"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.
ich fliege uber berg und tal
wer nackig fliegt, der muss auch mail
ich seh' dich sitzen dort am see
und strull' in deinen blasentee
ich bin ein held - ein supermann
der ausser strullern noch vieles andere kann
ich helfe damen ubern damm
bevor ich ihnen mein ---
die kinder mogen mich gar sehr
die bullen suchen mich noch mehr
doch wenn man mich nicht finden kann
ruft man ganz laut nach pimmelmann
ich bin der pimmelmann (pimmelmann)
wenn man mich nicht finden kann
ruft man ganz laut nach pimmelmann
was ich aus meiner tasche hol'
sind gummis meist und alkohol
ich helfe gern bei jung und alt
egal bei wem das hymen knalt
der pimmelmann wird niemals geh'n
sein kumpel wird noch jahre steh'n
deinen enkel wird wer noch entzucken
will er sich nach der seife. xx
wer nackig fliegt, der muss auch mail
ich seh' dich sitzen dort am see
und strull' in deinen blasentee
ich bin ein held - ein supermann
der ausser strullern noch vieles andere kann
ich helfe damen ubern damm
bevor ich ihnen mein ---
die kinder mogen mich gar sehr
die bullen suchen mich noch mehr
doch wenn man mich nicht finden kann
ruft man ganz laut nach pimmelmann
ich bin der pimmelmann (pimmelmann)
wenn man mich nicht finden kann
ruft man ganz laut nach pimmelmann
was ich aus meiner tasche hol'
sind gummis meist und alkohol
ich helfe gern bei jung und alt
egal bei wem das hymen knalt
der pimmelmann wird niemals geh'n
sein kumpel wird noch jahre steh'n
deinen enkel wird wer noch entzucken
will er sich nach der seife. xx
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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"
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
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.
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.
This song is so damn perky for some odd reason.
I fly over mountains and valleys If you fly naked, you have to I see you sitting there by the lake And swirl in your bladder tea
I am a hero - a Superman Who can do a lot more besides swirling I help ladies over the dam Before I give them my ---------
The kids really like me The cops are looking for me even more But if you can't find me Call out loud to Penisman
I am the Penisman (Penisman) If you can't find me Call out loud to Penisman
What I get out of my pocket Are mostly rubbers (or Gummis) and alcohol I like to help young and old No matter who the hymen pops
The Penisman will never go His buddy will stand for years He will still delight your grandson Does he want the soap ... oh
I didn't handle the missing words well at all:<br /> <br /> In the last line, "Will er sich nach der Seife ... oh", the missing word has to rhyme with "entzücken", so you immediately think "bücken", which means "bending". On top of that, the position in the sentence structure is different in German than in English. So what this actually means is more like:<br /> <br /> Your grandson will be delighted by him<br /> When he's [bending over] for the soap<br /> <br /> And bending over for the soap has the same connotation in German that it does in English.<br /> <br /> Also, the "Bevor Ich" line is better as "Before I put my [penis] inside" than "Before I give my [penis]", but that one doesn't change the meaning much.
You've probably heard that this is a very dirty song, but it's dirty in a very silly way. Very few jokes survive translation, but especially sp when the specific words and tone are the joke.
To demonstrate, just take the title. "Pimmel" is one of many words for "penis"—one of the more friendly ones, and it also connotes pissing rather than sex. If a "Schwanz" is a "dick", a "Pimmel" is a "wiener" or a "todger". "Pimmelmann" means "Penisman", with the same superhero association as in English, but it also makes it sound a lot more childish, because kiddie names for penis are mostly things like "Pipimann". But it's not like calling a song "Wiener Man" (like that kiddie campfire song that Joel & the Bots loved to sing on MST3K), because a "Pimmel" isn't a sausage or a man's first name or whatever that can also be used as slang for penis, it just means penis.
So now, maybe you can appreciate why it's funny, but I'll bet you didn't laugh once while learning, or afterward.