"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.
Just where it now lies I can no longer say
I found it on a cold and November day
In the roots of a sycamore tree where it had hid so long
In a box made out of myrtle lay the bone of song
The bone of song was a jawbone old and bruised
And worn out in the service of the muse
And along its sides and teeth were written words
I ran my palm along them and I heard
Lucky are you who finds me in the wilderness
I am the only unquiet ghost that does not seek rest
The words on the bone of song were close and small
And though their tongues were dead I found I knew them all
In the hieroglyphs of quills and quatrain lines
Osiris—the fall of Troy—Auld Lang Syne
Kathleen Mauvoreen—Magnificat—Your Cheatin’ Heart
The chords of a covenant king singing for the Ark
Then I saw on a white space that was left
A blessing written older than the rest
It said leave me here I care not for wealth or fame
I’ll remember your song – but I’ll forget your name
The words that I sang blew off like the leaves in the wind
And perched like birds in the branches before landing on the bone again
Then the bone was quiet it said no more to me
so I wrapped it in the ribbons of a sycamore tree
And as night had come I turned around and headed home
With a lightness in my step and a song in my bones
Lucky are you who finds me in the wilderness
I am the only unquiet ghost that does not seek rest
I found it on a cold and November day
In the roots of a sycamore tree where it had hid so long
In a box made out of myrtle lay the bone of song
The bone of song was a jawbone old and bruised
And worn out in the service of the muse
And along its sides and teeth were written words
I ran my palm along them and I heard
Lucky are you who finds me in the wilderness
I am the only unquiet ghost that does not seek rest
The words on the bone of song were close and small
And though their tongues were dead I found I knew them all
In the hieroglyphs of quills and quatrain lines
Osiris—the fall of Troy—Auld Lang Syne
Kathleen Mauvoreen—Magnificat—Your Cheatin’ Heart
The chords of a covenant king singing for the Ark
Then I saw on a white space that was left
A blessing written older than the rest
It said leave me here I care not for wealth or fame
I’ll remember your song – but I’ll forget your name
The words that I sang blew off like the leaves in the wind
And perched like birds in the branches before landing on the bone again
Then the bone was quiet it said no more to me
so I wrapped it in the ribbons of a sycamore tree
And as night had come I turned around and headed home
With a lightness in my step and a song in my bones
Lucky are you who finds me in the wilderness
I am the only unquiet ghost that does not seek rest
Lyrics submitted by geekusa
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Fast Car
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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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“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
I think the "bone" is a muse, since the bone's had relations to "Osiris, the fall of Troy, Auld Lang Syne, Kathleen Mauvoreen, Magnificat, Your Cheatin’ Heart", maybe.. I don't know. I'm probably wrong..
You're right on. It's a great story about something mytical (a muse, as abovementioned)
"the chords of a covenant king singing for the ark" is a reference to King David, who has been called "Israel's sweet singer". Many of the psalms are attributed to him (including the 23rd, 'the lord is my shepherd', which josh references in 'rainslicker').
i think this has to do with the idea that musical, and other kinds, of genius are somehow 'other' and apart from us; divinely inspired in a way.
interesting the similarity here to Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" which contains the lyric "I heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord".
Bone, like skeleton, that which he speaks of is the skeleton or the frame of all songs, it is what music is made of...and therefore, the muse, like Sarah said above.
I was at a Josh Ritter gig where he expllained the thinking behind the song. The idea comes from how until the 19th century ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs had remained indescipherable for thousands of years until Jean-Francois Champollion through his work escentially found a key to understanding them all. Ritter pondered with the fanciful idea that every musical note ever composed in time might have a key that releases the meaning of every song in the same way that Champollion's key released the hidden meaning of hieroglyphs. Ladies and gentlemen, songmeanings.net is the bone of song!
he said in a British interview back in 2005 that the song came from a dream about a type of musical Rosetta Stone- I guess he was thinking about a kind of stone where music stems from- that explains the weird trippy disconnect and all the random references.
For me this is simply one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.
self explanatory story. Great tune and lyrics.
Kathleen Mauvoreen was an Irish folk balad which was extreamly popular during the civil war. Here is a link to the lyrics arlingtoncemetery.net/mavour.htm
I agree with what others have said about a rosetta stone of music. In the end Josh gets to add his contribution to musical history. I love the lines "The words that I sang blew off like the leaves in the wind And perched like birds in the branches before landing on the bone again"