"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.
Another plane went down today in the
Atlantic nine miles off shore
And every single black car that goes by just
Might be yours
I haven't moved from this spot I sit here
Watching TV in bed
I wanna see if the crash was sabotage
I wanna know if everyone is dead
I remember when I was fifteen me and Liz
Would ride around
We liked to smoke in the car in the winter
With all the windows rolled down
I had a dream a plane exploded over my lake
One afternoon
I still remember the feeling when I woke up
I can't describe the magnitude
So many other dreams
The one that I had today
You and the Italian woman naked
Your fingers between her legs
She lay like a body in the water
She barely made a sound
She fell as quiet, as quiet, as a leaf falling
To the ground
Meanwhile back on earth I told you to
Fuck off and go away
I've gotta call my friend who moved from
New York to LA
Five days before Christmas last year his
Girlfriend died in a plane crash
He says the way that it happens is your heart
Is so heavy it rips away upon impact
And then you just bleed inside
You don't even feel a thing
They found her on a hill in Colombia
Intact among the debris
So many other dreams
The ones where I'm on death row
The ones where I don't know why
The ones where my parents drove
I wish I was with you now
Down at a Sixth Street bar
Laughing at the singer
Smoking in the car
Atlantic nine miles off shore
And every single black car that goes by just
Might be yours
I haven't moved from this spot I sit here
Watching TV in bed
I wanna see if the crash was sabotage
I wanna know if everyone is dead
I remember when I was fifteen me and Liz
Would ride around
We liked to smoke in the car in the winter
With all the windows rolled down
I had a dream a plane exploded over my lake
One afternoon
I still remember the feeling when I woke up
I can't describe the magnitude
So many other dreams
The one that I had today
You and the Italian woman naked
Your fingers between her legs
She lay like a body in the water
She barely made a sound
She fell as quiet, as quiet, as a leaf falling
To the ground
Meanwhile back on earth I told you to
Fuck off and go away
I've gotta call my friend who moved from
New York to LA
Five days before Christmas last year his
Girlfriend died in a plane crash
He says the way that it happens is your heart
Is so heavy it rips away upon impact
And then you just bleed inside
You don't even feel a thing
They found her on a hill in Colombia
Intact among the debris
So many other dreams
The ones where I'm on death row
The ones where I don't know why
The ones where my parents drove
I wish I was with you now
Down at a Sixth Street bar
Laughing at the singer
Smoking in the car
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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,
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
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Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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A deep love relationship is a flight. Exhilarating take-off. Sunshine above bad weather beneath. Travelling the world at 600 MPH. At that moment you first realize it's over, what does it feel like? As the relationship crashes, how do you see the world? Does it invade your dreams?
Flying: Love Plane Flight: Relationship Crash: Breakup Sabotage: Destructive Influence Heart Rip: Heartbreak Death: Deprivation, Depression Death Row: Impending Breakup Hearse: Ex Leaf Falling: Denouement