sells pastry
Lilly just sits there taking it all in, she's rolling a big one
Cos she don't care
She's thinking about time
Cos she don't mind
Thinking about time
Keep on
Don't let no one break yer heart
Move on
Don't let no one let you down
Keep on
Don't let no one break yer heart
Move on
Don't let no one let you down
Martha said she lost her mantra
In a town that didn't matter
But all that repetition got her down
But if we sit for too long
We might just go wrong
She's thinking it over
She's thinking it over
She's thinking it over
If I had a line I'd be thinking of ways to get with it
But I got nothing just a moment to sing about nothing
Frozen in motion
We're frozen in motion
All dead ends and broken hearts
All dead ends and broken hearts
Keep on
Don't let no one break yer heart
Move on
Don't let no one let you down
Keep on
Don't let no one break yer heart
Move on
Don't let no one let you down
Martha said she lost her mantra
In a town that didn't matter
Martha said she lost her mantra
In a town that didn't matter
Martha said she lost her mantra
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Tinker's Blues Lyrics as written by Neil Halstead
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Lord Huron
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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"
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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,
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.