"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.
As logic stands you couldn't meet a man
Who's from the future
But logic broke as he appeared he spoke
About the Future
"We're not gonna make it" He explained how
The end will come, you and me were never meant
To be part of the future,
All we have is now,
All we've ever had was now
All we have is now
All we'll ever have is now
I noticed that he had a watch and hat
That looked familiar
He was me, from a dimension torn free
Of the future
"We're not gonna make it" He explained how
The end will come, you and me were never meant
To be part of the future,
All we have is now,
All we've ever had was now
All we have is now
All we'll ever have is now
All we have is now
Who's from the future
But logic broke as he appeared he spoke
About the Future
"We're not gonna make it" He explained how
The end will come, you and me were never meant
To be part of the future,
All we have is now,
All we've ever had was now
All we have is now
All we'll ever have is now
I noticed that he had a watch and hat
That looked familiar
He was me, from a dimension torn free
Of the future
"We're not gonna make it" He explained how
The end will come, you and me were never meant
To be part of the future,
All we have is now,
All we've ever had was now
All we have is now
All we'll ever have is now
All we have is now
Lyrics submitted by SpaceManSpiff
All We Have Is Now Lyrics as written by Wayne Coyne Steven Drozd
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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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"
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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,
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“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Oh, I love this song...."All we have is now" sums it up.