"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.
Mase and Brian McKnight
Bay Boy we dont' stop, we rock we rock
Yo,I hit you the sound that the world can't take
Came straight out the gig playing two point eight
Near studded, jewel flooded, got to love it
First rap cat with an R&B budget
Everyday on the TV, me and PD
Girls see PD, make their man break the CD
Why ya'll forever rowdy, I'll be outie
Somewhere in Maui, 'til I go back to Cali
Can't understand how he can treat you
The way that he does
Give me the chance to show you baby
You're better off with me
Oh so baby let me try, I wanna make you smile
I wanna love you like you need to be loved
I'll never let you down, I'll always be around
And you should be mine
If he don't love you right, don't waste your time
If he don't treat you like you should, then you should be mine
Why can't you see you should be happy
And I don't know why
You don't believe a man can love you
For the rest of your life
Oh so, baby let me try, I wanna make you smile
I wanna love you like you need to be loved
I'll never let you down I'll always be around
And you should be mine
If he don't love you right, don't waste your time
If he don't treat you like you should, then you should be mine
Yo, what the deal honey, insecure, feeling funny
I know you're used to dealing with cats with real money
Also know you like Mase in alot of ways
But it's hard to go on when your lonely on the holidays
When you shop should you shop for two
Take you where the waters aqua blue
Let you fall back, treat you like you all that
Under umbrellas with your shades and your straw hat
You ain't the one out clubbin' all day and all night
Just to save a fight you say what's right
And I know he ain't the cat that will stay in your life
Even though he gave you ice that'll make you his wife
How a man deserve you if he hurt you
How you give a woman 25 a curfew
Between me and you, you ain't heard that from me
'Cause Mase ain't the player with the PHD
Girl, come into my world
I'll love you the way that you need to be loved
No worries no more, girl open the door
And don't waste your time
'Cause you should be mine
If he don't love you right, don't waste your time
If he don't treat you like you should, then you should be mine
Bay Boy we dont' stop, we rock we rock
Yo,I hit you the sound that the world can't take
Came straight out the gig playing two point eight
Near studded, jewel flooded, got to love it
First rap cat with an R&B budget
Everyday on the TV, me and PD
Girls see PD, make their man break the CD
Why ya'll forever rowdy, I'll be outie
Somewhere in Maui, 'til I go back to Cali
Can't understand how he can treat you
The way that he does
Give me the chance to show you baby
You're better off with me
Oh so baby let me try, I wanna make you smile
I wanna love you like you need to be loved
I'll never let you down, I'll always be around
And you should be mine
If he don't love you right, don't waste your time
If he don't treat you like you should, then you should be mine
Why can't you see you should be happy
And I don't know why
You don't believe a man can love you
For the rest of your life
Oh so, baby let me try, I wanna make you smile
I wanna love you like you need to be loved
I'll never let you down I'll always be around
And you should be mine
If he don't love you right, don't waste your time
If he don't treat you like you should, then you should be mine
Yo, what the deal honey, insecure, feeling funny
I know you're used to dealing with cats with real money
Also know you like Mase in alot of ways
But it's hard to go on when your lonely on the holidays
When you shop should you shop for two
Take you where the waters aqua blue
Let you fall back, treat you like you all that
Under umbrellas with your shades and your straw hat
You ain't the one out clubbin' all day and all night
Just to save a fight you say what's right
And I know he ain't the cat that will stay in your life
Even though he gave you ice that'll make you his wife
How a man deserve you if he hurt you
How you give a woman 25 a curfew
Between me and you, you ain't heard that from me
'Cause Mase ain't the player with the PHD
Girl, come into my world
I'll love you the way that you need to be loved
No worries no more, girl open the door
And don't waste your time
'Cause you should be mine
If he don't love you right, don't waste your time
If he don't treat you like you should, then you should be mine
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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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"
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,
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.