"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.
Well now Crow Jane don’t make no sense to me
She left me hanging from the poplar tree
No I never ever felt so free
Look at, mama, what you’re doin’ to me
'Cause it ain’t no difference which way I smile
I ain’t good lookin’ from a quarter mile
Once had a women called me angel child
My reputation keeps me on trial
But who’s gonna save me from myself
Gotta lay the blame on someone else
Somehow I ain’t got no hope
'Cause I’m still runnin’ from the sheriff’s rope
My shoes don’t fit me 'cause they're filled with dope
Crow Jane quit me and I just can’t cope
But all I know is that I’ll still run
And pledge allegiance to the settin’ sun
I must’ve lost 'cause Crow Jane won
I’ll never learn from anything I’ve done
Crow Jane’s the strangest thing that ever talked
Lips of honey but her tongue's of chalk
Feet may be crooked but they sure can walk
Took my money left me in shock
Got so many matches that it makes me sick
So many habits that I just can’t kick
So many women that I just can’t trick
She burnt me like a candle stick
But who’s gonna save me from myself?
Gotta lay the blame on somebody else
But somehow I ain’t got no hope
'Cause I’m still runnin’ from the sheriff’s rope
My shoes don’t fit me 'cause they're filled with dope
Crow Jane quit me and I just can’t cope
But all I know is that I’ll still run
And pledge allegiance to the settin’ sun
I must've lost 'cause Crow Jane won
I’ll never learn from anything I’ve done
Well Crow Jane ain’t nothing but a painful case
She left me sucking on my own disgrace
She’s off trucking at a cheatin’ pace
And a lawless life is all that I can embrace
Dress like a preacher so I can’t be found
Chase Crow Jane from town to town
I smell her brain so she much be around
Just like my pain the sun goes down
But who’s gonna save me from myself
Gotta lay the blame on someone else
Somehow I ain’t got no hope
'Cause I’m still runnin’ from the sheriff’s rope
My shoes don’t fit me 'cause they're filled with dope
Crow Jane quit me and I just can’t cope
But all I know is that I’ll still run
And pledge allegiance to the settin’ sun
I must’ve lost 'cause Crow Jane won
I’ll never learn from anything I’ve done
She left me hanging from the poplar tree
No I never ever felt so free
Look at, mama, what you’re doin’ to me
'Cause it ain’t no difference which way I smile
I ain’t good lookin’ from a quarter mile
Once had a women called me angel child
My reputation keeps me on trial
But who’s gonna save me from myself
Gotta lay the blame on someone else
Somehow I ain’t got no hope
'Cause I’m still runnin’ from the sheriff’s rope
My shoes don’t fit me 'cause they're filled with dope
Crow Jane quit me and I just can’t cope
But all I know is that I’ll still run
And pledge allegiance to the settin’ sun
I must’ve lost 'cause Crow Jane won
I’ll never learn from anything I’ve done
Crow Jane’s the strangest thing that ever talked
Lips of honey but her tongue's of chalk
Feet may be crooked but they sure can walk
Took my money left me in shock
Got so many matches that it makes me sick
So many habits that I just can’t kick
So many women that I just can’t trick
She burnt me like a candle stick
But who’s gonna save me from myself?
Gotta lay the blame on somebody else
But somehow I ain’t got no hope
'Cause I’m still runnin’ from the sheriff’s rope
My shoes don’t fit me 'cause they're filled with dope
Crow Jane quit me and I just can’t cope
But all I know is that I’ll still run
And pledge allegiance to the settin’ sun
I must've lost 'cause Crow Jane won
I’ll never learn from anything I’ve done
Well Crow Jane ain’t nothing but a painful case
She left me sucking on my own disgrace
She’s off trucking at a cheatin’ pace
And a lawless life is all that I can embrace
Dress like a preacher so I can’t be found
Chase Crow Jane from town to town
I smell her brain so she much be around
Just like my pain the sun goes down
But who’s gonna save me from myself
Gotta lay the blame on someone else
Somehow I ain’t got no hope
'Cause I’m still runnin’ from the sheriff’s rope
My shoes don’t fit me 'cause they're filled with dope
Crow Jane quit me and I just can’t cope
But all I know is that I’ll still run
And pledge allegiance to the settin’ sun
I must’ve lost 'cause Crow Jane won
I’ll never learn from anything I’ve done
Lyrics submitted by Ves1011, edited by Mellow_Harsher
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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"
Mountain Song
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.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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,
When We Were Young
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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
But who’s gonna save me from myself? Gotta lay the blame on somebody else But somehow I ain’t got no hope Cuz I’m still runnin’ from the sheriff’s rope My shoes don’t fit me cuz they filled with do(ugh/pe?) Crow Jane quit me and I just can’t cope But all I know is that I’ll still run And pledge allegience to the settin’ sun I mustlve lost miss Crow Jane I’ll never learn from anything I’ve done
It about him trying to quit dope or "crow jane" and trying to find it again and basically being an addict.