"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.
Ay Trusty Trusty, what you want man?
Aww nigga let me get one of them ciggarettes, damn!
Shit, come on bastard, get the phone for a nigga
Use the phone, aww nigga get the phone for me man
What's the number? 323-6545, tell her it's Pac
Chorus: repeat 2X
When I get free, motherfuckers better watch they ass
Soon as I get released, I'ma clock some cash
Did some time locked down, but I'm back on the street
There'll be trouble when they see me
I heard a snicker a laugh, I take a look at the evening news
And see a nigga gettin cuffed by the boys in blue
Is it a, frame up, tryin to keep me out the game, stuck
These motherfuckers tryin to dirty up my name, but
I slip as quick as the wind, it's me again, fuck friends
My foes be on a mission, tryin to do me in
Fuck em I'm out to get out, they all thought
I blow up like gauge, and in a rage blow they balls off
Why are you niggaz tryin to test me trick?
And be the first ones to snitch to arrest me bitch
Maintain with a nigga meal ticket only if you with the real
The nigga will kick it, I'll enforce it with the steel
These are lessons that I learned in jail
Rule one: fuck a busta he can burn in Hell
Now I'm workin with connects that I got in the pen
In no time I'll be clockin again
Chorus
Heyyy, still sittin in my cell as I dwell on my past
Tryin to figure how a nigga turned dreams into cash
Quick call her collect, ain't no respect on the other side
My cellmate's suicidal cause his mother died
And my C.O. is a lady, and I'm thinkin maybe
me and her can hook up a scheme, to be Swayze
Cause she keep on callin me baby, to a young
motherfucker facin eighty that's enough to make me crazy
Now how long will it take, to get a hook
Got her watchin me liftin weights, sneakin looks
I devised a plan, I'm in the trunk while she drives
but man, ain't no disguise I'ma die as a man
If we make it then I'm takin it to Hell
all them niggaz that was frontin while I sat up in a cell
Locked in jail, I couldn't touch her so I planned, in misery
The nigga you don't wanna see
Chorus 3X
When I get free, believe that shit
Yeah nigga fuck your cigarette, fuck that phone call motherfucker
I'll be out this motherfucker in a few days
I'll pay these bitches back in spades
Punk ass bastards, long as my AK flexes
we gonna play these bitches
That's how we do this shit
Fuck that I'm out, C.O. turn the fuckin lights out!
Aww nigga let me get one of them ciggarettes, damn!
Shit, come on bastard, get the phone for a nigga
Use the phone, aww nigga get the phone for me man
What's the number? 323-6545, tell her it's Pac
Chorus: repeat 2X
When I get free, motherfuckers better watch they ass
Soon as I get released, I'ma clock some cash
Did some time locked down, but I'm back on the street
There'll be trouble when they see me
I heard a snicker a laugh, I take a look at the evening news
And see a nigga gettin cuffed by the boys in blue
Is it a, frame up, tryin to keep me out the game, stuck
These motherfuckers tryin to dirty up my name, but
I slip as quick as the wind, it's me again, fuck friends
My foes be on a mission, tryin to do me in
Fuck em I'm out to get out, they all thought
I blow up like gauge, and in a rage blow they balls off
Why are you niggaz tryin to test me trick?
And be the first ones to snitch to arrest me bitch
Maintain with a nigga meal ticket only if you with the real
The nigga will kick it, I'll enforce it with the steel
These are lessons that I learned in jail
Rule one: fuck a busta he can burn in Hell
Now I'm workin with connects that I got in the pen
In no time I'll be clockin again
Chorus
Heyyy, still sittin in my cell as I dwell on my past
Tryin to figure how a nigga turned dreams into cash
Quick call her collect, ain't no respect on the other side
My cellmate's suicidal cause his mother died
And my C.O. is a lady, and I'm thinkin maybe
me and her can hook up a scheme, to be Swayze
Cause she keep on callin me baby, to a young
motherfucker facin eighty that's enough to make me crazy
Now how long will it take, to get a hook
Got her watchin me liftin weights, sneakin looks
I devised a plan, I'm in the trunk while she drives
but man, ain't no disguise I'ma die as a man
If we make it then I'm takin it to Hell
all them niggaz that was frontin while I sat up in a cell
Locked in jail, I couldn't touch her so I planned, in misery
The nigga you don't wanna see
Chorus 3X
When I get free, believe that shit
Yeah nigga fuck your cigarette, fuck that phone call motherfucker
I'll be out this motherfucker in a few days
I'll pay these bitches back in spades
Punk ass bastards, long as my AK flexes
we gonna play these bitches
That's how we do this shit
Fuck that I'm out, C.O. turn the fuckin lights out!
Lyrics submitted by 1stGospel
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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"
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,
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.
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.
Thanks for uppin' this.
Much better than the 'When I get free' imo. Quite clear what the song is about.