"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.
You in the living room
You on a Tuesday afternoon
A breeze seen when the curtains move
You by the window with both feet up on the couch
Where you sit and you read and I watch you
From the office the sunlight frames your silhouette
I think of lighting fireworks, I think of pirouettes
I idly write down observations on the scene
Like do the blueprints name the rooms alone?
Do we name them on our own?
We hardly live in there
You with a book propped on your knees
A breeze seen in your coffee steam
I'm in the office thinking back to rules of poetry
It's fourteen lines, the last two rhyme, what does pentameter mean?
You in the living room
Legs bent at forty-five degrees
I write AB AB, try to find your rhyme scheme
I look for objects on the desk with which to sculpt your image best
What would I name this could I paint it "Woman (reading)?" "Girl (at rest)?"
I remember it so well watching you shifting your weight,
Turning the page, I can see it all there
Inside a living room where only I live and never go in
A role in name alone
And I pause where I am for a second when I hear your name
Sometimes I think I see your face in improbable places
Do those moments replay for you?
When I'm suddenly there and then won't go away
When you're sitting in the living room reading for the afternoon
Do you put your book down look and try to find me there?
Sometimes I think of all the people who lived here before us
How the spaces in the memories you make change the room from just blueprints
To the place where you live
When you leave here
When you go from a home
You take all that you own but the memories echo
On hardwood floor in the living room
Tore the carpet the scratches below that we found
And the wine stain on the couch
We got drunk and decided we'd still try to move it around
And I can't tell what the difference is between
The ones that we made and the ones that we didn't make
They all conjure images still
Where you sit and you read in the sunlight aware that I watch
And I live alone now
Save for the echoes
I live alone now
Save for the echoes
You on a Tuesday afternoon
A breeze seen when the curtains move
You by the window with both feet up on the couch
Where you sit and you read and I watch you
From the office the sunlight frames your silhouette
I think of lighting fireworks, I think of pirouettes
I idly write down observations on the scene
Like do the blueprints name the rooms alone?
Do we name them on our own?
We hardly live in there
You with a book propped on your knees
A breeze seen in your coffee steam
I'm in the office thinking back to rules of poetry
It's fourteen lines, the last two rhyme, what does pentameter mean?
You in the living room
Legs bent at forty-five degrees
I write AB AB, try to find your rhyme scheme
I look for objects on the desk with which to sculpt your image best
What would I name this could I paint it "Woman (reading)?" "Girl (at rest)?"
I remember it so well watching you shifting your weight,
Turning the page, I can see it all there
Inside a living room where only I live and never go in
A role in name alone
And I pause where I am for a second when I hear your name
Sometimes I think I see your face in improbable places
Do those moments replay for you?
When I'm suddenly there and then won't go away
When you're sitting in the living room reading for the afternoon
Do you put your book down look and try to find me there?
Sometimes I think of all the people who lived here before us
How the spaces in the memories you make change the room from just blueprints
To the place where you live
When you leave here
When you go from a home
You take all that you own but the memories echo
On hardwood floor in the living room
Tore the carpet the scratches below that we found
And the wine stain on the couch
We got drunk and decided we'd still try to move it around
And I can't tell what the difference is between
The ones that we made and the ones that we didn't make
They all conjure images still
Where you sit and you read in the sunlight aware that I watch
And I live alone now
Save for the echoes
I live alone now
Save for the echoes
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Blink-182
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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 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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
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.
This may be completely wrong, but to me I feel this song was written about him being in love with this woman and admiring everything she does. Everything she does seems to interest him and bring him some sort of happiness. Such a great track from Rooms of the House.