"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.
I. Faint Heart
Faint heart
World can wait for the weary hands to learn it's too late
But I'm spit and I'm rough dirt
What do you want from me?
Faint heart
Tip of my tongue
A song like youth: wasted on the young
And it's over and over
What kind of father could I be?
Faint heart
Rain to the spark
At last my light, giving in to dark
And the thought of it crumbling to dust - no, I was not done
Faint heart
I beg she won't see the coward, the cur, maybe this is me
These hands shaped stone
But I'm scared like you wouldn't believe
Faint heart
Only a glimpse
I was wrong, take it back, just let this one live
Then it hits me like ice to the bone
What if I'm just like him?
Good god
Give me the strength that I need not to be
To fight, not to flee
Or succumb to the beast underneath
What if he's just like me? naked in the wild
All was reconciled
When I held my child
II. A Few Peaceful Years
Quiet mind
Peace... Reach...
Quiet mind Be at peace... Reach...
We are the fire that whispers our mother's words
Help me, love, help me to finish it
We are the soil that joy gave form
We are the dream, and these are my father's hands
Help me, love, help me to finish it
We are the soil that joy gave form
III. The Boy and the Broken Wheel
Rising waves cry "he'll go first..."
He'll go first
(You know it al all that's left of your dream) [You know that it is true]
Is all this nothing to you?
[Hope sings to the dust of you]
Fear...
(What if they were right?)
[He was always the better]
He was always the better
[The thief who shapes the world.]
The thief who shapes the images you dreamed
[Dreamed for nothing]
All unfinished dreams...
For nothing
(The images you dreamed were for nothing...)
(Take back what's yours, don't keep me waiting)
[Take back what's yours, don't keep me waiting]
Just take back what's yours, don't keep me waiting
No more hope, broken pieces in your hands
[In your weary hands]
Waves rushing in
I'm waiting
I wait
He sees me
Waves receding
The child, healing my hurt, one day at a time
I'd feared it
Just like me
The child, healing my hurt, one day at a time
Storm's distant
I'm still closer than ever
I'm healing my hurt
One day I'll repay this kindness
Oh, he sees me Whole
Her voice is telling me
To breathe and let it be, the lion
Heed my words
The man arise from earth
The life the lie is worth, the liar
Heed my words, you'll go first
The wound that would not heal
The boy, the broken wheel, the lion
Heed my hurt
The wind that whips the waves
The spit, the second grave, the liar
Heed my hurt, you'll go first
We are the fire that whispers our mother's words
Help me, love, help me to finish it
We are the soil that joy gave form
We are the dream, and these are my father's hands
Help me, love, help me to finish it
We are the soil that joy gave form
Waves receding, and faith is fading like the sun
The work left undone
IV. Hands Shape Stone
Greed brought us here
Soon, blood to soil
Now that has been taken from me
Tell me it was all for nothing
Alright
Play the part, the eyes, the witness
That I can touch you deep, can you feel this?
Alright
Breathe and let it be
Carving out the world that you stole
Bite down on it, dig a new hole
O hands
I beg you, break stone beneath me
Knowing that she won't forgive me
Not this time, not again
But she married my anger too
And what am I to stay to my son now?
My work undone...
Hands shape stone
Reconcile
Faint heart
World can wait for the weary hands to learn it's too late
But I'm spit and I'm rough dirt
What do you want from me?
Faint heart
Tip of my tongue
A song like youth: wasted on the young
And it's over and over
What kind of father could I be?
Faint heart
Rain to the spark
At last my light, giving in to dark
And the thought of it crumbling to dust - no, I was not done
Faint heart
I beg she won't see the coward, the cur, maybe this is me
These hands shaped stone
But I'm scared like you wouldn't believe
Faint heart
Only a glimpse
I was wrong, take it back, just let this one live
Then it hits me like ice to the bone
What if I'm just like him?
Good god
Give me the strength that I need not to be
To fight, not to flee
Or succumb to the beast underneath
What if he's just like me? naked in the wild
All was reconciled
When I held my child
II. A Few Peaceful Years
Quiet mind
Peace... Reach...
Quiet mind Be at peace... Reach...
We are the fire that whispers our mother's words
Help me, love, help me to finish it
We are the soil that joy gave form
We are the dream, and these are my father's hands
Help me, love, help me to finish it
We are the soil that joy gave form
III. The Boy and the Broken Wheel
Rising waves cry "he'll go first..."
He'll go first
(You know it al all that's left of your dream) [You know that it is true]
Is all this nothing to you?
[Hope sings to the dust of you]
Fear...
(What if they were right?)
[He was always the better]
He was always the better
[The thief who shapes the world.]
The thief who shapes the images you dreamed
[Dreamed for nothing]
All unfinished dreams...
For nothing
(The images you dreamed were for nothing...)
(Take back what's yours, don't keep me waiting)
[Take back what's yours, don't keep me waiting]
Just take back what's yours, don't keep me waiting
No more hope, broken pieces in your hands
[In your weary hands]
Waves rushing in
I'm waiting
I wait
He sees me
Waves receding
The child, healing my hurt, one day at a time
I'd feared it
Just like me
The child, healing my hurt, one day at a time
Storm's distant
I'm still closer than ever
I'm healing my hurt
One day I'll repay this kindness
Oh, he sees me Whole
Her voice is telling me
To breathe and let it be, the lion
Heed my words
The man arise from earth
The life the lie is worth, the liar
Heed my words, you'll go first
The wound that would not heal
The boy, the broken wheel, the lion
Heed my hurt
The wind that whips the waves
The spit, the second grave, the liar
Heed my hurt, you'll go first
We are the fire that whispers our mother's words
Help me, love, help me to finish it
We are the soil that joy gave form
We are the dream, and these are my father's hands
Help me, love, help me to finish it
We are the soil that joy gave form
Waves receding, and faith is fading like the sun
The work left undone
IV. Hands Shape Stone
Greed brought us here
Soon, blood to soil
Now that has been taken from me
Tell me it was all for nothing
Alright
Play the part, the eyes, the witness
That I can touch you deep, can you feel this?
Alright
Breathe and let it be
Carving out the world that you stole
Bite down on it, dig a new hole
O hands
I beg you, break stone beneath me
Knowing that she won't forgive me
Not this time, not again
But she married my anger too
And what am I to stay to my son now?
My work undone...
Hands shape stone
Reconcile
Lyrics submitted by unbeliever121
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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"
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
I don't have anything to add others would maybe feel true...
But for my own experience..
First part up until chorus/refrain:
My ex partner talking about my pregnancy.
The rest:
My struggle with miscarriage and his abandonment of me resulting in my telling him it's over. Unfortunately. ????
I could specify, but it purely my personal interpretation.
xxBB