"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.
Pressed the seven sequenced silver panic buttons,
The distress calls that fall on a distracted short-wave signal.
A metronome timed to my panic stricken breathing
And a pulse conducted by our dying lines.
You said my heart sounded like a payphone in the rain.
Distorted, distant, scrambled and desperate.
Baby, I swear to god tonight I am sober.
It's the reception between us that's failing.
Everything's coming out all frenzied and confused.
She's got what it takes to make collapsing a habit
And a dance out of a tantrum fit (it's tragic but I am sobering up).
Pick up the phone.
Tonight I feel like the hero of a rusting war.
My touch has the timing and precision of a car wreck.
No use translating the trembles.
They're symptoms of repetitive testing for fluctuation.
If I come back home, I am bringing back the bends.
So give me a kiss. let me taste the reptilian appeal.
Say it again baby. does it turn you on? does it get you hot?
I get a little hysterical sometimes.
The panic you shouldn't have been so sentimental.
All that kicking and screaming.
Everything I touch starts peeling.
We malfunction like machines.
Get up off the floor and answer the phone.
I want to be a big star.
Didn't want to touch so hard.
Open the door.
I am your deviant satellite, an orbit defected by the ballast of words.
You're the reason for collisions.
I am face down like a sailor washed up under your window.
Tonight is a shipwreck.
Navigating through disorder.
Now every electric star hums like a telecaster.
How punk rock is that?
You're so oblivious.
Baby, you're my oblivion.
The distress calls that fall on a distracted short-wave signal.
A metronome timed to my panic stricken breathing
And a pulse conducted by our dying lines.
You said my heart sounded like a payphone in the rain.
Distorted, distant, scrambled and desperate.
Baby, I swear to god tonight I am sober.
It's the reception between us that's failing.
Everything's coming out all frenzied and confused.
She's got what it takes to make collapsing a habit
And a dance out of a tantrum fit (it's tragic but I am sobering up).
Pick up the phone.
Tonight I feel like the hero of a rusting war.
My touch has the timing and precision of a car wreck.
No use translating the trembles.
They're symptoms of repetitive testing for fluctuation.
If I come back home, I am bringing back the bends.
So give me a kiss. let me taste the reptilian appeal.
Say it again baby. does it turn you on? does it get you hot?
I get a little hysterical sometimes.
The panic you shouldn't have been so sentimental.
All that kicking and screaming.
Everything I touch starts peeling.
We malfunction like machines.
Get up off the floor and answer the phone.
I want to be a big star.
Didn't want to touch so hard.
Open the door.
I am your deviant satellite, an orbit defected by the ballast of words.
You're the reason for collisions.
I am face down like a sailor washed up under your window.
Tonight is a shipwreck.
Navigating through disorder.
Now every electric star hums like a telecaster.
How punk rock is that?
You're so oblivious.
Baby, you're my oblivion.
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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@[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.
Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
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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,
Blue
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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.
if i come back home i'm bringing back the bends...so give me a kiss, let me taste the reptilian appeal...
that line has special meaning to me..hehe