"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.
When I went to your town on the wide open shore
Oh I must confess, I was drawn, I was drawn to the ocean
I thought it spoke to me, it said, "Look at us,
We're not churches, not schools, not skating ponds, swimming pools
And we have lost people, haven't we though?"
Oh, that's what the ocean can know of a body
And that's when I came back to town, this town is a song about you
You don't know how lucky you are, you don't know how much I adore you
You are the welcoming back from the ocean.
I went back to the ocean today
With my books and my papers I went to the rocks by the ocean
But the weather changed quickly, oh the ocean said
"What are you trying to find, I don't care, I'm not kind
I've bludgeoned your sailors, I've spat out their keepsakes
Oh it's ashes to ashes, but always the ocean,"
But the ocean can't come to this town, this town is a song about you
You don't know how lucky you are, you don't know how much I adore you
You are the welcoming back from the ocean.
And the ones that can know you so well are the ones that can swallow you whole.
I have a good and I have an evil, I thought the ocean, the ocean thought nothing
You are the welcoming back from the ocean.
I didn't go back today
I wanted to show you that I was more land than water
I went to pick flowers I brought them to you
Look at me, look at them, with their salt up the stem
But you frowned when I smiled and I tried to arrange them
You said, "Let me tell you the song of this town"
You said, "Everything closes at five. After that, well, you just got the bars
You don't know how precious you are, walking around with your little shoes dangling
I am the one who lives with the ocean.
It's where we came from, you know, and sometimes I just want to go back
After a day, we drink til we're drowning, walk to the ocean, wade in with our work boots
Wade in our work boots, try to finish the job.
You don't know how precious you are, I am the one who lives with the ocean
You don't know how I am the one. You don't know how I am the one."
Oh I must confess, I was drawn, I was drawn to the ocean
I thought it spoke to me, it said, "Look at us,
We're not churches, not schools, not skating ponds, swimming pools
And we have lost people, haven't we though?"
Oh, that's what the ocean can know of a body
And that's when I came back to town, this town is a song about you
You don't know how lucky you are, you don't know how much I adore you
You are the welcoming back from the ocean.
I went back to the ocean today
With my books and my papers I went to the rocks by the ocean
But the weather changed quickly, oh the ocean said
"What are you trying to find, I don't care, I'm not kind
I've bludgeoned your sailors, I've spat out their keepsakes
Oh it's ashes to ashes, but always the ocean,"
But the ocean can't come to this town, this town is a song about you
You don't know how lucky you are, you don't know how much I adore you
You are the welcoming back from the ocean.
And the ones that can know you so well are the ones that can swallow you whole.
I have a good and I have an evil, I thought the ocean, the ocean thought nothing
You are the welcoming back from the ocean.
I didn't go back today
I wanted to show you that I was more land than water
I went to pick flowers I brought them to you
Look at me, look at them, with their salt up the stem
But you frowned when I smiled and I tried to arrange them
You said, "Let me tell you the song of this town"
You said, "Everything closes at five. After that, well, you just got the bars
You don't know how precious you are, walking around with your little shoes dangling
I am the one who lives with the ocean.
It's where we came from, you know, and sometimes I just want to go back
After a day, we drink til we're drowning, walk to the ocean, wade in with our work boots
Wade in our work boots, try to finish the job.
You don't know how precious you are, I am the one who lives with the ocean
You don't know how I am the one. You don't know how I am the one."
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Ebba Grön
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
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Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
I think the song is about projection, and then disillusionment. The narrator projects her feelings, first onto the ocean, seeing it as a kindred spirit, a confidant. Then she sees the apparent uncaring malevolence of the ocean ("I've bludgeoned your sailors, I spit out their keepsakes"). Then, she comes to an epiphany - the ocean doesn't think ("I thought the ocean, the ocean thought nothing"), that it was all her projection.
She eagerly goes all to tell what she's learned to her friend, who lives by the ocean and who she thinks is a guy who has it all together. The guy sets her straight telling her about his utter loneliness and almost suicidal frustration. He says to her "you don't know how precious you are, walking around with your little shoes dangling".
Brilliant song on so many levels.