"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.
Howard, the strangest thing
Has happened lately
When I take a good swing
And all my dreams
They pivot and slip
I drop my fists and they're back
Laughing Howard
My intention's become not to lose what I've won
Ambition has given way to desperation and I
Lost the fight from my eyes
[Chorus]
Boxing's been good to me, Howard
Now I'm told, you're growing old
The whole time you knew
In a couple of years I'd be through
Has boxing been good to you?
Howard, now I confess I'm scared and lonely and tired
They seem to think I'm made of clay
Another day, not cut out for this
I just know what to say, I say
[Chorus]
Well sometimes I punch myself as hard as I can
Yelling nobody cares hoping someone will tell me how
Wrong I am
[Chorus]
Has boxing been good
Has boxing been good to you?
Has happened lately
When I take a good swing
And all my dreams
They pivot and slip
I drop my fists and they're back
Laughing Howard
My intention's become not to lose what I've won
Ambition has given way to desperation and I
Lost the fight from my eyes
[Chorus]
Boxing's been good to me, Howard
Now I'm told, you're growing old
The whole time you knew
In a couple of years I'd be through
Has boxing been good to you?
Howard, now I confess I'm scared and lonely and tired
They seem to think I'm made of clay
Another day, not cut out for this
I just know what to say, I say
[Chorus]
Well sometimes I punch myself as hard as I can
Yelling nobody cares hoping someone will tell me how
Wrong I am
[Chorus]
Has boxing been good
Has boxing been good to you?
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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.
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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Wow... well, I get a whole different level of feeling from this song. For those who remember back this far (ack... I do.) Howard Cosell made his career as a sportscaster (and the biggest sportscaster of the new TV generation) through boxing. In particular, the Ali fights. There was a time (when this song's conversation is set) when Ali continued to press on and fight, even though he clearly didn't have it any more.
To many, it was sad, pathetic, and embarrassing. Many wondered why he would do it. Some still stuck by him and thought he was still competitive, that he would prove the naysayers wrong.
So to me, this song evokes this late-career Ali, talking candidly to Cosell about the doubts, fears, being driven to continue.. and all the while this sad, sarcastic undertone of boxing being good to him (which it was, in that it made him wealthy and internationally known - and it wasn't... obviously the physical punishment and his rapid physical decline) - the sarcasm being that Howard Cosell knew
And yes, the funny, halting waltz tempo really adds to the feeling. It's a musical representation of Ali's dancing style of boxing, yet, slower, plodding, and not so steady anymore. A great piece of writing, as is the whole album.
Very well said. A brilliant song, I really thought they should have included it in the soundtrack for the movie "Ali". Amazing that Ben could write this at the age of 21 (that's how old he said he was when he wrote at a concert I was at recently), it's so sad that it's difficult to listen to at times for me. There are parts of the song that people can relate to outside the boxing context as well: "Another day, I'm not cut out for this. I just know what to say" - difficultly of having to struggle through someone day in & day out, not feeling up for it anymore, with a possible meaning for the 'I just now what to say' line as they only know what to say, possiblly to hide that they are unhappy and can't do it anymore, but they don't know what to do. "Sometimes I punch myself hard as I can yelling nobody cares hoping someone will tell me how wrong I am" - pretty self-explanatory, but a really powerful line for me, that I love to sing when I'm angry to vent. Obviously not literally punching ourselves, but doing self-destructive things out of anger wanting someone to notice and tell us they care.<br /> <br /> I also like the stool creaks :)