"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.
Who has the fire,
Sweet Desire,
Has been tortured,
You are no fathers daughter,
No man has this much to offer,
Skin dark as sin,
Soft and when,
We took cover,
From the rain,
And the thunder,
Under stained glass we did slumber,
Till the sun came out to blind us,
Till we could not see anything,
So we knew at once we were meant to be,
And we heard the gods all rise and say,
The love we made is no lie.
And the 30 years of hopes and fears breathing down my neck,
Such a sad sad thing I set you free,
'Cause I can't get you back.
You are fire, you are water.
When you dance, it is torture.
Maybe some night by the grey light of the dull moon we can meet,
Tangled, intwined, we have climbed, we have wrangled, shiny sequence sparked and spangled,
Our hearts are cuffed and mangled,
We speant the night,
By the side of the water,
Passed the breakers and the markers,
We swam out into the darkness,
Till we could not feel,
The bottom.
Till we could not feel anything.
And the shoreline slowly drifted out fo reach,
As the moon shone down and the ocean heaved,
And darkness gave to light.
And with 30 years of hopes and fears breathing down my neck,
Such a sad sad thing I set you free,
'Cause I can't get you back.
You are fire, you are water.
When you dance, it is torture.
Maybe some day on the bottom of the ocean we can meet.
Though we know if we do, we can never leave,
'Cause the moment that we turn away
The gods will say
The love we made
Was a lie.
Sweet Desire,
Has been tortured,
You are no fathers daughter,
No man has this much to offer,
Skin dark as sin,
Soft and when,
We took cover,
From the rain,
And the thunder,
Under stained glass we did slumber,
Till the sun came out to blind us,
Till we could not see anything,
So we knew at once we were meant to be,
And we heard the gods all rise and say,
The love we made is no lie.
And the 30 years of hopes and fears breathing down my neck,
Such a sad sad thing I set you free,
'Cause I can't get you back.
You are fire, you are water.
When you dance, it is torture.
Maybe some night by the grey light of the dull moon we can meet,
Tangled, intwined, we have climbed, we have wrangled, shiny sequence sparked and spangled,
Our hearts are cuffed and mangled,
We speant the night,
By the side of the water,
Passed the breakers and the markers,
We swam out into the darkness,
Till we could not feel,
The bottom.
Till we could not feel anything.
And the shoreline slowly drifted out fo reach,
As the moon shone down and the ocean heaved,
And darkness gave to light.
And with 30 years of hopes and fears breathing down my neck,
Such a sad sad thing I set you free,
'Cause I can't get you back.
You are fire, you are water.
When you dance, it is torture.
Maybe some day on the bottom of the ocean we can meet.
Though we know if we do, we can never leave,
'Cause the moment that we turn away
The gods will say
The love we made
Was a lie.
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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"
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
I concur,
This is one of my favorite Crooked Fingers song. Like all of their songs, joyfully sad.