"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.
Half life wastes before it goes
It's funny how your bee sting touch never leaves me whole
It's not enough to stay here almost trying
You keep your last laugh watch this dying
It's just half time vertigo
And if you want an answer I don't know
If you had completed me
Don't think I'd be pleased with you
Don't think I'd compete with you
With half of me to take
Half life nothing I'd call home
It's lucky how these phantom limb bee stings never show
It's not enough to leave this falling kindly
You burn my star down twice as brightly
It's just your half light undertow
But if you need forgiveness I don't know
Half light breaks with nothing wrong
Just a corner of my bed where you don't belong
It's kind of you to notice no one's dying
You choked your last laugh almost crying
It's just your half life long to know
And if you need a reason so it goes
It's funny how your bee sting touch never leaves me whole
It's not enough to stay here almost trying
You keep your last laugh watch this dying
It's just half time vertigo
And if you want an answer I don't know
If you had completed me
Don't think I'd be pleased with you
Don't think I'd compete with you
With half of me to take
Half life nothing I'd call home
It's lucky how these phantom limb bee stings never show
It's not enough to leave this falling kindly
You burn my star down twice as brightly
It's just your half light undertow
But if you need forgiveness I don't know
Half light breaks with nothing wrong
Just a corner of my bed where you don't belong
It's kind of you to notice no one's dying
You choked your last laugh almost crying
It's just your half life long to know
And if you need a reason so it goes
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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
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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”
Blue
Ed Sheeran
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“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
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.
Chris: "Halflife is about past relationships, your sexual history, talking about how losing someone is like having a limb chopped off, then having a phantom limb and getting an insect sting on that phantom limb."