"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.
All this that is more than a wish is a memory
All this that is ceases to be
All is revealed
The obvious door opens nothing
Nothing
Nothing left
Nothing left
Nothing left to chance
When you try to see, we'll watch you
When you try to leave, we'll keep you
When you should be dreaming, we'll wake you
But don't scream, we'll make you swallow your words
Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours
For graphs of passion and charts of stars
Gave them our reactions, our explosions all that we are
For graphs of passion and charts of stars
How ending starts
Ending starts with answers
How ending starts
Ending starts with answers
Answers
All this that is ceases to be
All is revealed
The obvious door opens nothing
Nothing
Nothing left
Nothing left
Nothing left to chance
When you try to see, we'll watch you
When you try to leave, we'll keep you
When you should be dreaming, we'll wake you
But don't scream, we'll make you swallow your words
Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours
For graphs of passion and charts of stars
Gave them our reactions, our explosions all that we are
For graphs of passion and charts of stars
How ending starts
Ending starts with answers
How ending starts
Ending starts with answers
Answers
Lyrics submitted by public, edited by nimabine, wetblanket
Ending Start Lyrics as written by James Shaw Emily Haines
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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More Featured Meanings
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,
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
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:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
i think she describes metric's relationship with record labels. once you're in theres no way out and you dont have an opinion. "When you try to see, we'll watch you When you try to leave, we'll keep you When you should be dreaming, we'll wake you But don't scream, we'll make you swallow your words" kind of like monsters i guess.
To me, the last verse seems like it's about the band making music/their career.
i think KEED may be correct in that they wrote this song about their growing musical career.
i think this song is about something coming to an end, and how every ending is a new beginning. whether it has to do with graduation, moving, or just generally a change in one's life.
the first stanza is the mind that wants things to remain the same, to go back to the way they were. "the obvious door opens nothing" showing the pessimistic and beaten point of view.
the second and third stanza seem to refer to the memories. at times of the past, the present, and the future. these are my favourite and i love them so much.
and then it leaves us with how an "ending starts with answers".
"When you try to see, we'll watch you" when you want to see how things are, leave the bubble of your fame and live your life, we'll watch you and judge your actions and your interests "When you try to leave, we'll keep you" if you try to leave your limelight, we will be selfish and keep you in view because we want you. "When you should be dreaming, we'll wake you" if you try to be idealistic and leave a rigid realistic mindset, we'll judge your thoughts and tell you wrong with no way for you to defend yourself "But don't scream, we'll make you swallow your words" but don't complain, don't yell out against us, your listeners and fans, because you will regret it, you won't only eat your words but we'll make sure you swallow them.
it seems to be about the band and their music career. when i first listened to this part i thought it was the band singing to ...me, the listener, but its clearly the other way around. emily haines is such a talented writer..
it can be used on whoever is stuck as any entertain to any part of the world.
i would recommend the live piano version emily played. it's a lot lighter a prettier. and really really hard to play.
Very beautiful song. Emily's voice is so tempting. It's a easy song to cry to, I know i did. I couldn't believe that only a selected few actually commented on this song. It's close to being the prettiest, if not the prettiest Metric song I've ever listened to. I love that last quote...How ending starts Ending starts with answers.It's so unbelievably true. Once we end something, we seem to figure out all the questions to the problem...weird!
This song is just so beautifully obscure. It speaks of the end of an era in someones life that no one really wants to happen. If some one was trying to leave part of their past behind but people from that past keep on reminding them of what has happened. I also agree with lady kiddo about how endings start with answers.
if ending's start with answers.... then what do beginnings start with?...... questions?? :O
Ending starts with answers... when we have the answers, it's all over.
So if this is about her career, when things were coming together (getting the answers), it started to end.
Maybe?! They are on hiatus now, right?
hmmm, they're not on hiatus... they're almost done recording their new CD im pretty sure.
Take the song into context of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and "Ending Start" takes the perspective of the second-handers. They are collectivistic villains with a distinctly parasitic hunger to feed and subsist on the merits and achievements of the prime movers of the world.
This song would be a GREAT opening track to the Atlas Shrugged movie.
Atlas Shrugged FTW.
I'm entirely sure that she has no love for Ayn Rand, like any sane, human person should. That isn't to say that individualism isn't a wonderful thing that we shouldn't all respect, any libertarian/egoist who believes that human society is best off as atomistic as possible is deluded and entirely selfish. There's a balance. I also imagine you're both American and about 20. <br /> <br />