"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.
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
There were banged up hands stealing first base
Underneath the tables so we never sang grace
Falling out of bed for the workday week
There was kissing in the cracks of the flash flood streets
There were button blossoms and merry Johnny Rotten
Chewed up and swallowed by the profit they were trying to follow
Bit too green and we paid no tax on our quick romantic cul de sac
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
There were washed out cars in our bark-old clothes
They were rubbing on each other rubbing ghost on ghost
There were jonesed-up punks and Jesus freaks
Weaving in and out of trouble wrapping round and round a leash
There were sleepless dreamers, blues day preachers
The message and the messenger, gum beneath the register
The sweet gum tree by the dug dunk tank
We could never give enough to the bad-luck bank
There were hopeless sinners, sweepstake winners
They danced with the farmer's daughter, capered with the corporate lawyers
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
There was laughing in the night, sugar in the shade
There were back stab handshakes made on faith
We were never out of time and we never entertained
Anybody said out of habit that the wind was going to change
There were restless misfits, teething biscuits
Bodies full of penny wishes, parties full of pretty dishes
Side by side with the birds and bees
And we never sang grace and never ever took a knee
With the saints and ramblers, movie star handlers
High above the aviary, underneath the cemetery
And we never wondered why, 'cause the sun was in our eyes
There was seed for the field, there was grease for the wheel
We were drinking with the luminaries, eating with the visionaries
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
There were banged up hands stealing first base
Underneath the tables so we never sang grace
Falling out of bed for the workday week
There was kissing in the cracks of the flash flood streets
There were button blossoms and merry Johnny Rotten
Chewed up and swallowed by the profit they were trying to follow
Bit too green and we paid no tax on our quick romantic cul de sac
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
There were washed out cars in our bark-old clothes
They were rubbing on each other rubbing ghost on ghost
There were jonesed-up punks and Jesus freaks
Weaving in and out of trouble wrapping round and round a leash
There were sleepless dreamers, blues day preachers
The message and the messenger, gum beneath the register
The sweet gum tree by the dug dunk tank
We could never give enough to the bad-luck bank
There were hopeless sinners, sweepstake winners
They danced with the farmer's daughter, capered with the corporate lawyers
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
There was laughing in the night, sugar in the shade
There were back stab handshakes made on faith
We were never out of time and we never entertained
Anybody said out of habit that the wind was going to change
There were restless misfits, teething biscuits
Bodies full of penny wishes, parties full of pretty dishes
Side by side with the birds and bees
And we never sang grace and never ever took a knee
With the saints and ramblers, movie star handlers
High above the aviary, underneath the cemetery
And we never wondered why, 'cause the sun was in our eyes
There was seed for the field, there was grease for the wheel
We were drinking with the luminaries, eating with the visionaries
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
But it all came down to you and I
Lyrics submitted by mike, edited by cataphone, Mellow_Harsher, rgrav, CileSuns92, smallwonderrobot, xtnjohnson, sirwillifer
Grace for Saints and Ramblers Lyrics as written by Samuel Ervin Beam
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
What a lovely song.
But I wonder how much my enjoyment of the song will be negatively affected now that I realized that the chorus is grammatically incorrect. It should be "But it all came down to you and me."
The simple trick to see that it's wrong is to the remove the "You and" from the preposition... No one would say "It came down to I".
Oh well. It's one in a long line of good songs with bad grammar, including more than a few that make this same mistake... but I'm not sure there's ever been a song where it's repeated so many times.
I noticed the grammatical error too, but put it down to poetic license. I vividly remember my eighth-grade English teacher accepting the grammatical quagmire of "Let It (TO BE) Me". She was a real teacher! And I don't even remember her name...
Yes, the more I've listened to it the more I'm convinced it's quite intentional.<br /> The song is largely a collection of contradictory things and strange pairings that make as much sense as a grammatically incorrect pairing.
Yes, the more I've listened to it the more I'm convinced it's quite intentional.<br /> The song is largely a collection of contradictory things and strange pairings that make as much sense as a grammatically incorrect pairing.
@SpasticMinnow Haha, that was my first thought, too. If it's any consolation, you can easily make it grammatically correct by adding quotes, like so: It all came down to "you and I". To me, this makes the whole chorus much more poetic and my understanding of it would be that it all comes down to the stories that start with "You and I"; i.e. all that we did together.