"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.
Deep in the mind that wide opens
Right here we stand alive, we live focused
We open-minded, still we die hopeless
With our pride broken and bullet holes covered where we stay at
And everybody's playing for keeps, most people pray that
We all make it up out this godforsaken place that we've been all faced with
We take our chances but they all wasted
And once again you see me (marching, mobbing)
But how long must I continue to see my homies dodgin these marksmen
The whole nine put on the line but never in mind to become the head sergeant
We all targets, the votes are in, but they ain't ours
We got these politicians running their game to regain power
While our whole black community sours
Crime rate towers, plagued by white powders
And they claim to helping us to clean up our community
But ain't no open opportunities, impunity
Is what these demons use to regulate
We keep in mind we can run but we can't hide cause the streets we walk are never safe
Still all my shattered hopes and dreams remain scattered
Broken into thousands of pieces, smashed and tattered
But it don't matter, hipocrisy in your democracy
Is stopping me, so I'm retaliating properly
Theologically, society has got me pressured by the hate
And Heaven knows I have faith, I have faith
[Chorus]
(I just wanna celebrate)
(I just wanna celebrate)
Have faith
(I just wanna celebrate)
(I just wanna celebrate)
Rudely awaken from this bad dream
Thinking my conscience wants to tell me something because of these bad things
(Past things) got me in the center of these mad dreams
(Flashing) homicidal ? fatal slashings
Now I'm asking: explain to me these visionaries Brad's seen
(Past things) sad things killed him cause he had dreams
(A sad scene) but all I ever wanted was my mind back
Now I'm that nigga trying to find out where his mind's at
The time that it took myself to figure out my mind's gone
My mind crack, slide back, look at all the time gone
Rewind back, comeback, understand my life gon' make these cuts that won't change
But things look so strange, the plague�
I gots to get myself up out the frame
Try to maintain the same game flipping 10 and flame Jane
A damn shame, people gots to always check your background
To jack now, come jack now and I'ma leave you flat down
Come back now or back down, homie, this is always all day
(Killer) in these dark and lonely hallways
Cause all they wanna see is all us brothers boxed up in caskets
With plastic bags in every bathroom getting blasted
It's drastic, mama help me calm down cause your son's sick
Don't watch me get gunned down for the dumb shit
Then the gun click and now I see the other side of black space
My last day, sad case, Heaven knows I have faith
[Chorus]
New day brings about change, everybody's searching for the light
The daydream schemes of living life
Has got us tossed up, believing we controlling our motions
Got the answer in space beside the view behind the ocean
And adapting to the everyday struggle's got us stressed
Cause the fact we know we here one day and could die the next
You've insisted to take equipment to the solar system
Trying to ensure your sole existence
Now tell me: do you think that when the bang goes boom
You can pack up all your things and aim for the moon?
It's unlikely, but you might be equipped with with proceeds to save lives
But you die when the King say die
You can race it but you can't shake it, stop trying
Try to hide it, cause you can't face it but you're born dying
God, please forgive us cause we're human not perfect
And the devil try to fronting but it's not working
How can we all sit suspended in space
Just spinning in place and ain't extended in faith
Man, wait
[Chorus]
Right here we stand alive, we live focused
We open-minded, still we die hopeless
With our pride broken and bullet holes covered where we stay at
And everybody's playing for keeps, most people pray that
We all make it up out this godforsaken place that we've been all faced with
We take our chances but they all wasted
And once again you see me (marching, mobbing)
But how long must I continue to see my homies dodgin these marksmen
The whole nine put on the line but never in mind to become the head sergeant
We all targets, the votes are in, but they ain't ours
We got these politicians running their game to regain power
While our whole black community sours
Crime rate towers, plagued by white powders
And they claim to helping us to clean up our community
But ain't no open opportunities, impunity
Is what these demons use to regulate
We keep in mind we can run but we can't hide cause the streets we walk are never safe
Still all my shattered hopes and dreams remain scattered
Broken into thousands of pieces, smashed and tattered
But it don't matter, hipocrisy in your democracy
Is stopping me, so I'm retaliating properly
Theologically, society has got me pressured by the hate
And Heaven knows I have faith, I have faith
[Chorus]
(I just wanna celebrate)
(I just wanna celebrate)
Have faith
(I just wanna celebrate)
(I just wanna celebrate)
Rudely awaken from this bad dream
Thinking my conscience wants to tell me something because of these bad things
(Past things) got me in the center of these mad dreams
(Flashing) homicidal ? fatal slashings
Now I'm asking: explain to me these visionaries Brad's seen
(Past things) sad things killed him cause he had dreams
(A sad scene) but all I ever wanted was my mind back
Now I'm that nigga trying to find out where his mind's at
The time that it took myself to figure out my mind's gone
My mind crack, slide back, look at all the time gone
Rewind back, comeback, understand my life gon' make these cuts that won't change
But things look so strange, the plague�
I gots to get myself up out the frame
Try to maintain the same game flipping 10 and flame Jane
A damn shame, people gots to always check your background
To jack now, come jack now and I'ma leave you flat down
Come back now or back down, homie, this is always all day
(Killer) in these dark and lonely hallways
Cause all they wanna see is all us brothers boxed up in caskets
With plastic bags in every bathroom getting blasted
It's drastic, mama help me calm down cause your son's sick
Don't watch me get gunned down for the dumb shit
Then the gun click and now I see the other side of black space
My last day, sad case, Heaven knows I have faith
[Chorus]
New day brings about change, everybody's searching for the light
The daydream schemes of living life
Has got us tossed up, believing we controlling our motions
Got the answer in space beside the view behind the ocean
And adapting to the everyday struggle's got us stressed
Cause the fact we know we here one day and could die the next
You've insisted to take equipment to the solar system
Trying to ensure your sole existence
Now tell me: do you think that when the bang goes boom
You can pack up all your things and aim for the moon?
It's unlikely, but you might be equipped with with proceeds to save lives
But you die when the King say die
You can race it but you can't shake it, stop trying
Try to hide it, cause you can't face it but you're born dying
God, please forgive us cause we're human not perfect
And the devil try to fronting but it's not working
How can we all sit suspended in space
Just spinning in place and ain't extended in faith
Man, wait
[Chorus]
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Faith Lyrics as written by Hunter Easton Hayes Barry George Dean
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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"
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.