"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.
Sick on the brink of a new lurk for kicks
A true new low for the old pone to fix
Mood hyped, teen night, over at the roller rink
Rehearsing slow lewd winks, nude, at the men's room sink, ya'll
Evil, pink, small, lesser, surly, and lurid
Open girlies for leisure, never not where the youth is
Son, the putrid things I've done for purely my pleasure?
It's horrid
Surely at 30-plus it must seem untoward
Dirty stories untold
Mass nasty sex in the dorms
Don't ask me when I was born
Less known is best come morn'
Yes, you'd never guess, but in this form I'm a mess
And with this heavy chest I can't rest
What's your name?
So I put the porn in a poem to confess and atone
I address the past and ask why I'm alone
In a torn tone I preach peace and poor from the pulpit
But at home, Jack Kennedy sheets and shag carpet
Purchased parkas from Marshalls at ridiculous markups
Out at farmer's markets and high thread count garments
And on FourSquare this morning, like an old yoga yuppie
I checked in at Krogers in a gold pullover toga like "fuck it"
What's your name?
I use the first person cause it sounds more urgent
But the truth is I probably knew myself less than you did
I'm so lonesome that I'd let you take me out
If you looked like my ex-girlfriend or Zooey Deschanel
But heed this honey, even if I beg for relations
You should try to only keep me as a distant acquaintance
Yeah, but I'm too persistent for that to work
And what's worse is when you finally fall asleep
I'm gonna go through your purse
What's your name?
A true new low for the old pone to fix
Mood hyped, teen night, over at the roller rink
Rehearsing slow lewd winks, nude, at the men's room sink, ya'll
Evil, pink, small, lesser, surly, and lurid
Open girlies for leisure, never not where the youth is
Son, the putrid things I've done for purely my pleasure?
It's horrid
Surely at 30-plus it must seem untoward
Dirty stories untold
Mass nasty sex in the dorms
Don't ask me when I was born
Less known is best come morn'
Yes, you'd never guess, but in this form I'm a mess
And with this heavy chest I can't rest
What's your name?
So I put the porn in a poem to confess and atone
I address the past and ask why I'm alone
In a torn tone I preach peace and poor from the pulpit
But at home, Jack Kennedy sheets and shag carpet
Purchased parkas from Marshalls at ridiculous markups
Out at farmer's markets and high thread count garments
And on FourSquare this morning, like an old yoga yuppie
I checked in at Krogers in a gold pullover toga like "fuck it"
What's your name?
I use the first person cause it sounds more urgent
But the truth is I probably knew myself less than you did
I'm so lonesome that I'd let you take me out
If you looked like my ex-girlfriend or Zooey Deschanel
But heed this honey, even if I beg for relations
You should try to only keep me as a distant acquaintance
Yeah, but I'm too persistent for that to work
And what's worse is when you finally fall asleep
I'm gonna go through your purse
What's your name?
Lyrics submitted by SisterCity
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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
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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
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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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
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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.
This song sort of reminds me of "Good Friday". He just gets more and more revealing. It's every dark secret I have about myself, but said aloud.
"I conquered my own childhood silence and now the world is my lit confessional marquee"
"Rain is confession weather and we become booths of prayer if we let us"
I hear, "So I put the porn in a poem to confess and atone"
Also, "but at home, Jack Kennedy sheets and shag carpet"