"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.
There are desperate times upon us,
There are codes of white and black,
Political resentment and people start to crack,
There's hate and opposition,
There's fumbling dialog,
Yet you sit there and judge me
And you think it makes a difference
If you think I'm all alone you are foolishly wrong,
There's an entire army who blindly follow along,
And you happen to be one of them believe it or not,
Even though you try not to be we are of the same plague
The other ways we're taught to fear,
Don't even scratch the surface of the problem here,
I'm not blind, and I'm not scared,
So many crucial factors exist out there,
And we're but one, and they're bout two,
And how we come to terms will help us pull through
Things cannot change too fast,
It took us this much time,
To reach our current platform and walk this fragile line,
If I thought I'd make a difference I'd kill myself today,
But so many are like me lost in the fray
You create your own reality,
And leave mine to me
There are codes of white and black,
Political resentment and people start to crack,
There's hate and opposition,
There's fumbling dialog,
Yet you sit there and judge me
And you think it makes a difference
If you think I'm all alone you are foolishly wrong,
There's an entire army who blindly follow along,
And you happen to be one of them believe it or not,
Even though you try not to be we are of the same plague
The other ways we're taught to fear,
Don't even scratch the surface of the problem here,
I'm not blind, and I'm not scared,
So many crucial factors exist out there,
And we're but one, and they're bout two,
And how we come to terms will help us pull through
Things cannot change too fast,
It took us this much time,
To reach our current platform and walk this fragile line,
If I thought I'd make a difference I'd kill myself today,
But so many are like me lost in the fray
You create your own reality,
And leave mine to me
Lyrics submitted by punk_in_drublic99, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Leave Mine to Me Lyrics as written by Greg Graffin
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
MadcaPPunk i totally agree with you too