"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.
All winter we got carried away
Over on the rooftops, let's get married
All summer we just hurried
So come over, just be patient, and don't worry
So come over, just be patient, and don't worry
So come over, just be patient, and don't worry
And don't worry
Try
Try
Try
Try
No, I don't want to battle from beginning to end
I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge
I don't want to follow Death and all of his friends
No, I don't want to battle from beginning to end
I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge
I don't want to follow Death and all of his friends
And, in the end, we lie awake, and we dream of making our escape
And, in the end, we lie awake, and we dream of making our escape
Over on the rooftops, let's get married
All summer we just hurried
So come over, just be patient, and don't worry
So come over, just be patient, and don't worry
So come over, just be patient, and don't worry
And don't worry
Try
Try
Try
Try
No, I don't want to battle from beginning to end
I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge
I don't want to follow Death and all of his friends
No, I don't want to battle from beginning to end
I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge
I don't want to follow Death and all of his friends
And, in the end, we lie awake, and we dream of making our escape
And, in the end, we lie awake, and we dream of making our escape
Lyrics submitted by motbob, edited by rosematazz
Death and All His Friends Lyrics as written by Guy Rupert Berryman Christopher Anthony John Martin
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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Fast Car
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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,
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best song on the new album. period.
This is my favourite track on Viva la Vida, the end where he's yelling is so awesome. Very uplifting i think. Johnny's guitar work is excellent.
Also i think the lyrics are:
"No I don't wanna battle from beginning to end"
instead of "end to end"
It was September when i proposed to my girlfriend of 5 1/2 years, all winter we were excited, "over rooftops". Spring turned to summer as "we just hurried"... life began to get very stressful for her planning a wedding and dealing with other serious personal issues in her life. I would go over to her house and tell her to "just be patient and dont worry" things will work themselves out. Feeling overwhelmed I didnt know how to help the situation.
The tempo changed in our lives as we both started to lash out at one another more frequently blaming eachother for rediculous things, which literally brought us into a "cycle of recycled revenge". Both coming from broken families we always felt that we would only get married once in our lives... and thus the metaphor for divorce that we didnt want to follow... "death and all his frineds" (this line has many other meanings to me as well). My fiance and true love left the situation and her lifes stresses, and ran away to a city an hour away.
Fast-forward one month to present time. Our families and us are still trying to make sence of it, picking up the pieces. I have for the first time in 26 years felt true pain and sadness. We both still love eachother so much and talk when we feel we are strong enough to do so.
Tempo change "and in the end We lie awake, and we dream of making our escape"... I know that no matter what our future holds i will always lie awake and dream of our escape together ..... im know she is doing the same.
I miss her ... this song is amazing ... thanks Chris.
go win her back dude.. we are all behind you.
dj whut ivc, my heart goes out to you. having been in my 20's once (i'm 54) i had my own (sometimes suicidal) share of pain and heartache.<br /> <br /> got married at age 32, we've been hanging in there for 22 years, but it wasn't always easy. there were many, many moments when we could have split for good.<br /> <br /> i started meditating a couple years ago. the peace that floods me now almost overwhelms me. because i am more at peace, our marriage is more at peace (i was always the more unhappy one; my husband, i think, was very perplexed at times over me)<br /> <br /> i have found that true living means accepting what is. so my husband is quiet and doesn't like to talk; that can be a real deal breaker, but i have come to the place where i love him and accept him fully; his silence notwithstanding. i am more at peace. and so is he.<br /> <br /> conflict in relationships stems, i believe, from different expectations. no two people can ever have exactly the same expectations thus producing a perfect relationship which does not exist.<br /> <br /> i have found that over time you get used to each other, you come to accept each other as you are and a deep and peaceful love emerges...as long as you are willing to accept the other person with all their flaws and not try to change them, or get heart broken over how they don't meet your needs. even the important ones.<br /> <br /> i have found that peace and happiness come only from within. no one can make you happy. no one can make you unhappy. only you can make yourself happy. only you can make yourself miserable. it is your thoughts that make you happy, and your thoughts that make you miserable.<br /> <br /> the most helpful books i have found are by eckhardt tolle (A New Earth, the Power of Now), dr. wayne dyer (Change your thoughts, change your life), and many others, including Autobiography of a Yogi (paramahansa yogananda), Remembering Wholeness (carol tuttle).<br /> <br /> i wish you love, peace, joy and happiness. it is possible with or without your true love;<br /> <br /> i think if you both started meditating and found peace within yourselves, you could make it work. truly.<br /> <br /> i wish you both many, many blessings in life :-)
awesome begining to the song it just kind of gets lost from the middle to the end but still good..... Its meaning is pretty simple I guess... It's about enjoying life, leting go of your regrets and stupid revenges... It could also be against this ridiculous ' emo movement' that's been going on... hahaha just my take on it
Chris Martin: "Well, this is supposed to be the theme of the album, really. We're aware of all the bad stuff in life, you know — i.e. Death and all his friends — but that doesn't mean you should ever give in to it, you know? So we all sing that bit together really loudly, as kind of a message to ourselves: never giving up and never focusing on the bad stuff too much."
This reply is 4 years late but; if you really really like something then it's better not to criticize it... sure it's a sign of being down to earth and reasonable, but if you're critical about all the things you like then you just ruin it for yourself
Ok, it occurs to me that "Death and all of his friends" might be refering to strife, war, and famine, the horsemen of the apocalyps. I don't think that the song has religious meaning though, considering the negative symbolism used in "Violet Hill". I think that the first part of the song is talking about being in love. The rush of a new romance in the winter and a busy summer, while the rest of the song seems to be a statement about the conditions of the world. So much of the conflict that we go through as humans is based on revenge, getting back at someone who hurt us. I don't want to battle, I don't want to fight The cycle of revenge makes fighting infiinate. I don't want to go with death and all of his friends seems to say that he sees all of this strife, war, famine, and death in the world and doesn't want us to continue in that direction. So if you take the song as a whole it seems to be about being in love while the world has taken a turn for the worst. Song writers don't always make a song about one thing. To them every line might hold a specific meaning on its own. A lot of people will make a series of contrasting statements in a single song on purpose.
This is a very uplifting track. My favorite on VLV. I'm not sure what its about yet so anyone please chime in.
I definitely agree that the beginning is about rushing into a relationship... "All winter, we got carried / All way over, on the rooftops, lets get married" These two people are so deeply in love that they're rushing through everything, and finally one of them has realized they need to slow down. "So come over, just be patient, and don't worry." The second part makes me think that rushing through the relationship has caused a battle between them... and now he's realized that it's silly to fight and they should mend their relationship: "No I don't wanna battle from beginning to end, I don't wan't a cycle of recycled revenge, I don't wanna follow death and all of his friends"
This is such a lovely song, I really love it. Has a lot of meaning to me.
"...we lie awake, and we dream of making our escape."
i think this is also about lovers who can not be near each other all the time and wish they could escape together. That's how I feel.
One of the best things I've heard.