"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.
Got my first real six-string
Bought it at the five-and-dime
Played it till my fingers bled
Was the summer of '69
Me and some guys from school
Had a band and we tried real hard
Jimmy quit and Joey got married
I shoulda known, we'd never get far
Oh, when I look back now
The summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice,
Yeah, I'd always want to be there
Those were the best days of my life
Ain't no use in complainin'
When you got a job to do
Spent my evenin's down at the drive-in
And that's where I met you, girl
Standin' on your mama's porch,
You told me that you'd wait forever
Oh, and when you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life
Oh yeah
Back in the summer of '69, uh-huh
Yeah, we were killin' time
We were young and restless, we needed to unwind
I guess nothing can last forever,
Forever, no
Yeah
And now the times are a-changin'
Look at everything that's come and gone
Every time when I play that old six-string
I think about you, wonder what went wrong
Standin' on your mama's porch
(that's right)
You told me it would last forever
Oh and when you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life
Oh yeah
Back in the summer of '69, uh-huh
Me and my baby had 69, oh yeah
Back in the summer of '69
Bought it at the five-and-dime
Played it till my fingers bled
Was the summer of '69
Me and some guys from school
Had a band and we tried real hard
Jimmy quit and Joey got married
I shoulda known, we'd never get far
Oh, when I look back now
The summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice,
Yeah, I'd always want to be there
Those were the best days of my life
Ain't no use in complainin'
When you got a job to do
Spent my evenin's down at the drive-in
And that's where I met you, girl
Standin' on your mama's porch,
You told me that you'd wait forever
Oh, and when you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life
Oh yeah
Back in the summer of '69, uh-huh
Yeah, we were killin' time
We were young and restless, we needed to unwind
I guess nothing can last forever,
Forever, no
Yeah
And now the times are a-changin'
Look at everything that's come and gone
Every time when I play that old six-string
I think about you, wonder what went wrong
Standin' on your mama's porch
(that's right)
You told me it would last forever
Oh and when you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life
Oh yeah
Back in the summer of '69, uh-huh
Me and my baby had 69, oh yeah
Back in the summer of '69
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Fast Car
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Lord Huron
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"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"
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"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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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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
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“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.
MxPx covers this song really good too