"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 woke up in the darkness and i tried to see the clock
It was four a.m.
I was curled up like a foetus and my muscles were stretched taut
I couldn't face the burden of another week of worry
I was broken
I took a green and yellow pill. washed down with filter coffee
'til it kicked in
Get me out
Keep me up
Level me out
I was isolated by the way i thought and felt
They saw my moodswings
I travelled down the longitude of opposite emotions
I bi-polar
In the north they saw my upside. my excitable and optimistic spirit
In the south they saw my anger and my tears and my despair
They saw my moodswings
Get me out
Keep me up
Level me out
I was one of the prozac people
I was one of the prozac people
Don't monitor this guinea pig for research any more
I will try again
Pharmaceutical conglomerates just count me as a unit
For their product
Identify the enemy. remove the source of fear
Start to change my life
It's a false state of elation
You can join the prozac nation
If you want to
Get me out
Keep me up
Level me out
I was one of the prozac people
I was one of the prozac people
It was four a.m.
I was curled up like a foetus and my muscles were stretched taut
I couldn't face the burden of another week of worry
I was broken
I took a green and yellow pill. washed down with filter coffee
'til it kicked in
Get me out
Keep me up
Level me out
I was isolated by the way i thought and felt
They saw my moodswings
I travelled down the longitude of opposite emotions
I bi-polar
In the north they saw my upside. my excitable and optimistic spirit
In the south they saw my anger and my tears and my despair
They saw my moodswings
Get me out
Keep me up
Level me out
I was one of the prozac people
I was one of the prozac people
Don't monitor this guinea pig for research any more
I will try again
Pharmaceutical conglomerates just count me as a unit
For their product
Identify the enemy. remove the source of fear
Start to change my life
It's a false state of elation
You can join the prozac nation
If you want to
Get me out
Keep me up
Level me out
I was one of the prozac people
I was one of the prozac people
Lyrics submitted by fractured_sanity
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
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.
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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
government controlling the emotions of the people.
I knew some Prozac people. Most of them didn't need it. Fuck Big Pharma!