"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.
Given the chance
I'll die like a baby
On some far away beach
When the season's over.
Unlikely
I'll be remembered
As the tide brushes sand in my eyes
I'll drift away.
Cast up on a plateau
With only one memory
A single syllable
Oh lie low lie low.
I'll die like a baby
On some far away beach
When the season's over.
Unlikely
I'll be remembered
As the tide brushes sand in my eyes
I'll drift away.
Cast up on a plateau
With only one memory
A single syllable
Oh lie low lie low.
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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,
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
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.
This song is incredible. I remember sitting on a beach in Mexico just listening to this tune over and over, staring at the vast ocean in front of me with no one else around. The words are sad but freeing at the same time. The narrator is choosing("given the chance I'll die like a baby") to leave everything behind--clearing his mind of all memories---drifting away, not fighting the tide anymore. Hard to say whether it's a romanticized vision of suicide or just his ideal resting place for when his dying day comes, but either way it's a powerful and emotional song. One of Eno's best and my personal favourite.
@Keith Angus Page
From a 1974 interview (conducted by Chrissie Hynde!):
Chrissie: What about the song which incorporated 27 pianos? – the one that was inspired by a dream...
Brian: "You mean 'On Some Faraway Beach'. It wasn't only inspired – all the words to that occurred in the dream. I quite often wake up and write down my dreams because I find them so completely mysterious. I can't see what it was in me that made me put together that particular combination of items.
"I find the dreams are always much more brilliant in their construction than anything I consciously think of. On that particular one, I just woke up with all these words in my head and I wrote them straight down in the dark. When writing from dreams, you don't feel any responsibility for what you do, which is important to me.
I agree with Keith Angus Page. I've seen many interpretations of this song where it is praised as calming and relaxing and (gulp) cheerful. Those people, I think, are conflating their attachments to the new-agey Eno of the 80s and 90s with the darker Eno of the 70s. Here the lush layers of guitar and synth and the existential lyrics make this an subtly ominous song, one that intermixes a sense of ecstasy with a deep desire for the release of death. It continues to blow my that someone created this in the early 70s.
I believe this is the most beautiful song I've heard for a while. I think that it is all about dying and going to heaven and maybe even Jesus's resurrection.
It's simply, just an amazing piece, that for me, has come through Brian Eno, that is in us all and connects us all. A wave from the collective unconscious and returning to the unconscious. I am deeply touched by this music. Thank you Brian.