"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.
Mescaline in the sun
You try so hard to find someone
I used to be your hero
Blood on my saddle
Fighting every battle
I used to be alone
Well, you shoot up then you go to class
It's funny how nobody asked
'Cause all your teachers love you
Everybody loves you
Everybody loves you
The same way that I do.
What a wonderful world
That we live in
You're a love disaster, your heart beats faster
When it's with mine
You're a likely story, morning glory
On the vine
There are holy ghosts pushing past the time
They let me know every time you cry
You're burning in some back street
Burning in some room
Burning is the one thing
That you should know how to do
But I can't put out the fire
When it looks like you
You didn't do the same
When I asked you to
What a wonderful world
That we live in
You're a love disaster, your heart beats faster
When it's with mine
You're a likely story, morning glory
On the vine
(x2)
Mescaline
You try so hard to find someone
I used to be your hero
Blood on my saddle
Fighting every battle
I used to be alone
Well, you shoot up then you go to class
It's funny how nobody asked
'Cause all your teachers love you
Everybody loves you
Everybody loves you
The same way that I do.
What a wonderful world
That we live in
You're a love disaster, your heart beats faster
When it's with mine
You're a likely story, morning glory
On the vine
There are holy ghosts pushing past the time
They let me know every time you cry
You're burning in some back street
Burning in some room
Burning is the one thing
That you should know how to do
But I can't put out the fire
When it looks like you
You didn't do the same
When I asked you to
What a wonderful world
That we live in
You're a love disaster, your heart beats faster
When it's with mine
You're a likely story, morning glory
On the vine
(x2)
Mescaline
Lyrics submitted by sobeliz24
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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,
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.
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.
"But I can't put out the fire When it looks like you"
God, what an awesome song.
All about a love lost to drugs. The first stanza, with "I used to be your hero", is about how the singer used to try to protect his love (The one he calls 'Mescaline', which is a natural psychedelic found in peyote) and how he used to be the only one fighting for her. In the second stanza, the singer wonders why other people who supposedly care haven't confronted Mescaline about her drug use (It's funny how nobody asked).
What a wonderful world that we live in... yeah...
In the chorus, the singer basically says he knows she still loves him ("Your heart beats faster when it's with mine). Then he mentions that she's not the only one in that position (you're a likely story). He also says that she's still young and still growing (Morning Glory on the vine). Morning Glory could also be a reference to the Victorian Language of Flowers, in which a Morning Glory represents love in vain.
I'm not too sure about the third stanza's first lines, but 'burning' definitely has to do with the suffering of 'Mescaline'. It's what she knows how to do.
"But I can't put out the fire when it looks like you" The singer can't bring himself to show 'Mescaline' what she's doing to herself because he doesn't want to hurt her. "You didn't do the same when I asked you to." Even when he tried to get 'Mescaline' to help herself, she never followed through.
Probably my favorite off this album, right next to Mid-Twenty Nothing.