"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.
As I awoke this evening
With the smell of wood smoke clinging
Like a gentle cobweb hanging
Upon a painted tepee
Oh, I went to see my chieftain
With my war lance and my woman
For he told us that the yellow moon
Would very soon be leaving
This I can't believe I said
I can't believe our Warlord's dead
Oh, he would not leave the chosen ones
To the buzzards and the soldiers guns
Oh, great father of the Iroquois
Ever since I was young
I've read the writing of the smoke
And breast-fed on the sound of drums
I've learned to hurl the tomahawk
And ride a painted pony wild
To run the gauntlet of the Sioux
To make a chieftain's daughter mine
And now you ask that I should watch
The red man's race be slowly crushed
What kind of words are these to hear
From Yellow Dog, whom a white man fears?
Oh, I take only what is mine, Lord
My pony, my squaw, and my child
I can't stay to see you die
Along with my tribe's pride
I go to search for the yellow moon
And the fathers of our sons
Where the red sun sinks in the hills of gold
And the healing waters run
Trampling down the prairie rose
Leaving hoof tracks in the sand
Those who wish to follow me
I welcome with my hands
I heard from passing renegades
Geronimo was dead
He'd been laying down his weapons
When they filled him full of lead
Now there seems no reason why
I should carry on
In this land that once was my land
I can't find a home
It's lonely and it's quiet
And the horse soldiers are coming
And I think it's time I strung my bow
And ceased my senseless running
For soon I'll find the yellow moon
Along with my loved ones
Where the buffaloes graze in clover fields
Without the sound of guns
And the red sun sinks at last
Into the hills of gold
And peace to this young warrior
Comes with a bullet hole
With the smell of wood smoke clinging
Like a gentle cobweb hanging
Upon a painted tepee
Oh, I went to see my chieftain
With my war lance and my woman
For he told us that the yellow moon
Would very soon be leaving
This I can't believe I said
I can't believe our Warlord's dead
Oh, he would not leave the chosen ones
To the buzzards and the soldiers guns
Oh, great father of the Iroquois
Ever since I was young
I've read the writing of the smoke
And breast-fed on the sound of drums
I've learned to hurl the tomahawk
And ride a painted pony wild
To run the gauntlet of the Sioux
To make a chieftain's daughter mine
And now you ask that I should watch
The red man's race be slowly crushed
What kind of words are these to hear
From Yellow Dog, whom a white man fears?
Oh, I take only what is mine, Lord
My pony, my squaw, and my child
I can't stay to see you die
Along with my tribe's pride
I go to search for the yellow moon
And the fathers of our sons
Where the red sun sinks in the hills of gold
And the healing waters run
Trampling down the prairie rose
Leaving hoof tracks in the sand
Those who wish to follow me
I welcome with my hands
I heard from passing renegades
Geronimo was dead
He'd been laying down his weapons
When they filled him full of lead
Now there seems no reason why
I should carry on
In this land that once was my land
I can't find a home
It's lonely and it's quiet
And the horse soldiers are coming
And I think it's time I strung my bow
And ceased my senseless running
For soon I'll find the yellow moon
Along with my loved ones
Where the buffaloes graze in clover fields
Without the sound of guns
And the red sun sinks at last
Into the hills of gold
And peace to this young warrior
Comes with a bullet hole
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Fast Car
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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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.
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Jane's Addiction
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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.
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Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
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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,
an absolute tune, its meaning, however, is not conveyed propley in Ghetto Gospel although that song is mixed exceptionally well and sounds good with this song