"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.
There is nothin' like a dame lyrics
We've got sunlight on the sand
We've got moonlight on the sea
We've got mangos and bananas you can pick right off the tree
We've got volleyball and ping pong and a lot of dandy games
What don't we got? we don't got dames
We get packages from home
We get movies, we get shows
We get speeches from our skippers
And advice from tokeo
Wwe get letters doused with perfume, we get dizzy from the smell
What don't we get? you know darn well
We got nothing to put on a clean white suit for 'no clean white suit'
What we need there is no substitue for 'no substitute at all'
There is nothing like a dame nothing in the world
There is nothing you can name that is anything like a dame
We get restless, we feel blue, we feel lonely and in grief
We feel every kind of feeling but the feeling of relief
Well if your hungry as a wolf felt when he met red riding hood
What don't we feel, we don't feel good
Lots of things in life are beautiful but brothers 'oh my brother'
There is one particular thing that is nothing
Whatsoever in any shape or form like any other
And I like that shape... of thing'
There is nothing like a dame nothing in the world
There is nothing you can name that is anything like a dame
Nothing else is but the same nothing in the world,
Has the soft and wavy frame like the silhouette of a dame
I said there is 'there is' there's nothing 'there's nothing'
There's absolutely nothing 'absolutely nothing'
Said there is nothing like a frame 'of a dame'
So suppose a dame ain't bright or completly free
From flaws or as faithful as a
Bird dog or as kind as santa clause
Its a waste of time to worry over things that they have not
Be thankful for the things they've got
There is nothing that you can name that is anything like a dame
There are no books like a dame, nothing looks like a dame
There are no drinks like a dame and nothing thinks like a dame
Nothing acts like a dame or atracts like a dame
There ain't a thing that's wrong with any man here
That can't be cured by putting him near
A girly womanly female feminine dame'
Funky disco chicken
There is nothing like a disco
We've got sunlight on the sand
We've got moonlight on the sea
We've got mangos and bananas you can pick right off the tree
We've got volleyball and ping pong and a lot of dandy games
What don't we got? we don't got dames
We get packages from home
We get movies, we get shows
We get speeches from our skippers
And advice from tokeo
Wwe get letters doused with perfume, we get dizzy from the smell
What don't we get? you know darn well
We got nothing to put on a clean white suit for 'no clean white suit'
What we need there is no substitue for 'no substitute at all'
There is nothing like a dame nothing in the world
There is nothing you can name that is anything like a dame
We get restless, we feel blue, we feel lonely and in grief
We feel every kind of feeling but the feeling of relief
Well if your hungry as a wolf felt when he met red riding hood
What don't we feel, we don't feel good
Lots of things in life are beautiful but brothers 'oh my brother'
There is one particular thing that is nothing
Whatsoever in any shape or form like any other
And I like that shape... of thing'
There is nothing like a dame nothing in the world
There is nothing you can name that is anything like a dame
Nothing else is but the same nothing in the world,
Has the soft and wavy frame like the silhouette of a dame
I said there is 'there is' there's nothing 'there's nothing'
There's absolutely nothing 'absolutely nothing'
Said there is nothing like a frame 'of a dame'
So suppose a dame ain't bright or completly free
From flaws or as faithful as a
Bird dog or as kind as santa clause
Its a waste of time to worry over things that they have not
Be thankful for the things they've got
There is nothing that you can name that is anything like a dame
There are no books like a dame, nothing looks like a dame
There are no drinks like a dame and nothing thinks like a dame
Nothing acts like a dame or atracts like a dame
There ain't a thing that's wrong with any man here
That can't be cured by putting him near
A girly womanly female feminine dame'
Funky disco chicken
There is nothing like a disco
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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,
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.