"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.
Mother Can You Hear Me
Mother Do You Care
Mother Don't You Tear Me
Mother Do You Share
I Love You I Love You
Forever And All Times
In Dreams My Rhymes
Mother
Mother Can You Feel Me
Mother Do You Care
Mother Don't You Steal Me
Mother Do You Dare
Justice My Life Mother
Mother Do You Care
Mother Don't You Tear Me
Mother Do You Share
I Love You I Love You
Forever And All Times
In Dreams My Rhymes
Mother
Mother Can You Feel Me
Mother Do You Care
Mother Don't You Steal Me
Mother Do You Dare
Justice My Life Mother
Lyrics submitted by chuckles333
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
I think this is an ask to the life, to a mother who always loved him, but she never talk to him, and never help him, he always was alone, he felt the love of his mother, but she never gaved him love, only hate, because she was crazy, she had problems, and she wanted to show her love to him, but she can't....
The lyrics themself don't tell very much, but if you listen to it, it sounds very much like that.
This song is very important to me, because it was one of the very first things a friend showed me of the things in her life and this friendship has changed not me but my lifestyle to something I now feel is exactly that what I truly want.
I really think this song was intended to strike at "mothers". It seems to be about abortion. If a mother aborted a child in the past or current.... this song would haunt them. I may be incorrect but that is my grasp on it. I think I have a pretty good grasp on wumpscuts intentions because I listen to everything by him. He has a lot of songs about a "child" While this may be intended for himself, anothers child or his own, is unknown. There is also another song that seems to be related to the song "mother" and that song is "Still Birth". That song is obviously about a child dying in the womb. Maybe Still Birth and Mother have a connection?
There is a huge psychological puzzle in a lot of wumpscuts songs. One day you might grasp onto them. (Mother - Maternal Instinct).
The way I feel about this song is it's about an adult that has grown up to be a very messed up person because of the lack of love from his mother and the way she raised him. He always just really wanted to feel loved by his mother but never got it, and now that he and his life is messed up he still reflects on that and still craves her love.. A lot of messed up people, even serial killers, were a product of the messed up relationship with their mother, and it stays with them subconsciously for the rest of their lives.
I really feel like this song is about abortion and I find it to have a really haunting vibe.. Especially if you are a mother yourself. As LucidDamage already stated there is this psychological puzzle that plays in a lot of songs from Wumpscut. The visual image I get from hearing this song is the one of an unborn child that begs his mother not to abort him/her.
He's begging: "Don't you tear me" & "don't you steal me" which sounds to me as an infant begging to be born and not aborted.