"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.
way back college boy asked to a high school dance
couldn't wait, but my date was in my friend's pants.
didn't know what to do, mc feelin blue,
til my best friend said that the red would get me through.
went to the jewel with my crew, adults only box,
in a second hand suit, bow tie, i'm a fox.
in a car on the street, in my mouth swisher sweet
down that shit at my crib in a one gulp feat.
room starts to turn like cheese,
my tummy starts to churn like grease,
on my knees like a rug burn beast
like an intern tease with a yeast (infection.)
all the while on the tile, feel like I got the flu.
think I'm gonna throw, I think this night is through
ding dong, date's arrived and her dress is ripped.
she don't know I'm on a robotussin trip.
in the back two girls going stag fat asses.
i demand from the date her sunglasses.
do a drop roll out the car like axel.
I need an angel, I need some fuckin advil.
I got a buzz bigger than a behive
cough up my cookies let loose what's on the inside
chorus
the tussin, the tussin
put it down like it was nothing
robocop couldn't stop me puking and flushin
no balls to be bustin, no fightin, no cussin
just love for a drug called robotussin
way back college boy, live on eleventh floor.
head out my window, wonder what I'm living for.
knock on my door, what's in store, it's my buddy bux
with the rabbit ear pockets saying he is out of luck.
Need a forty for party thrown by laura kang at rubin.
all he's got is snot and a box full of ludens.
Tell'm bout the tussin, we're hayden ho hustlin'
interupting discussions about reagonomic reprocussions.
Fuck'm, we're fuckin chug luggin.
soon my stomach I'm huggin I'm trippin or something
my coat I button, keep it down like a dungeon.
you could call me the cough medicine curmudgeon.
frankly, the feeling's fuckin fantastic
I'm tripping like jesus in the desert when he fasted,
Like it's the night before we all get drafted,
Like we're rowing through some rapids with Kevin Bacon, white water rafting
Like you're on epcot center on acid? Exactly.
chorus
couldn't wait, but my date was in my friend's pants.
didn't know what to do, mc feelin blue,
til my best friend said that the red would get me through.
went to the jewel with my crew, adults only box,
in a second hand suit, bow tie, i'm a fox.
in a car on the street, in my mouth swisher sweet
down that shit at my crib in a one gulp feat.
room starts to turn like cheese,
my tummy starts to churn like grease,
on my knees like a rug burn beast
like an intern tease with a yeast (infection.)
all the while on the tile, feel like I got the flu.
think I'm gonna throw, I think this night is through
ding dong, date's arrived and her dress is ripped.
she don't know I'm on a robotussin trip.
in the back two girls going stag fat asses.
i demand from the date her sunglasses.
do a drop roll out the car like axel.
I need an angel, I need some fuckin advil.
I got a buzz bigger than a behive
cough up my cookies let loose what's on the inside
chorus
the tussin, the tussin
put it down like it was nothing
robocop couldn't stop me puking and flushin
no balls to be bustin, no fightin, no cussin
just love for a drug called robotussin
way back college boy, live on eleventh floor.
head out my window, wonder what I'm living for.
knock on my door, what's in store, it's my buddy bux
with the rabbit ear pockets saying he is out of luck.
Need a forty for party thrown by laura kang at rubin.
all he's got is snot and a box full of ludens.
Tell'm bout the tussin, we're hayden ho hustlin'
interupting discussions about reagonomic reprocussions.
Fuck'm, we're fuckin chug luggin.
soon my stomach I'm huggin I'm trippin or something
my coat I button, keep it down like a dungeon.
you could call me the cough medicine curmudgeon.
frankly, the feeling's fuckin fantastic
I'm tripping like jesus in the desert when he fasted,
Like it's the night before we all get drafted,
Like we're rowing through some rapids with Kevin Bacon, white water rafting
Like you're on epcot center on acid? Exactly.
chorus
Lyrics submitted by peaceandska
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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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
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
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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
i just heard it by the way thats y the late response