"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 saw you waive goodbye
And play it off as so romantic
I thought it cute, and couldn't help it
As my strength inside failed to ward off your advances
And now I'm, I'm caught up in politics and lies
As entertainers we try to sing the same song every night
I'm tired of trying to treat you like
You ever mattered enough for me to put in this kind of time
Or any time at all, I swear
Slow down, just enough to fake this
Cuz there's way too much riding on an educated guess
I couldn't live without
Just calm down enough to get me through this
Lay back so I can really get a chance tonight
To play out the process while lost in the moment
Where I know this is right
WIth my arms around you
I'm trying to tune out everything that anyone has said
But who can forget a past
So ripe with lies and deceit that
I'm stuck debating to ask you
With all you've done
Can you remember how it feels to be in love?
Even though the stakes were high
The prize I won, well, just wasn't that fantastic
It's left me bruised and wondering how and why I'm
I'm living the politician's life
Where it's more important to save my image than save my soul
I guess that's how I survived
And oh, there's a certain part of me
That knows they're right
Well I hope you know that I know
But until I care too much I'll just
Slow down, just enough to fake this
Cuz there's way too much riding on an educated guess
I couldn't live without
Just calm down enough to get me through this
Lay back so I can really get a chance tonight
To play out the process while lost in the moment
Where I know this is right
I tried my best to make an offer
You tried your best to meet my demands
But you won't come close
And I won't come down
Your track record has made this personal
Everything I said out loud
But you don't hear me though
Slow down, just enough to fake this
Cuz there's way too much riding on an educated guess
I couldn't live without
Just calm down enough to get me through this
Lay back so I can really get a chance tonight
To play out the process while lost in the moment
Where I know this is right
With my arms around you
I'm trying my best to get these words and feeling off my chest
No, I'm saving the best for last
Lie down to do what we do best
And throw caution into the wind
Because what's done is done
Remember how it feels
Oh...
If one night can make me feel like this
I swear I'd take it back if
If I could take it back
There's so much that I wish I could have asked
Before you let me down and before I let you
There's only one thing that I have to ask you
And that's "do you go through what I am going through?"
And play it off as so romantic
I thought it cute, and couldn't help it
As my strength inside failed to ward off your advances
And now I'm, I'm caught up in politics and lies
As entertainers we try to sing the same song every night
I'm tired of trying to treat you like
You ever mattered enough for me to put in this kind of time
Or any time at all, I swear
Slow down, just enough to fake this
Cuz there's way too much riding on an educated guess
I couldn't live without
Just calm down enough to get me through this
Lay back so I can really get a chance tonight
To play out the process while lost in the moment
Where I know this is right
WIth my arms around you
I'm trying to tune out everything that anyone has said
But who can forget a past
So ripe with lies and deceit that
I'm stuck debating to ask you
With all you've done
Can you remember how it feels to be in love?
Even though the stakes were high
The prize I won, well, just wasn't that fantastic
It's left me bruised and wondering how and why I'm
I'm living the politician's life
Where it's more important to save my image than save my soul
I guess that's how I survived
And oh, there's a certain part of me
That knows they're right
Well I hope you know that I know
But until I care too much I'll just
Slow down, just enough to fake this
Cuz there's way too much riding on an educated guess
I couldn't live without
Just calm down enough to get me through this
Lay back so I can really get a chance tonight
To play out the process while lost in the moment
Where I know this is right
I tried my best to make an offer
You tried your best to meet my demands
But you won't come close
And I won't come down
Your track record has made this personal
Everything I said out loud
But you don't hear me though
Slow down, just enough to fake this
Cuz there's way too much riding on an educated guess
I couldn't live without
Just calm down enough to get me through this
Lay back so I can really get a chance tonight
To play out the process while lost in the moment
Where I know this is right
With my arms around you
I'm trying my best to get these words and feeling off my chest
No, I'm saving the best for last
Lie down to do what we do best
And throw caution into the wind
Because what's done is done
Remember how it feels
Oh...
If one night can make me feel like this
I swear I'd take it back if
If I could take it back
There's so much that I wish I could have asked
Before you let me down and before I let you
There's only one thing that I have to ask you
And that's "do you go through what I am going through?"
Lyrics submitted by BigD4u2nv70
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
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Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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,
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.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
i would have to whole-heartedly disagree with you. the prize fight WAS one of the greatest band with or without horns.
for your information, the band had been struggling for years with keeping the horns in the band, but after the change from the spanish word for danger to the prize fight things just got too complicated. and the lead singer, johnny hunter, is actually a skilled baritone player and used to play the second horn parts; however when the lead t-bone dave left johnny was not able to cover all the parts.
hopefully that clarifies things and i am sorry that it took me so long to realize someone had posted about the horn situation.