"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.
Well sometimes I get tired of waking up on my own
And sometimes I feel like I want to go home,
But the cars they keep on driving
Down a road that doesn’t seem to end.
So we’re following arrows and the flight of the crow,
Living wide screen but what good is it though
When life gets narrower the further you go;
Suns set before they rise?
It’s there in the shadows where nobody goes.
It’s there in the dark but what good is it though?
It’s a vanishing point on a shimmering road
And there when I close my eyes.
Sometimes, yeah, it's hard to know the way to go
When the waters rise around you
And the fire rages down below.
So we’re following arrows and the flight of the crow,
Living wide screen but what good is it though
When life gets narrower the further you go;
Suns set before they rise?
It’s there in the shadows where nobody goes.
It’s there in the dark but what good is it though?
It’s a vanishing point on a shimmering road
And there when i close my eyes.
oh no oh oh oh
lo oh oh oh oh
'Cause we’re bullets and we’re fired from shotguns flying through birthdays and new years.
Yeah we’re rolling stones but the moss keeps growing round our hearts and our eyes and our ears.
Yeah we’re bullets and we’re fired from shotguns flying through birthdays and new years.
Yeah we’re rolling stones but the moss keeps growing round our hearts and our eyes and our ears.
So we’re following arrows and the flight of the crow,
Living wide screen but what good is it though
When life gets narrower the further you go;
Suns set before they rise?
It’s there in the shadows where nobody goes.
It’s there in the dark but what good is it though?
It’s a vanishing point on a shimmering road,
It's there when I close my eyes,
It's there when I close my eyes,
Only there when I close my eyes.
And sometimes I feel like I want to go home,
But the cars they keep on driving
Down a road that doesn’t seem to end.
So we’re following arrows and the flight of the crow,
Living wide screen but what good is it though
When life gets narrower the further you go;
Suns set before they rise?
It’s there in the shadows where nobody goes.
It’s there in the dark but what good is it though?
It’s a vanishing point on a shimmering road
And there when I close my eyes.
Sometimes, yeah, it's hard to know the way to go
When the waters rise around you
And the fire rages down below.
So we’re following arrows and the flight of the crow,
Living wide screen but what good is it though
When life gets narrower the further you go;
Suns set before they rise?
It’s there in the shadows where nobody goes.
It’s there in the dark but what good is it though?
It’s a vanishing point on a shimmering road
And there when i close my eyes.
oh no oh oh oh
lo oh oh oh oh
'Cause we’re bullets and we’re fired from shotguns flying through birthdays and new years.
Yeah we’re rolling stones but the moss keeps growing round our hearts and our eyes and our ears.
Yeah we’re bullets and we’re fired from shotguns flying through birthdays and new years.
Yeah we’re rolling stones but the moss keeps growing round our hearts and our eyes and our ears.
So we’re following arrows and the flight of the crow,
Living wide screen but what good is it though
When life gets narrower the further you go;
Suns set before they rise?
It’s there in the shadows where nobody goes.
It’s there in the dark but what good is it though?
It’s a vanishing point on a shimmering road,
It's there when I close my eyes,
It's there when I close my eyes,
Only there when I close my eyes.
Lyrics submitted by hahawht, edited by graeson104
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Hayalperest
Hayalperest
This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
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,
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
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Ed Sheeran
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Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
To me, this song is about the tendency to not be present.
We long for the things we don't have and look toward the future for things to get better but life just keeps going forward, most of it experienced because of our aversion to pain and the long for what we could have. And as we go, those options of what could be become bleaker and bleaker and we keep moving forward but we experience less and less of it. We wonder sometimes what the point is even.
What you long for is just that vanishing point down a road that only seems appealing when it's ahead of you.
There's no specific mention of the value in living in the now, just hints, because this is a song of someone frustrated with life and how it flies by and longing for what they will never have because of the way they are living life; the way they feel many of us are living life.