"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.
I lost the thread I lost the map
It's not a feeling it's a fact
I had it once I was on track
Why won't it stay? I want it back
I see you there in that magazine
You're looking smart you sound supreme
You got such lip you know the street
You been around you took some heat
You mighta killed you might be cruel
You might be stupid but we love you
You're in the paper you're in the air
You're in my head, you're everywhere
I want it back
You're so extreme, you're feast or famine
You got one mission, just like a salmon
You said in life, mistakes are many
How come you never admit to any?
Are you for real or are you bluffing?
You really get me, famous for nothing
And every morning you got a name
In a world where people all look the same
I want it back
I can't give love, I don't know how
I write in code so you won't know
I was on drugs, I took a nap
I didn't mean it, I want it back
I dreamed again of paradise
I floated steady, it felt so nice
To sell your soul, just think of that
I'm halfway there, I want it back
I want it back
It's not a feeling it's a fact
I had it once I was on track
Why won't it stay? I want it back
I see you there in that magazine
You're looking smart you sound supreme
You got such lip you know the street
You been around you took some heat
You mighta killed you might be cruel
You might be stupid but we love you
You're in the paper you're in the air
You're in my head, you're everywhere
I want it back
You're so extreme, you're feast or famine
You got one mission, just like a salmon
You said in life, mistakes are many
How come you never admit to any?
Are you for real or are you bluffing?
You really get me, famous for nothing
And every morning you got a name
In a world where people all look the same
I want it back
I can't give love, I don't know how
I write in code so you won't know
I was on drugs, I took a nap
I didn't mean it, I want it back
I dreamed again of paradise
I floated steady, it felt so nice
To sell your soul, just think of that
I'm halfway there, I want it back
I want it back
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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"
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.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
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.
well, actually this aint much of my fave song from the album.... but its still easy listening.
"You said in life, mistakes are many / How come you never admit to any?"
That's a fucking fantastic lyric.
The song is about Bill Clinton. Some feminists were appalled when allegations of rape started popping up in his early days as President. Most feminists covered for him. I believe it was Steinem who said something like he was a bastard but he was our bastard. Others like Colvin and later Maureen Dowd (who won a Pulitzer for her work on this topic) regretted their initial support for him. This song is about that regret.
To me it rings clearly about having a sense of path, certainty and clarity about your life values and to some extent, personal direction....but then having some or all of that shredded in the whitewater's of life experience and in that process losing your map but longing to regain your previous sense of clarity.
Makes me think of an early scene in a bugs life where a leaf drops in the path of a trail of ants and it throws them into pandemonium because they've "lost the thread".