"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.
Ashes of nations
The nations of pavement
The chain-gang shadow playing tricks at the station
The theme song playing, the anthem of normal
The horrible fanfare, the points are distorted
On a public announcement, towns on my (cowboy?)
With the border (resounding?) cowards cower around us,
(Powerline?) buzzards, surveiling the night,
Talons in flight, fake horizons at night.
? on your lips, where hysteria kills,
(Some very old?) jungles with malaria pills,
The animals bleeding, ? in the night,
Burial kids wearing scars like a stripe,
Send up a signal to the heavenly basket
When the poison's coming from the person you're next to
Le the vultures of thought, pull the blood from the wound
'Cause if the soul is a symptom the condition is you.
We know it's a ? hand-me-down,
This thought is a purgery blindfold.
Where she crawls from the Himalayan rain,
With the birds of prey and the weapon's on the fire.
She's riding a landslide down to me,
Cutting the shackles off of me,
Shaking the dead birds from the trees,
She's taking the only air I breathe.
Are you lost in the plate glass sermon?
Don't call it death for me installment plan,
She's putting the armor on my back,
Rigging the coals over the tracks,
Taking a knife out from the stack,
She's bringing the blood that I had back,
Coming to see it's all the same,
Coming to see the sun again,
Coming to wash it off again,
Coming to see yourself again,
Coming to see yourself again,
Coming to wash it off again
I picture like a, like an illuminated manuscript. You know? Made by monks. They hand do them in record form. And you'd have to have it hand-done, each time.
Like, depending, like, change, depending on what mood you're in. Like the best, (stammering) or, like when you listen from a different age, they'll like, mean something different'
I don't like it when they change. It' frightens me.
You want them to stay the same way?
It makes me feel like someone's pushing me' from below. Put' trying to put me' turn me over, and put me down. That's what it makes me feel like when they change.
It has to tell you how to live. It is an instruction' guide. Suddle' It doesn't push, it nudges' it entices' er' it seduces. It has to encompass the whole world and everything that has, is, and will be..
That's' that's true.
'And could take it into space. And that's why we need a space ship. 'cause that's ultimately what space travel was all about, was sending out ships from earth into space. And not just in some, like, space shuttle that's got the foam coming off of it. You need your own glowing, you know, multicolored' space ship.
It would be inside the spaceship, and also, the spaceship. You know what I'm saying? Like an exoskeleton.
The nations of pavement
The chain-gang shadow playing tricks at the station
The theme song playing, the anthem of normal
The horrible fanfare, the points are distorted
On a public announcement, towns on my (cowboy?)
With the border (resounding?) cowards cower around us,
(Powerline?) buzzards, surveiling the night,
Talons in flight, fake horizons at night.
? on your lips, where hysteria kills,
(Some very old?) jungles with malaria pills,
The animals bleeding, ? in the night,
Burial kids wearing scars like a stripe,
Send up a signal to the heavenly basket
When the poison's coming from the person you're next to
Le the vultures of thought, pull the blood from the wound
'Cause if the soul is a symptom the condition is you.
We know it's a ? hand-me-down,
This thought is a purgery blindfold.
Where she crawls from the Himalayan rain,
With the birds of prey and the weapon's on the fire.
She's riding a landslide down to me,
Cutting the shackles off of me,
Shaking the dead birds from the trees,
She's taking the only air I breathe.
Are you lost in the plate glass sermon?
Don't call it death for me installment plan,
She's putting the armor on my back,
Rigging the coals over the tracks,
Taking a knife out from the stack,
She's bringing the blood that I had back,
Coming to see it's all the same,
Coming to see the sun again,
Coming to wash it off again,
Coming to see yourself again,
Coming to see yourself again,
Coming to wash it off again
I picture like a, like an illuminated manuscript. You know? Made by monks. They hand do them in record form. And you'd have to have it hand-done, each time.
Like, depending, like, change, depending on what mood you're in. Like the best, (stammering) or, like when you listen from a different age, they'll like, mean something different'
I don't like it when they change. It' frightens me.
You want them to stay the same way?
It makes me feel like someone's pushing me' from below. Put' trying to put me' turn me over, and put me down. That's what it makes me feel like when they change.
It has to tell you how to live. It is an instruction' guide. Suddle' It doesn't push, it nudges' it entices' er' it seduces. It has to encompass the whole world and everything that has, is, and will be..
That's' that's true.
'And could take it into space. And that's why we need a space ship. 'cause that's ultimately what space travel was all about, was sending out ships from earth into space. And not just in some, like, space shuttle that's got the foam coming off of it. You need your own glowing, you know, multicolored' space ship.
It would be inside the spaceship, and also, the spaceship. You know what I'm saying? Like an exoskeleton.
