"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.
But oh, if I could only get you oceanside, to lay your muscles wide, it'd be heavenly. And oh, if I could only coax you overboard, to leave these lolling shores, to get you oceanside. Oceanside.
At rising tide, you're looking fresher than a July bride. We're picking up what our mothers always stigmatized. The field is right for reaping. Oh well, I guess I'm nothing but a ne'er do well (even though that's something I could never do well) I'm on track and keeping.
But oh, if I could only get you oceanside to lay your muscles wide, it'd be heavenly. Oh, if I could only coax you overboard, to leave these lolling shores, to get you oceanside.
Oceanside, oceanside.
At rising tide, you're looking fresher than a July bride. We're picking up what our mothers always stigmatized. The field is right for reaping. Oh well, I guess I'm nothing but a ne'er do well (even though that's something I could never do well) I'm on track and keeping.
But oh, if I could only get you oceanside to lay your muscles wide, it'd be heavenly. Oh, if I could only coax you overboard, to leave these lolling shores, to get you oceanside.
Oceanside, oceanside.
Lyrics submitted by _aeronautical, edited by brisingr47
Oceanside Lyrics as written by Colin Meloy
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
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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.
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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.
I agree with about 90% of your interpretation, Words&tricks. But Oceanside would actually refer to IN the ocean, not out of it. The ocean--as opposed to the land--makes for a much better sexual metaphor (undertows, tides, movement, etc. Earth just stays put.). The whole "lather up and lay her down" line: think of someone sleeping on the beach as the waves gently lap at her legs. What should be stimulating (the ocean/sex) she's ignoring (sleeping through it). As for "the field is right for reaping," that actually works fine, on two levels. 1)Fields are where things grow, so the whole reaping and fields thing is a fertility (sex) reference. Secondly, there's a pretty steady and well-acknowledged literary history of comparing the ocean to endless windy wheatfields, and vice versa (see "Moby Dick"). This is because, in the earlier parts of US history, when someone from the coast came to the Midwest and saw these endless fields of wheat swaying in the breeze, it reminded them of the ocean, and when inlanders came to the sea, the only reference point they had to compare it to was wheatfields.