"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.
Removal of the eyes gives my heart a saddened chill
I preserve them in formaldehyde to gaze upon at will
How their greenish flecks befell me that starlit winter's night
I lost all that I ever was while locked within their sight
Before you sits a broken man, your fragile pinkish heart in hand
Peculiar how it can hurt so bad while love is only in the mind
I sew the gaping chestwork, each thread is made with love
The bosom where I would rest my face is covered in your blood
No
This is not the end
You'll live on eternally
Oh
Lord it's not the end
My secret you'll forever be
I interrupt this transformation,
A familiar lust swelling in me
A long and soulful kiss
the shades are drawn
the living world can't see
The coil of entrails
how curious the smell
so pungent to my eager nostrils
Hands further compelled
No
It's not the end
Forever you'll be in my arms
I could never let you go
My darling, cold and blue
I wonder are you dreaming still
Spread eagled, blood removed
I weave the sucking trocar
Beaneath your bruising skin
Tonigh I'll lay beside you darling
In necromantic sin
Pinned to the bed sheets like a prized butterflyy you're mine
I hear your voice, so precious, echoing deeply inside
I did my best to love you while you did live and breathe
This tender taxidermy trophy of the bereaved
I could never let you go
My darling, cold and blue
I wonder are you dreaming still
Spread eagled, blood removed
I weave the sucking trocar
Beaneath your bruising skin
Tonigh I'll lay beside you darling
In necromantic sin
I preserve them in formaldehyde to gaze upon at will
How their greenish flecks befell me that starlit winter's night
I lost all that I ever was while locked within their sight
Before you sits a broken man, your fragile pinkish heart in hand
Peculiar how it can hurt so bad while love is only in the mind
I sew the gaping chestwork, each thread is made with love
The bosom where I would rest my face is covered in your blood
No
This is not the end
You'll live on eternally
Oh
Lord it's not the end
My secret you'll forever be
I interrupt this transformation,
A familiar lust swelling in me
A long and soulful kiss
the shades are drawn
the living world can't see
The coil of entrails
how curious the smell
so pungent to my eager nostrils
Hands further compelled
No
It's not the end
Forever you'll be in my arms
I could never let you go
My darling, cold and blue
I wonder are you dreaming still
Spread eagled, blood removed
I weave the sucking trocar
Beaneath your bruising skin
Tonigh I'll lay beside you darling
In necromantic sin
Pinned to the bed sheets like a prized butterflyy you're mine
I hear your voice, so precious, echoing deeply inside
I did my best to love you while you did live and breathe
This tender taxidermy trophy of the bereaved
I could never let you go
My darling, cold and blue
I wonder are you dreaming still
Spread eagled, blood removed
I weave the sucking trocar
Beaneath your bruising skin
Tonigh I'll lay beside you darling
In necromantic sin
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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,
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
I reckon the song is about some dude whose lost someone he loved a whole load. And even in death he still feels for them. Also feelings of misery / longing 'I could never let you go, my darling', 'I wonder are you dreaming still?'
xx