"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.
Designed for one another,
we lie tied to our slabs.
While the same electricity that gave us life,
crackles through the lab,
And I am too dumb
to tell you how I feel.
Who will know who will tell anyone,
that what we had was real?
We belong dead, we belong dead.
So I try and try to focus,
to say what I want to say.
But it's such hard work,
and we don't have all day.
Our efforts won't add up
to any great amount
Get one chance to make your gesture down here,
I wanna make mine count.
We belong dead, we belong dead.
We belong dead. We belong dead.
we lie tied to our slabs.
While the same electricity that gave us life,
crackles through the lab,
And I am too dumb
to tell you how I feel.
Who will know who will tell anyone,
that what we had was real?
We belong dead, we belong dead.
So I try and try to focus,
to say what I want to say.
But it's such hard work,
and we don't have all day.
Our efforts won't add up
to any great amount
Get one chance to make your gesture down here,
I wanna make mine count.
We belong dead, we belong dead.
We belong dead. We belong dead.
Lyrics submitted by Eccentricity
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
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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.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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,
Head > Heels
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“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
A couple of things here. Most importantly, this song takes its inspiration from the film The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1936, starring Boris Karloff). At the end of the film, the monster's now animated Bride is repulsed by him, when all he wanted was a friend (his only friend, a hermit, he has now lost). He is upset, and shouts to warn Doctor Frankenstein and his wife to leave as he grasps a lever to explode the laboratory. To the Bride and the duplicitous Pretorious (who had the bride created) he blocks their exit and tells them to stay. He shouts to them: "We belong dead!" The laboratory is destroyed, killing them at the monster's pulling of the lever.
The Monster at this point has a limited vocabulary. He has been taught a few words by the hermit in the woods, and only through him does he seem to gain the concept of friendship and love. He is dumb in two senses, of course. He has spent most of his life unable to speak. He is also unable to meaningfully articulate or understand his feelings. The song must be taking a liberty with the fact that if there is a love story here, it is not for the two beings given life in Frankenstein's lab. It does however reflect a lot about the Monster's death at the end -- he makes his gesture count. He is now aware through his Bride of his own creation, but she is not. He can choose their only logical end, regardless of what he feels.