"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.
our guise is that of an apparition
enthralled in the vanity of self-worship
our robe our crown
as much a part of us as the very marrow in our bones
we'll have you begging for your mother in the morning
(we grace you with our presence and then we curse you for your acceptance)
your father is out
he's damn right he should be worried
they'll call you jane doe
one in a million
one and the same
one empty chamber
one less to blame
(this is a failing institution and i've failed to notice)
i've learned not to despise this sentiment
complacency invokes atrophy's embrace
and so what if i can't leave this room?
that never stopped us before
(i've learned to forget my desires)
enthralled in the vanity of self-worship
our robe our crown
as much a part of us as the very marrow in our bones
we'll have you begging for your mother in the morning
(we grace you with our presence and then we curse you for your acceptance)
your father is out
he's damn right he should be worried
they'll call you jane doe
one in a million
one and the same
one empty chamber
one less to blame
(this is a failing institution and i've failed to notice)
i've learned not to despise this sentiment
complacency invokes atrophy's embrace
and so what if i can't leave this room?
that never stopped us before
(i've learned to forget my desires)
Lyrics submitted by cessation
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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
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
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.
possibly one of the best songs ever. i've had it on repeat for what seems like forever.
hell yeah!!! this song owns. my favorite since the beginning!
Not sure, but it sounds like it is about how everyone is all caught up in vanity and trivial matters. But the narrator has come to terms with this, and no longer wishes to change the world, because despite everyones obsession with such nonessential things he is free to be/do what he wants.
"we'll have you begging for your mother in the morning" best part of the song.
It reminds me of ww2 and the nazi's. Especially the part "one in a million one and the same one empty chamber one less to blame"
"Send you here for life. Thats exactly what they think." and the "Radical." part at the end.
I think Klausfloride has the meaning down.
They send you here for life, and that's exactly what they take.
btw those parts are only on the ep
The beginning part you're talking about "Send you here for life, that's exactly what they take." It's from one of my all time favorite movies. The Shawshank Redemption. That line is Morgan Freeman.
by the way, this song is sooooo much better on the ep.
to follow up on Klausfloride's comment and phenomx87's reference:
the entire Morgan Freemam quote from The Shawshank Redemption is:
"..these walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, it gets so you depend on 'em. That's 'institutionalized'...They send you here for life and that's exactly what they take, the part that counts anyway."
This is what Freeman's character Red says about another character named Brooks. He refers to the jail and claims that it takes the quality of being independent from a person.
this fits well with the ending of Are You OK Kiddo?
"i've learned not to despise this sentiment complacency invokes atrophy's embrace and so what if i can't leave this room? that never stopped us before (i've learned to forget my desires)"
so the complacency/comfort of having been 'institutionalized' to a jail or room by society is exactly what hhll talks about. It's the dependency on that new surrounding or the rejection of a new environment that comes directly from the isolation they suffered.
not ONLY does the narrator of the song give up on trying to change the world, he's given up on trying to be a part of it. fuck it. he'll stay in his room. it's never stopped him before.
so my interpritation of this is entirly different of everyones. i think that the ep versions intro quote has to do with the song. saying that, i think the song is about prison, or jail. and compairing it to the state of the world and the inablity to change it. and the last line, "and so what if i can't leave this room? that never stopped us before (i've learned to forget my desires)" i think its talking about sex, it wouldnt be the first time in a heavy heavy low low song, they seem to fit that in to alot of there songs.
also the "thell call you jane doe" part and the "well have you begging for you mother in the morning-your father is out" part is also making a refrince to sex, and how guys generalize women, giving her a generic name, but still a good time.
a few thoughts on that song.