"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.
the desert is a strange place to be
when you’re looking for an ocean on your knees.
i’ve come all this way, so i guess i’ll stay,
there is an explanation for everything.
the desert is a strange place to go
but the buses stop anywhere the wind blows.
i saw a helicopter fly towards an unfamiliar glow in the evening sky
and all the while you were looking at me with your solar eclipse eye.
desert pacific octopi.
how long did you look for hidden messages in what i wrote?
part of me wishes you never really stopped.
part of me wishes you never really stopped.
the desert is a lost place for those
who get so terribly distracted by empty rooms
but they built houses just in time to collect our precious lives
on mantlepieces all over town.
I watch the holes in the skyline
like the gaps in the wave form where i give the song time.
i learned.
i got such a big backpack. it is pulling me down.
but it’s kinda where i am now, it’s kinda where i come from.
rooftops are dripping with words they have written
in times when their hearts and the cities were smitten
and the parking lot where we secretly met
holds the imprint of our fingertips when the concrete was wet
and my lips are sewn shut and my hips are boulders
for ships that won’t come to crash on my bones.
i run to where the stray dogs won’t find me,
where the broadcast breaks off,
where the darkness and the ocean align.
and all the while you were looking at me with your solar eclipse eye. desert pacific octopi.
when you’re looking for an ocean on your knees.
i’ve come all this way, so i guess i’ll stay,
there is an explanation for everything.
the desert is a strange place to go
but the buses stop anywhere the wind blows.
i saw a helicopter fly towards an unfamiliar glow in the evening sky
and all the while you were looking at me with your solar eclipse eye.
desert pacific octopi.
how long did you look for hidden messages in what i wrote?
part of me wishes you never really stopped.
part of me wishes you never really stopped.
the desert is a lost place for those
who get so terribly distracted by empty rooms
but they built houses just in time to collect our precious lives
on mantlepieces all over town.
I watch the holes in the skyline
like the gaps in the wave form where i give the song time.
i learned.
i got such a big backpack. it is pulling me down.
but it’s kinda where i am now, it’s kinda where i come from.
rooftops are dripping with words they have written
in times when their hearts and the cities were smitten
and the parking lot where we secretly met
holds the imprint of our fingertips when the concrete was wet
and my lips are sewn shut and my hips are boulders
for ships that won’t come to crash on my bones.
i run to where the stray dogs won’t find me,
where the broadcast breaks off,
where the darkness and the ocean align.
and all the while you were looking at me with your solar eclipse eye. desert pacific octopi.
Lyrics submitted by feathersandtwine
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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The Night We Met
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"
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
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.