"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.
You know where I come from
You know what I feel
You're Yul Brynner Westworld
Reporting from the field
I threw it into reverse
Made a motion to repeal
You kicked my legs from under me
And tried to take the wheel
I told you I wanted to be wrong
But everyone is humming a song
That I don't understand
Now I know that the sun has shined on my side of the street
The basket of America, the weevils and the wheat
The milk and honeyed congregation, scrubbed and apple-cheeked
Salute Apollo 13 from the rattle jewelry seats
Mythology's seductive and it turned a trick on me
That I have just begun to understand
I told you I wanted to be wrong
But everyone is humming a song
That I don't understand
The rodeo is staged, gold circle goat-ropers and clowns
A rumble in the third act, tie 'em up and burn 'em down
We're armed to the teeth, born a little breech
Blue-plate special analysts, cells and SUV's
We can't approach the Allies 'cause they seem a little peeved
And speak a language we don't understand
I told you I wanted to be wrong
But everyone is humming a song
That I don't understand
Prop up The Omega Man, we're primed for victory
God gave us the upper hand, there's honor among thieves
Temper it with arrogance, a dash of sad conceit
The top's down on the T-Bird, we're the children of the free
Storm into the boardroom of the conquering elite
Did you recognize the madman who is shouting in the streets?
Destroy the things that I don't understand
Destroy the things that I don't understand
You know what I feel
You're Yul Brynner Westworld
Reporting from the field
I threw it into reverse
Made a motion to repeal
You kicked my legs from under me
And tried to take the wheel
I told you I wanted to be wrong
But everyone is humming a song
That I don't understand
Now I know that the sun has shined on my side of the street
The basket of America, the weevils and the wheat
The milk and honeyed congregation, scrubbed and apple-cheeked
Salute Apollo 13 from the rattle jewelry seats
Mythology's seductive and it turned a trick on me
That I have just begun to understand
I told you I wanted to be wrong
But everyone is humming a song
That I don't understand
The rodeo is staged, gold circle goat-ropers and clowns
A rumble in the third act, tie 'em up and burn 'em down
We're armed to the teeth, born a little breech
Blue-plate special analysts, cells and SUV's
We can't approach the Allies 'cause they seem a little peeved
And speak a language we don't understand
I told you I wanted to be wrong
But everyone is humming a song
That I don't understand
Prop up The Omega Man, we're primed for victory
God gave us the upper hand, there's honor among thieves
Temper it with arrogance, a dash of sad conceit
The top's down on the T-Bird, we're the children of the free
Storm into the boardroom of the conquering elite
Did you recognize the madman who is shouting in the streets?
Destroy the things that I don't understand
Destroy the things that I don't understand
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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."
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
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 sort of a depressing take on the American mindset. Especially the end. It's saying the madman, far from being a lonely person in the street, is an embodiment of much of our culture's attitude. Americans, who seem to have it all, are afraid and insecure.