"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.
""Their shadows burnt into the walls So many lives reduced to ashes So many homes razed to the ground A shine like from a thousand suns Betrayed by their proud leaders And executed by atrocious enemies So many homes so many lives A silence sense of guilt should rise A thousand books all full with vindications Simple explanations and coloured declarations Where silent sense of guilt should rise But a victor's story can not lie One modest truth they teach their children Again a victor's story it can not lie! See these branded generations Hear their bells are tolling Hear hear them calling""
Lyrics submitted by todaystomorrow
Like A Thousand Suns Lyrics as written by Maik Weichert
Lyrics © Reservoir Media Management, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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,
ha, first!
i think it's about the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, "A shine like from a thousand suns" couls refer to an atomic bomb. "reduced to ashes" ashes are all that's left from most of the city "A thousand books all full with vindications" might talk about how America tries to justify their act of killing
in my opinion it concerns generally totalitarian systems in the world, not only during II World War
This has got to be about Hiroshima/Nagasaki. The band themselves are known for being very anti-war, so it makes sense that they'd be on the "war crime" side of the debate.
Lyrical analysis:
"Their shadows burnt into the walls" - after the bombings, the silhouettes of victims were actually burnt into the walls, such is the immense heat of an atomic explosion.
"So many lives reduced to ashes/so many homes razed to the ground" - comments on the massive scale of the loss of life and destruction caused by the bombs.
"A shine like from a thousand suns" - the light-flash from a nuclear explosion can be blinding. 'Like a thousand suns' is how the weapon's developers described it.
"Betrayed by their proud leaders" - the pride of the Japanese leaders made them refuse to surrender, and their people payed the price.
"And executed by atrocious enemies" - denounces the Allies for their unnecessary use of the bombs, thus massacring innocents.
"So many homes, so many lives" a repetition of lyrics from first verse, same meaning.
"A sense of guilt should rise" - states that the western people should feel remorse for the bombings.
"A thousand books all full with vindications/simple explanations and coloured declarations" - all the American history books are full of arguments and debates justifying the bombs' use, but these are all "coloured" by lies and exaggerations to hide the crime.
"Where silent sense of guilt should rise, but a victor's story cannot lie" - The old quote 'history is written by the victors'. Propaganda and lies cause the western people feel no guilt or remorse for what they did.
"One modest truth they teach their children/Again, a victor's story, it cannot lie!" - The previous generation lie to their children and justify their act of genocide.
"See these branded generations/Hear, their bells are tolling/Hear, hear them calling" - Not certain about this one, but it may refer to the fact that the Japanese people are still suffering from the effects of the bombs' fallout generations on.
I think the meaning of this song is fairly obvious, and I have to say that I agree with it. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes and should be acknowledged as such.