Lyrics submitted by Tokabi, edited by Brassfinch
The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton Lyrics as written by Nigel Godrich Beck Hansen
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Great version of a great song,
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After about an hour of listening to bits and pieces of the song over and over and over again, these are the lyrics I came up with.
Half of it may be completely wrong, but at least people can comment on it now.
I LOVE this song. It's got that weird science-fiction, the-future-is-bleak sort of feel to it that I love.
It's divided up into three parts-- The Horrible Fanfare (beginning)/ Landslide (middle)/ Exoskeleton (talking at the end).
I have no idea what it means.
But I'm surprised nobody posted the lyrics before now.
Anyway. Good song.
good job with the lyrics! this song freaks me the fuck out but i love it
I've found some interesting info on wikipedia about the other guy who's speaking on "exokleleton", Dave Eggers.
"On Beck's 2006 album The Information, Eggers can be heard talking with Spike Jonze during the final track, "The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton". The third section of the track features Eggers and Jonze responding to Beck's question "What would the ultimate record that ever could possibly be made sound like?""
I completely agree with YanYan108 with the first two parts! But here is my idea on Exoskelecton:
Man 1: I picture like a, like an illuminated manuscript. You know? Made by monks. They hand do them in record form. And you’d have to have it hand-done, each time.
Man 2: Like, depending, like, change, depending on what mood you’re in. Like the best, (stammering) or, like when you listen from a different age, they’ll like, mean something different—
This part talks about how the same thing can be so different, no matter what it is. The laws are changed by how the people feel at the time of the law being written into the manuscript. But, as the world changes, laws will change.
Man 1: --I don’t like it when they change. It… frightens me. Man 2: You want them to stay the same way? Man 1: It makes me feel like someone’s pushing me… from below. Put… trying to put me… turn me over, and put me down. That’s what it makes me feel like when they change.
Man 1 is afraid of change because we live in a world where laws certainly can be changed for the worse. When the "monks" change, so do the laws.
Man 1: It has to tell you how to live. It is an instruction… guide. Suddle… It doesn’t push, it nudges… it entices… er… it seduces. It has to encompass the whole world and everything that has, is, and will be.. Man 2: That’s… that’s true.
He does not want it to change because the laws on the manuscript are an "instruction guide" to life.
Man 1: …AND could take it into space. And that’s why we need a space ship. ‘cause that’s ultimately what space travel was all about, was sending out ships from earth into space. And not just in some, like, space shuttle that’s got the foam coming off of it. You need your own glowing, you know, multicolored… space ship.
This is wgere it's extremely confusing. Pretty much the whole thing about space travel is being secure in a big space ship, free from the Earth. That is how the "instruction guide" should feel like, you wouldn't want it to change.
It would be inside the spaceship, and also, the spaceship. You know what I’m saying? Like an exoskeleton.
An exoskelecton is a skelecton on the outside to protect the whole body from harm. So the manuscript/instruction guide would be inside the space ship, and also the space ship, since it is the guide of the universe. The "space ship" is a metaphor for the body of the people, or even the universe entirely.
Its really neat how he makes three different types of songs just go into a smoothe transition like that. All of his songs are like sound collages (not sure if i spelled that right)... but anyways to the point, i like the whole gloomy, the-end-of-the-world-is-comming-and-im-gonna-reminice type thing thats going on in the end, theres just a slight panic and a little uneasy-ness to their voices.
I've not heard this song, I'm just curious. How do the parts relate musically? What I'm looking for is a discussion of time signatures and overall sound between the parts. Thanks for any help provided.
This song is amazing, i listen to it before i sleep..the middle is such an AMAZING song. ANd only the people that'll actually listen through the first part get to hear it. I think it's one of the best on the album
I have to say this song freaks me out too. Especially the end when those two guys talk like some lunatics. But good to listen to when you're stoned I guess ^^
I have to say this song freaks me out too. Especially the end when those two guys talk like some lunatics. But good to listen to when you're stoned I guess ^^
I like the first part the most. Here's what I think each part is about.
The Horrible Fanfare: Someone takes a look at the world, and is convinced that we're at the end times. Everything is falling into chaos, and nothing can be done, but then...
Landslide: He meets someone, and inspired by her example, decides that there's still some corner of this chaotic world that he can preserve for himself. Though not entirely certain he's correct in that regard, he sets out to prove himself right. But...
Exoskeleton: Director Spike Jonze is one of the psychos talking about spaceships here. But the spiraling, unsettling melodic textures of this part are what counts. They're meant to indicate the uncertainty of a question raised from the first two parts. Is there really something left worth standing up for. Maybe not, but then again, maybe...