"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.
Alive alone now that they've gone dead but unburied
I've seen it unfold, terrible scenes of agony
Eyes in the darkness
Echoing their madness
The sights that have passed before them
Watching as though it has never happened
Now I only listen to what is not spoken
Murder, hatred
Anger, savage
Killings I have caused
More than can be counted
Orgies of sadism
And sexual perversion
Virgin
Tied to my mattress
Legs spread wide
Ruptured bowel, yanked
From her insides
Devirginized with my knife
Internally bleeding
Vagina, secreting
Her blood-wet pussy
I am eating
On her guts I am feeding
Mutilated with a machete
I fucked her dead body
The first and last
Your life's only romance
My knife's jammed in your ass
As you die you orgasm
Pass on to the dead
Nerve trembling convulsions
No longer looking human
I never see them, but I know they're there
Locked in my subconscious
Obscene memories I thought I'd forgotten
Haunting unrealities
Tear at me
Hold her arms
Her mouth taped shut
Screams unheard
Out pour her guts
Layers of flesh peeling away
Languish in your own decay
Descriptions of my killings
Bone chilling
Terror, tear, her
Virgin cunt
Virgins are my victims
Their tight interiors I explore
Sharpened utensils of torture
Now inserted inside of her
Sex organs extracted for eating
On her liver I am gnawing
Forbidden lust for guts
Ripped from her cunt
Tears of blood cry down her thigh
I ram my fist inside her hole
From her crotch piss now flows
Rectum filled with shit
I fucked her emptied body
Until she became stiff
I've seen it unfold, terrible scenes of agony
Eyes in the darkness
Echoing their madness
The sights that have passed before them
Watching as though it has never happened
Now I only listen to what is not spoken
Murder, hatred
Anger, savage
Killings I have caused
More than can be counted
Orgies of sadism
And sexual perversion
Virgin
Tied to my mattress
Legs spread wide
Ruptured bowel, yanked
From her insides
Devirginized with my knife
Internally bleeding
Vagina, secreting
Her blood-wet pussy
I am eating
On her guts I am feeding
Mutilated with a machete
I fucked her dead body
The first and last
Your life's only romance
My knife's jammed in your ass
As you die you orgasm
Pass on to the dead
Nerve trembling convulsions
No longer looking human
I never see them, but I know they're there
Locked in my subconscious
Obscene memories I thought I'd forgotten
Haunting unrealities
Tear at me
Hold her arms
Her mouth taped shut
Screams unheard
Out pour her guts
Layers of flesh peeling away
Languish in your own decay
Descriptions of my killings
Bone chilling
Terror, tear, her
Virgin cunt
Virgins are my victims
Their tight interiors I explore
Sharpened utensils of torture
Now inserted inside of her
Sex organs extracted for eating
On her liver I am gnawing
Forbidden lust for guts
Ripped from her cunt
Tears of blood cry down her thigh
I ram my fist inside her hole
From her crotch piss now flows
Rectum filled with shit
I fucked her emptied body
Until she became stiff
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Dreamwalker
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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.
Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"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."
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
When I played this at the nursery to the children before I got fired, no one saw the lyrically depth to it. They just saw an ‘immature’ song about killing. But this is art, while other artists are writing about their feelings and their political viewpoint, this bands chooses to right about grotesque acts. It is their right to sing about what they want and it is the listener’s right to listen to what they wish.
Anyway, I thought this was just an immature blood lust song too, but look deeper. Cannibal Corpse are very well known for their Christian beliefs. In an interview they said “We are disgusted by Christian singers who feel they have to hide their religion from public view otherwise no one will like them, and if people find out, they deny it and even insult our creator. The ‘Entrails’ represent Christ in our heart. The ‘C*nt’ is a very accurate representation of singers such as Amy Lee. Being ‘Ripped’ from us by a narrow minded society ruled by the most evil religion of all time, Atheism. Atheists follow the book of ‘Athius’ which teaches that raping young girls is not only right, but necessary.”
The band uses beautiful imagery from Greek and Latin 18th century literature and Netherlands mythology in many of their songs as the deep spritial side to these really show how much love god can give us all. Being a Christian, I love this band and hope to get all their CDs and hope their new CD ‘Songs of praise for the Lord’ is a great success.