"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.
Between Mars and Jupiter there's a gap for another planet
Now way back yeah maybe a mad man
Just blew the shit out of it
Now were tryin' to get back in alignment
Explains why we go through cycles always tryin' to find it
Closin' into the age of Aquarius crazy weather floods
Tornadoes low jet streams not gettin' better
Enterin' a twilight zone activities grown
And every single day more people spottin' UFO's
Let's come together with this new coast shit
We got the mother fuckin' kids now lets freak this shit
It's messed up if you're feeling (feeling)
Everything is wrong, we'll take over the pentagon
It's fucked up in this paradigm 'cause
I'm burning fossil fuels I don't even need to
Free energy has been harnessed
We don't use it why 'cause the techniques been suppressed
The hour glass has passed through granules that's cool
We gotta break it bust all these rules and
Switch change up the pitch
Rearrange our views and this dumb shit we'll ditch
Let's come together with this new coast shit
We got the mother fuckin' kids now lets freak this shit
It's messed up if you're feeling (feeling)
Everything is wrong, we'll fumigate the chevrons
I found a bootleg of the cosmic conscious then erased it
Visualized the breath technique slowly became it
Now something is watchin' me since I have found the keys
To free this energy my high speed light body
'Cause the galaxy is crazy it doesn't amaze me
That we're livin' out of phase and quickly decaying
6 protons, 6 neutrons, 6 electrons
Is encoded in this planet we live on
Now way back yeah maybe a mad man
Just blew the shit out of it
Now were tryin' to get back in alignment
Explains why we go through cycles always tryin' to find it
Closin' into the age of Aquarius crazy weather floods
Tornadoes low jet streams not gettin' better
Enterin' a twilight zone activities grown
And every single day more people spottin' UFO's
Let's come together with this new coast shit
We got the mother fuckin' kids now lets freak this shit
It's messed up if you're feeling (feeling)
Everything is wrong, we'll take over the pentagon
It's fucked up in this paradigm 'cause
I'm burning fossil fuels I don't even need to
Free energy has been harnessed
We don't use it why 'cause the techniques been suppressed
The hour glass has passed through granules that's cool
We gotta break it bust all these rules and
Switch change up the pitch
Rearrange our views and this dumb shit we'll ditch
Let's come together with this new coast shit
We got the mother fuckin' kids now lets freak this shit
It's messed up if you're feeling (feeling)
Everything is wrong, we'll fumigate the chevrons
I found a bootleg of the cosmic conscious then erased it
Visualized the breath technique slowly became it
Now something is watchin' me since I have found the keys
To free this energy my high speed light body
'Cause the galaxy is crazy it doesn't amaze me
That we're livin' out of phase and quickly decaying
6 protons, 6 neutrons, 6 electrons
Is encoded in this planet we live on
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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"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."
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Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
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Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
the first verse and chorus talk about how fucked up this world is, but to me the second and third verses talk about meditation and breath techniques or something. Didn't SA have an out of body experience before? this song might be about it