"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'm not afraid of you now, I know
So I climbed down from the bunk beds this low
I can talk back to you now, I know
From a few things I learned from this TV show
You can work late till midnight, we don't care
We can fix our own meals, we can wash our own hair
I go to school before sunrise, in the cold
And I pulled the alarm, and I kicked up the salad bowls
Since that time we meant to say much
Unsaid things begin to change
After school we shoveled through the snow
??? stayed inside with silence in the cold
You can remind me of it
That I was lazy and tired
You can work all your life as
I'm not afraid of you anymore
If I loved you a long time, I don't know
If I can't recall the last time you told me so
Here in this house in Pittsfield
The ghost of our grandmother works at the sewing machine post
Hiding the bills in the kitchen on the floor
And my sister lost her best friend in the Persian Gulf War
There was a flood in the bathroom last May
And you kicked at the pipes when it rattled oh the river it made
Stand there, tell me that I'm of no use
Things unspoken break us if we share
There's still time to wash the kitchen floor
On your knees, at the sink once more
You can remind me that I was tired
You can work late and give yourself up
Now that I'm older, wiser, and working less
I don't regret having left the place a mess
You can remind me that I was lazy and tired
You can recall your life as
I'm not afraid of you, anymore
Anymore
So I climbed down from the bunk beds this low
I can talk back to you now, I know
From a few things I learned from this TV show
You can work late till midnight, we don't care
We can fix our own meals, we can wash our own hair
I go to school before sunrise, in the cold
And I pulled the alarm, and I kicked up the salad bowls
Since that time we meant to say much
Unsaid things begin to change
After school we shoveled through the snow
??? stayed inside with silence in the cold
You can remind me of it
That I was lazy and tired
You can work all your life as
I'm not afraid of you anymore
If I loved you a long time, I don't know
If I can't recall the last time you told me so
Here in this house in Pittsfield
The ghost of our grandmother works at the sewing machine post
Hiding the bills in the kitchen on the floor
And my sister lost her best friend in the Persian Gulf War
There was a flood in the bathroom last May
And you kicked at the pipes when it rattled oh the river it made
Stand there, tell me that I'm of no use
Things unspoken break us if we share
There's still time to wash the kitchen floor
On your knees, at the sink once more
You can remind me that I was tired
You can work late and give yourself up
Now that I'm older, wiser, and working less
I don't regret having left the place a mess
You can remind me that I was lazy and tired
You can recall your life as
I'm not afraid of you, anymore
Anymore
Lyrics submitted by learn2kneel, edited by studaman, herecometherubbercops
Pittsfield Lyrics as written by Sufjan Stevens
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
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.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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@[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.
Gentle Hour
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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
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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.
The song is so amazingly pretty until the electric guitar gets ridiculously ugly, crazy and chaotic and then... beauty again.
It's like a perfectly sunny day that concludes with a violent evening storm at dusk. And then there is calm again.
@musicforlife! Audacity is a free music editor and easy to use. I love my edited version of this song :)\r\nBTW, when I saw him on the Carrie and Lowell tour he promised "no guitar solos"
This is what I can gather from the second-to-last verse:
Stand there, tell me that I'm of no use Things unspoken break us if we share There's still time to wash the kitchen floor On your knees, at the sink once more You can remind me that I was tired You can work late and give yourself up Now that I'm older, wiser, and working less (??? I can't get that last line...)
Very little information is available about Sufjan's own past and personal life...but I do know he has a creative fascination with dysfunctional parents, especially mothers. See this song, "Romulus", and his previously published short story, "My Mother, King Tut."
So does anything have any insights on his facsination with poor, unloving, bad mothers? Or do they just make for good songs? (because this one sure is)
“Pittsfield is probably the most personal song on The Avalanche. It’s based on a lot of my life growing up in a big family where there were a lot of chores and we were always being asked to contribute to the household. To do work and wash the dishes. Work was an important factor in our life, and now that I’ve grown up I have a different understanding of work. It’s not so much about physical exertion but about applying skills to particular tasks. It can be an abstract task…I don’t want to get too Marxist on you, but that song is kind of a rumination on work in the house, you know and chores - that was really important growing up. I wrote a series of verses for that song and then sort of transplanted them in this little town in Illinois that’s very similar to the small town where I grew up in Michigan, after we moved out of Detroit. It’s still very self-conscious because it’s a song about how much work we had to do and how much I rebelled against that. But then I realized that as an adult and as a songwriter, that I have somehow, in me, the inclination to overwork myself that my father had. And I’m just applying it differently. So he would spend five hours mopping the floor and I spend five hours on a vocal line in the studio.” -Sufjan Stevens
Can anyone decipher the parts with the question marks? Everyone's singing mixes together. Still great song...
I live in pittsfield haha
that last line is, "I don't regret having left the place a mess."
its actually i MAY regret having left the place a mess because hes saying he had the time and the awareness but he still didnt help out
And as for meaning, this song is exactly my childhood. The resentment of a neglectful temperamental parent and adapting such that you get to a point you aren't afraid to stand up for yourself, where they don't scare you anymore. Of course, being a softie, I also sympathize some with the parent in this song with the "you can work all your life". It scared me how accurate this song was when I first heard it, Mr. Stevens I congratulate you. This is definitely one of my favorites on this album along with The Mistress Witch from McClure lyrics-wise.
that's the beauty of sufjan stevens (Molly :)!). His songs mean so much even without lyrics. He is a brilliant composer. Brilliant. But also a brilliant lyricist.
As far as what the song means to me? I think he's talking about his parents. maybe his mom. maybe no one real in his life. But, it seems hes sung negative things about a mother, or a mother like woman in some of his other songs, so, maybe he's trying to say something like "you abandoned me, and as a child that scared me, but now I can walk on my own two feet. I don't need you; I'm not afraid of you." But the song still has an undertone of sadness... like he's saying that stuff to try to convince himself more than convince her.
And I agree, lostpencil. it fits all too scarily with my own life.
From a Pitchfork interview:
"The most personal one is "Pittsfield". That one's based on a lot of memories from my childhood, and I sort of transplanted them into this miserable little town in Illinois. Pittsfield is very similar to some of the small towns we grew up around in Northern Michigan."