Warren wanted a Beach Boys thing for this one, and Carl Wilson and Billy Hinsche came in, with Carl arranging the vocal parts. The other harmony vocalists (credited as the "Gentlemen Boys") were Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Zevon's longtime backers Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Linda Rondstadt/Stone Poneys guitarist Kenny Edwards.
Ugly Casanova says
"Somebody else knows I can
Then go from who I am"
And goes for a walk away from me
Ugly Casanova says
"Somebody else knows I can"
Ugly Casanova says
"Raise, raise, raise, raise, raise it over
My disability
Then go for who I am!"
Goes, "Now, now, now, now try again
But I'll be just who I please!"
"Say you're sorry!"
Oh, I am, I am
"Say the alphabet!"
A, B, C, I can't
"Say you're sorry!"
Oh, I am, I am
"Say the alphabet!"
A, B, C, I can't
Ugly Casanova says
"Somebody else knows I can
Then go from who I am"
Goes for a walk away from here
"Somebody else knows I can
Then go from who I am"
And goes for a walk away from me
Ugly Casanova says
"Somebody else knows I can"
Ugly Casanova says
"Raise, raise, raise, raise, raise it over
My disability
Then go for who I am!"
Goes, "Now, now, now, now try again
But I'll be just who I please!"
"Say you're sorry!"
Oh, I am, I am
"Say the alphabet!"
A, B, C, I can't
"Say you're sorry!"
Oh, I am, I am
"Say the alphabet!"
A, B, C, I can't
Ugly Casanova says
"Somebody else knows I can
Then go from who I am"
Goes for a walk away from here
Lyrics submitted by PLANES
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The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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"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.
The Night We Met
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"
I might just be twisting things around so they fit my interpretation, but here's how I see it: Ugly Cassanova is the entity residing in young Isaac Brock's mind, the one school, society and really any kind of authority has instilled in him. It's a drive to constantly excel in all things regardless of capability. Consider that "Cassanova" is a name for a ladies man. The fact that this Cassanova is ugly is a contradiction in terms. So an "Ugly Cassanova" would be a man who thinks he's handsome but is actually really ugly. However, in the song, it's a voice that falsely makes us believe we're better than we really are. Basically, it's a lie.
The way school, for example, is set up is to push children to be the best. Grades are used to make kids constantly strive for perfection in all things and to shame those who cannot achieve the standard. Isaac ended up dropping out of high school. I don't claim to know why, but I think this song sheds a lot of the light on the subject.
The song is a dialog between the true Isaac and Ugly Cassanova, that part of his mind that deludes him into thinking he is brilliant and can do better than the poor grades I assume he received. Here's my line-by-line analysis of the song:<p><b><i>Edited by Mellow_Harsher on September 4 2007, at 08:25PM</i></b></p>
Brilliant explanation. I completely agree with you on the notion that Brock's lyrics transcend poetry, and all the usual talk about his brilliance. It's all very relatable.