"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.
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Bruce Berry was a working man
He used to load that Econoline van
A sparkle was in his eye
But his life was in his hands
Well, late at night when the people were gone
He used to pick up my guitar
And sing a song in a shaky voice
That was real as the day was long
Tonight's the night, yes it is, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, yes it is, tonight's the night
Early in the mornin' at the break of day
He used to sleep until the afternoon
If you never heard him sing
I guess you won't too soon
'Cause people let me tell you
It sent a chill up and down my spine
When I picked up the telephone
And heard that he'd died out on the mainline
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Bruce Berry was a working man
He used to load that Econoline van
Well, early in the morning at just about the break of day
He used to sleep until the afternoon
Tonight's the night, yes it is, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, ooh, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night, whoa
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Bruce Berry was a working man
He used to load that Econoline van
A sparkle was in his eye
But his life was in his hands
Well, late at night when the people were gone
He used to pick up my guitar
And sing a song in a shaky voice
That was real as the day was long
Tonight's the night, yes it is, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, yes it is, tonight's the night
Early in the mornin' at the break of day
He used to sleep until the afternoon
If you never heard him sing
I guess you won't too soon
'Cause people let me tell you
It sent a chill up and down my spine
When I picked up the telephone
And heard that he'd died out on the mainline
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Bruce Berry was a working man
He used to load that Econoline van
Well, early in the morning at just about the break of day
He used to sleep until the afternoon
Tonight's the night, yes it is, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, ooh, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, tonight's the night, whoa
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More Featured Meanings
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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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,
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
The titular phrase is Neil saying "tonight's the night I heard the news that Bruce died." Simple as that. I'm sure Neil was aware that Berry had a serious drug problem and was shocked but not surprised to find out about his death. It's almost him saying, "So THIS is the night he passes away...I knew this was coming, and if it hadn't been tonight, then it would have been some other night."
makes sense to me
This song goes hand in hand with the needle and the damage done.
Neil famously said that this is not an album for 11 in the morning.
He was working through his grief at two close friends dying to the needle. The whole album was recorded in a warehouse over the course of two weeks. They ate burger after burger and drank lots of tequila. Most of it is drunken pain. Kind of like an Irish wake? But he doesn't seek to wallow in it, or escape it. But to live in it for long enough to get through it.
But he didn't really come out of it until the Zuma album, says Neil.
I've always wondered what the phrase "tonights the night" actually refers to here. I understand the songs about his friends that overdosed, but that part seems incomplete: Tonights the night that....something happens.
Any ideas?