"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.
It was a miracle I even got out of Longwood alive
This town full of men with big mouths and no guts
I mean, if you can just picture it:
The whole third floor of the hotel gutted by the blast
And the street below showered in shards of broken glass
And all the drunks pourin' out of the dance halls
Starin' up at the smoke and the flames
And the blind pencil seller wavin' his stick
Shoutin' for his dog that lay dead on the side of the road
And me, if you can believe this
At the wheel of the car
Closin' my eyes and actually prayin'
Not to God above, but to you
Sayin':
Help me girl, help me girl
I'll love you till the end of the world
With your eyes black as coal and your long dark curls
Some things we plan, we sit and we invent
And we plot and cook up
Others are works of inspiration, of poetry
And it was this genius hand that pushed me up the hotel stairs
To say my last goodbye
To her hair white as snow and her pale blue eyes
Sayin': "I gotta go, I gotta go
The bomb and the bread basket
Are ready to blow,"
In this town of men with big mouths and no guts
The pencil seller's dog spooked by the explosion
And leapin' under my wheels
As I careered out of Longwood
On my way to you
Waitin' in your dress
In your dress of blue
I said:
Thank you girl, thank you girl
I'll love you till the end of the world
With your eyes black as coal and your long dark curls
And with the horses prancin' through the fields
With my knife in my jeans and the rain on the shield
I sang a song for the glory of the beauty of you
Waitin for me
In your dress of blue
Thank you girl
Thank you girl
I'll love you till the end of the world
With your eyes black as coal and your long dark curls
This town full of men with big mouths and no guts
I mean, if you can just picture it:
The whole third floor of the hotel gutted by the blast
And the street below showered in shards of broken glass
And all the drunks pourin' out of the dance halls
Starin' up at the smoke and the flames
And the blind pencil seller wavin' his stick
Shoutin' for his dog that lay dead on the side of the road
And me, if you can believe this
At the wheel of the car
Closin' my eyes and actually prayin'
Not to God above, but to you
Sayin':
Help me girl, help me girl
I'll love you till the end of the world
With your eyes black as coal and your long dark curls
Some things we plan, we sit and we invent
And we plot and cook up
Others are works of inspiration, of poetry
And it was this genius hand that pushed me up the hotel stairs
To say my last goodbye
To her hair white as snow and her pale blue eyes
Sayin': "I gotta go, I gotta go
The bomb and the bread basket
Are ready to blow,"
In this town of men with big mouths and no guts
The pencil seller's dog spooked by the explosion
And leapin' under my wheels
As I careered out of Longwood
On my way to you
Waitin' in your dress
In your dress of blue
I said:
Thank you girl, thank you girl
I'll love you till the end of the world
With your eyes black as coal and your long dark curls
And with the horses prancin' through the fields
With my knife in my jeans and the rain on the shield
I sang a song for the glory of the beauty of you
Waitin for me
In your dress of blue
Thank you girl
Thank you girl
I'll love you till the end of the world
With your eyes black as coal and your long dark curls
Lyrics submitted by delial, edited by Mellow_Harsher
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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,
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
"White as snow" - that's not blonde, that's grey. A much older woman, maybe his mother? True, it's not very nice to leave your old ma in a burning hotel. But then, it's not nice to run over a blind pencil seller's dog! I think the bloke in the song is just a tad self-centred - the world can go to hell while he fixes his thoughts on the woman waiting for him.