"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 I was down at the Zig Zag
That's the Zig Zag Bar & Grill
And everybody was talking at once and it was getting real shrill.
And I've been around the block
But I don't care I'm on a roll -
I'm on a wild ride Cause the moon is full and look out baby -
I'm at high tide.
I've got a beautiful red dress
And you'd look really good standing beside it.. I've got some beautiful new red shoes and they look so fine
I've got a hundred and five fever and it's high tide.
Well just the other day I won the lottery
I mean lots of money I got so excited
I ran into my place and I said: HEY!
Is anybody home?
Nobody answered but
I guess that's not too weird
Since I live alone.
I've got a beautiful red dress
And you'd look really good standing beside it.. Girls?
We can take it
And if we can't we're gonna fake it
We're gonna save ourselves
We're gonna make it
And if we don't we're gonna take it
We're gonna save ourselves
Save ourselves
Well they say women shouldn't be the president Cause we go crazy from time to time
Well push my button, baby
Here I come
Yeah, look out, baby
I'm at high tide
I've got a beautiful red dress and you'd look really good standing beside it..
I've got a little jug of red sangria wine and we could take little sips from time to time
I've got some bright red drop dead lips
I've got a little red card and mechanical hips I've got a hundred and five fever!!!
OK! OK! Hold it!
I just want to say something.
You know, for every dollar a man makes a woman makes 63 cents.
Now, fifty years ago that was 62 cents.
So, with that kind of luck, it'll be the year 3,888 before we make a buck.
But hey, girls?
We can take it
And if we can't we're gonna fake it
We're gonna save ourselves save ourselves
(Yeah tell it to the judge)
We're gonna make it
And if we don't we're gonna take it
We're gonna save ourselves save ourselves
We've got a fever of a hundred and five and look baby
It's high tide.
Well I could just go on and on and on...
But tonight I've got a headache
That's the Zig Zag Bar & Grill
And everybody was talking at once and it was getting real shrill.
And I've been around the block
But I don't care I'm on a roll -
I'm on a wild ride Cause the moon is full and look out baby -
I'm at high tide.
I've got a beautiful red dress
And you'd look really good standing beside it.. I've got some beautiful new red shoes and they look so fine
I've got a hundred and five fever and it's high tide.
Well just the other day I won the lottery
I mean lots of money I got so excited
I ran into my place and I said: HEY!
Is anybody home?
Nobody answered but
I guess that's not too weird
Since I live alone.
I've got a beautiful red dress
And you'd look really good standing beside it.. Girls?
We can take it
And if we can't we're gonna fake it
We're gonna save ourselves
We're gonna make it
And if we don't we're gonna take it
We're gonna save ourselves
Save ourselves
Well they say women shouldn't be the president Cause we go crazy from time to time
Well push my button, baby
Here I come
Yeah, look out, baby
I'm at high tide
I've got a beautiful red dress and you'd look really good standing beside it..
I've got a little jug of red sangria wine and we could take little sips from time to time
I've got some bright red drop dead lips
I've got a little red card and mechanical hips I've got a hundred and five fever!!!
OK! OK! Hold it!
I just want to say something.
You know, for every dollar a man makes a woman makes 63 cents.
Now, fifty years ago that was 62 cents.
So, with that kind of luck, it'll be the year 3,888 before we make a buck.
But hey, girls?
We can take it
And if we can't we're gonna fake it
We're gonna save ourselves save ourselves
(Yeah tell it to the judge)
We're gonna make it
And if we don't we're gonna take it
We're gonna save ourselves save ourselves
We've got a fever of a hundred and five and look baby
It's high tide.
Well I could just go on and on and on...
But tonight I've got a headache
Lyrics submitted by Lepra Messias
Beautiful Red Dress Lyrics as written by Laurie Anderson
Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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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.
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Dreamwalker
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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.
Magical
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Page
Ed Sheeran
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Hilarious song! The subject of a woman's period is not exactly the most well-mined territory in popular songs, though it has been better-represented in contemporary poetry. Typically, Anderson plays with the imagery (high tide, red dress, fever, sangria) with sly social commentary (women's roles, pay) and wraps it all together in a frothy, bright concoction.
Given her art world grounding, I'd presume that the "Zig Zag Bar & Grill" might refers to the one in Paris near the Sorbonne. With her slyness, it wouldn't be a surprise to think of this as referencing the pro-English University of Paris' role in the trial of Joan of Arc, certainly one of the early historical female icons.