He reuses the verse melody from the previous album's "Dirty Little Religion", the topics of the verses are all over the place, and he packs too many words into one line (goes to show...) and too few in another (it's pretty hard to find), and rhymes "Henley Regatta" with "Persona non grata", but gets away with it all as only he could.
She got a corpse
Under her bed
He had her fun
But now he's dead
Hear momma said
Come feed desire
Her brother said
Hey, throw him on the fire
This is the house
Come on in
This is the house
Built on sin
This is the house
Nobody lives
This is the house
You get what you give
I cut the flesh
And make it bleed
Fresh skin
Is what i need
I let it dry
Out in the wood
All your crying
Did no good, yeah
Now you're lying
On the floor
Yeah, you can't
Take anymore
The devil's laughing
In your face
Give me another taste, yeah
Under her bed
He had her fun
But now he's dead
Hear momma said
Come feed desire
Her brother said
Hey, throw him on the fire
This is the house
Come on in
This is the house
Built on sin
This is the house
Nobody lives
This is the house
You get what you give
I cut the flesh
And make it bleed
Fresh skin
Is what i need
I let it dry
Out in the wood
All your crying
Did no good, yeah
Now you're lying
On the floor
Yeah, you can't
Take anymore
The devil's laughing
In your face
Give me another taste, yeah
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In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
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"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.
AHHH i love the song, the movie, and his wife lol Sheri Moon is fucking gorgeous. I love this song it is like creepy and can freak the fuck out of anyone