"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.
From Antartica to the polar caps
Try to fit a big orb on a little flat map
I'm not going to drive this time
I love Greenland when it's Africa's size
North is not up
And east is not right
Except for Milwaukee Wisconsin that night
I know what it feels like to be upside down from here
Here is my arm and it waves like a flag that reminds me
That I have two arms and a map
From Antartica to the polar caps
Try to fit a big orb on a little flat map
I'm not going to drive this time
I love Greenland when it's Africa's size
North is not up
And east is not right
Except for Milwaukee Wisconsin that night
(So get a map and learn where you live at)
(Learn where you live at, learn where you live at)
I know what it feels like to be upside down from here
I know what it feels like to be upside down from here
And if we met halfway in the middle of the planet
We'd just sit there and spin
Would that happen? can it?
I know what it feels like to be upside down from here (here is my arm and it waves like a flag)
I know what it feels like to be upside down from here (that reminds me that I have two arms and a map )
Stop? (yeah)
Try to fit a big orb on a little flat map
I'm not going to drive this time
I love Greenland when it's Africa's size
North is not up
And east is not right
Except for Milwaukee Wisconsin that night
I know what it feels like to be upside down from here
Here is my arm and it waves like a flag that reminds me
That I have two arms and a map
From Antartica to the polar caps
Try to fit a big orb on a little flat map
I'm not going to drive this time
I love Greenland when it's Africa's size
North is not up
And east is not right
Except for Milwaukee Wisconsin that night
(So get a map and learn where you live at)
(Learn where you live at, learn where you live at)
I know what it feels like to be upside down from here
I know what it feels like to be upside down from here
And if we met halfway in the middle of the planet
We'd just sit there and spin
Would that happen? can it?
I know what it feels like to be upside down from here (here is my arm and it waves like a flag)
I know what it feels like to be upside down from here (that reminds me that I have two arms and a map )
Stop? (yeah)
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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,
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
this song isnt about stupid people who think north is up like yourself its about being lost and having to put a compass on top of the map which would be the big orb to figure out which direction you were going and figuring out which was you need to go