"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.
Free as a driving wheel
Circling around your iron will
See only what you feel
Keeps you turning when you're standing still
You tried to run from trouble when it comes
You followed the drum keeping time with everyone
High as the light of day
You're falling down across your lost highway
Pain - does it hurt this way?
To come so far to find they've closed the gates?
You've lost your tongue when you fall from the pendulum
Your heart is a drum keeping time with everyone
Everyone, if they drown from the undertow
Need to find someone to show me how to play it slow
And just let it go
Your eyes get stung by the rays of the sinking sun
You follow the drum keeping time with everyone
Going beat beat beat, it's beating me down
Beat beat beat beat, it's beating me down
Day after day, it's turning around
'Til all my days are drowning out
Circling around your iron will
See only what you feel
Keeps you turning when you're standing still
You tried to run from trouble when it comes
You followed the drum keeping time with everyone
High as the light of day
You're falling down across your lost highway
Pain - does it hurt this way?
To come so far to find they've closed the gates?
You've lost your tongue when you fall from the pendulum
Your heart is a drum keeping time with everyone
Everyone, if they drown from the undertow
Need to find someone to show me how to play it slow
And just let it go
Your eyes get stung by the rays of the sinking sun
You follow the drum keeping time with everyone
Going beat beat beat, it's beating me down
Beat beat beat beat, it's beating me down
Day after day, it's turning around
'Til all my days are drowning out
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by HabibtheGreat
Heart Is a Drum Lyrics as written by Beck Hansen
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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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"
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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,
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Wu-Tang Clan
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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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
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How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
I think he is using this wonderful song to get over someone. They are obviously not together anymore and that he is communicating to her through this song for himself so that his heart can move on.
The opening lines of the 1st verse I found hard to understand because all I could see is contradiction between the 1st and 2nd line therefore is this Beck's view of the relationship? I sense anger and frustration on his behalf towards her for her lack of with the lyrics 'see what you only feel' and 'you've lost your tongue when you fall from the pendulum'. He wants to deal with the pain in his heart when he realizes that her heart was not in the relationship - 'Pain - does it hurt this way? To come so far to find they've closed the gates.'
The lyrics 'Everyone, if they drown...just let it go' is Beck singing to us giving advice but in that "unloading" he understands himself and what he needs in a woman.The title of the song line 'Heart is a drum keeping the beat with everyone' I cannot help but feel that this is a snide remark on his behalf at her for been typical of following to how society plays the game.
Last lines of this song is brilliant both lyrically and musically. The last lines is the motif of the song musically - the 'beat beat beat' is his anguish after the dust has settled that all he is left with is her in his mind in his every moment of the day. Musically speaking the lyrics 'beat, beat, beat' is his anguish of constant thinking of her which Beck has illustrated in 2 ways musically - the recurring bass guitar riff progression of over and over and over and over ... that is double-voiced in the piano to echo the sentiment and the harmonic guitar chord played in arpeggio to emphasize the theme of over and over and over and over.... like a water tap dripping or the clock ticking. This musicality of the bass guitar, piano and guitar represents his constant thinking. The voice harmonies are her and how the thought of her haunts him over and over and over.....
Beck must have truly loved this girl to have composed such a beautiful song to deal with his heart - he still does and maybe through this song he will find peace!
@Lols51 <br /> My apologies - just watched the video and death seems to be a theme in the video - the grim reaper, a Kurt Cobain-look-a-like, 2 astronauts, female dressed in white and a girl.<br /> <br /> Maybe its not about his love life but maybe death... suicide even!