"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.
Saturday morning along and barely feeling
Sitting at home after rocking and areeling
All night in a cat fight
With the only one that can make me cry
Open the blinds and the world is in rotation
Shaking my mind like an Etch a Sketch erasing
Sunshine you were bad I'm
Still mad but I can't remember why
I believe you know me well
I react like you're ringing a bell
Are you sorry that you treat me unkind
Never you mind
Rolling along to the song that aggravates us
Beckoned on by the mirage of an oasis
Hurry, I'm getting blurry
And it's no longer clear in my mind
I believe you know me well
I react like you're ringing a bell
Are you sorry that you treat me unkind
Never you mind
I believe I got you down
You react like anybody else around
Are you sorry that we wasted our time
Never you mind
Sometimes it takes all my time guessing why
I can't figure it out
Sometimes it takes all my energy just to forget about
All the memories that I'd be better off without
I believe you know me well
Switch on the box Mr. Spock is on the table
Dr. McCoy is unable to connect his brain
Sweatin' and strainin'
Well it seemed so simple at the time
Sitting at home after rocking and areeling
All night in a cat fight
With the only one that can make me cry
Open the blinds and the world is in rotation
Shaking my mind like an Etch a Sketch erasing
Sunshine you were bad I'm
Still mad but I can't remember why
I believe you know me well
I react like you're ringing a bell
Are you sorry that you treat me unkind
Never you mind
Rolling along to the song that aggravates us
Beckoned on by the mirage of an oasis
Hurry, I'm getting blurry
And it's no longer clear in my mind
I believe you know me well
I react like you're ringing a bell
Are you sorry that you treat me unkind
Never you mind
I believe I got you down
You react like anybody else around
Are you sorry that we wasted our time
Never you mind
Sometimes it takes all my time guessing why
I can't figure it out
Sometimes it takes all my energy just to forget about
All the memories that I'd be better off without
I believe you know me well
Switch on the box Mr. Spock is on the table
Dr. McCoy is unable to connect his brain
Sweatin' and strainin'
Well it seemed so simple at the time
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Very obviously a song about a man who feels psychologically trapped in this dysfunctional relationship.
"Rolling along to the song that aggravates us Beckoned on by the mirage of an oasis"
The only thing that keeps him in is this delusion that as bad as things are in this relationship, it will all get better. But it's obvious by his reference to a mirage that he's not totally sold on that idea and deep down, he knows he needs to get out.
"I believe you know me well I react like you're rining a bell"
An obvious reference to the 'Pavlov's Dog' experiments regarding conditioned response. In short: everytime researchers rang a bell, they fed a dog a treat. Pretty soon, everytime the bell rang, the dog would begin to salivate in response to the bell ringing. Just google "Pavlov's Dog" As it relates to the relationship in the song, she has our protagonist wrapped around her finger in a bad way. Conditioned to respond to her every whim.
as for the reference to the classic Star Trek episode entitled "Spock's Brain": I'm going to take a stab at it. I believe that what is being suggested is that our protagonist is, with regard to the relationship, of two minds. He is BOTH McCoy AND Spock. On the one hand, he knows that this woman has stolen his mind/will and is merely using him (Spock) and his more rational part (McCoy) knows basically what he needs to do to get out of this bad relationship but he just doesn't know quite how to go about it. Thus he's having a lot of anxiety "Sweatin' and Strainin'" over what to do next.