"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.
Perambulation
Wading
Milk the keel through tidal slough at dawn
On and on
Grating and lapping at the swollen stinking skin
Imitation
Mating muscles cut through cord
Through mountain's own
On and on
Sated but engorged on mother's milk and fed as twins
Bold defecation
Raise the bow and aim for crimson dawn
Wading
Milk the keel through tidal slough at dawn
On and on
Grating and lapping at the swollen stinking skin
Imitation
Mating muscles cut through cord
Through mountain's own
On and on
Sated but engorged on mother's milk and fed as twins
Bold defecation
Raise the bow and aim for crimson dawn
Lyrics submitted by TheImpalerTMX
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
No Surprises
Radiohead
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Head > Heels
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“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Page
Ed Sheeran
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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 about killing animals for food and not being able to eat because of your love for animals.
(All of the definitions I'm using are found on dictionary.com)<br /> <br /> Wanderlust is basically a strong desire to ... well, wander. <br /> <br /> Perambulation also means to walk or travel. The next few lines all seem to center around traversing some kind of swampy terrain:<br /> <br /> "Wading<br /> Milk the keel through tidal slough at dawn<br /> On and on"<br /> <br /> A slough is a muddy, marshland type of area, and a keel, I'm assuming in the context of this song, would be related to a boat. I'm not sure what "milking a keel is," but it seems like the people this song is following or referring to are traversing an area that becomes very flooded during a certain tide, and they have to wade and struggle through it. <br /> <br /> "Grating and lapping at the swollen stinking skin"<br /> <br /> In this context, grating would be to grind, rub, or scrape. Lapping could either be the more common idea of the word, which is lapping the way an animal laps at liquid, to kind of slurp or drink it, or, (especially when it's "lapping at the swollen stinking skin"), the act of wrapping, bandaging, or folding something. <br /> <br /> So this line could be referring to several things: <br /> -The people in the song are doing whatever they can to find food, and they scrape away at swollen, stinking, rotten meat/skin and lap at it to survive, or:<br /> -They encounter some kind of wounds, swollen and stinking, and bandage or wrap them in cloth. <br /> <br /> I guess either of those would fit. Either way, this song seems to be about the struggle to survive and continue roaming. <br /> <br /> "Imitation<br /> Mating muscles cut through cord<br /> Through mountain's own<br /> On and on"<br /> <br /> I get the feeling that these lines are talking about learning how to do something, to imitate the actions that these people use to survive. It could possibly be referring to how the younger members of this "tribe" or whatever you'd like to call it are trained. <br /> The second part, about the "mountain's own" just seems to once again stress the idea of continuing to travel, this time through a mountainous area. The "mating muscles cut through cord" could just be explaining how muscles are working together to handle the cord, or whatever tools are used to travel through mountains. <br /> <br /> "Sated but engorged on mother's milk and fed as twins<br /> Bold defecation<br /> Raise the bow and aim for crimson dawn"<br /> <br /> Sated and engorged mean similar things, to basically be stuffed or full, in this case, with "mother's milk." This line seems pretty literal; I think there is a mother who is feeding her offspring basically as much as they can possibly be fed, probably because it's such a struggle to survive. The final lines are "Bold defecation, raise the bow and aim for crimson dawn." I would assume that there is an animal here that is bold enough to get close to wherever the people or tribe in this song are, and, well, defecate. They seem to take aim at it with a bow and arrow. To "take aim at crimson dawn" is probably referring to the fact that every day is spent traveling, hunting, and doing whatever you can to survive. The dawn is referring to a new day, or another day of life. It's crimson because it's difficult, and filled with bloodshed and hardship. <br /> <br /> So, to sum things up, I think this song is about a tribe of some kind of hunter-gatherers doing whatever they can to forge a living for themselves. Their only purpose in doing so, however, is to continue their lifestyle of endless wandering to find food and stay alive. Hence; wanderlust. <br /> <br /> On a more personal level with the band, maybe this song kind of connects us to how hard life on tour can be. Even though it's basically the band's greatest desire, it's an incredibly difficult and arduous journey. <br /> <br /> They roam and wander to stay alive, but they stay alive to roam and wander. <br />