"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.
There's a ghost in my bed
She cries in her sleep
She says I won't let her leave
I lie perfectly still
As she stifles her tears
I don't want to disturb her.
'Let go, let go-please let me be
Look at the ghost you've made of me'
Dusk dropped her starry gown
I whispered out
"Sweetie, are you here with me?"
The mirror crashed on the dresser
And she began to scream
"Bloody murder! let me rest in peace!
When I was yours, you fled the scene
Now you can't wash your hands of me."
Bloody murder
You can't hear the screams
Oh, oh, oh
She cries in her sleep
She says I won't let her leave
I lie perfectly still
As she stifles her tears
I don't want to disturb her.
'Let go, let go-please let me be
Look at the ghost you've made of me'
Dusk dropped her starry gown
I whispered out
"Sweetie, are you here with me?"
The mirror crashed on the dresser
And she began to scream
"Bloody murder! let me rest in peace!
When I was yours, you fled the scene
Now you can't wash your hands of me."
Bloody murder
You can't hear the screams
Oh, oh, oh
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
this is just a great song, i would be pretty scared if this happened to me. "Bloody murderer! Let me rest in peace!"
I feel like this kind of goes hand-in-hand with 'Butcher the Song'. He left this girl maybe (or maybe not) to fuel pain for his music, and now the regret and memory of her haunts him.
The whole cd is played out like a play, if you look at the cd jacket is says things like "enter bells" like a play's works would, so the songs to go together rather well.
when I first discovered Cursive, I played this song over and over. I still do. I think that this is what happens when you've stopped loving someone, but you stay together, just because.... and it makes you a ghost...and you're haunted by them.
Tim Kasher has a thing for making his cd's follow themes. Good examples are Cursive's "Storms of Early Summer" and "The Ugly Organ" as well as the Good Life's "Novena on a Nocturn" (Dim entrance, golden exit, etc)
this song is just crazy..
in the beginning with the chimes, the instruments go together so crazy-like that its just.. awesome
"the mirror crashed on the dresser" ... i love it
i love how it's like a scence from a movie, you can just picture it and watch it play out in your head while the song is going
Cursive is genious. Down in omaha...our little "cutting edge of rock" radio station (89.7 the river) theres Spacolli a dumb ass radio dj and he always disses Cursive for being "emo" and i really don't think that Cursive is emo at all..........so kill spacolli. but bloody murderer is an amazing some its been my fave. for a long time. i like how tim just yells/sings "bloody murderer"
"'Let go, let go - please let me be Look at the ghost you've made of me'"
Favorite lines in the whole thing. The whole song is bEAUtiful...
I think that this song's all about how he loved this women, but he 'fled the scene, now you can't wash your hands of me,' he can't forget what he did now and his memory of her is just won't leave him and he's regretting it. 'look at the ghost you've made of me' He keeps trying to push it away but it's turned into a 'ghost' and it's haunting him.
'the mirror crashed on the dresser, and she began to scream, 'Bloody murderer! Let me rest in peace!'
It's a truely elegant and beautiful song.