"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.
One, two, three
If you wanna write a letter,
Write a letter
If you'd rather make a phone call
Pick the phone up -- call me
But if you had to say it all with a pop song
Couldn't you at least written me a good one
[Chorus]
She's brainwashed you, brainwashed you, brainwascht you too.
She's brainwashed you, brainwashed you, brainwascht you too.
Was it just a simple rewind and erase
Was your mind squeaky clean in the first place
If you gotta write an essay
Do your research -- if you've got to
Stick your nose in a boy and girl fight
Hear both sides first
There's something wrong being copied on a memo
In the form of a bad country demo
[Chorus]
Is there a funnel from her mind to your mouth now
Because you don't edit anything
It just comes out
I gotta say it's pretty gay
Trading jabs in a pop song
So maybe next time
E should just have a dance off
A dance off
Isn't there something in the bible
About forgiveness and love
And more importantly about throwing
Stones and what your house is made of
You might reflect upon your own arrangement
94' getting blown in your basement
She's brainwashed you, brainwashed you, brainwascht you too
She's brainwashed you, brainwashed you, brainwascht you too.
She's brainwascht you - integrity
She's brainwascht you - family
She's brainwascht you - all night rhyming dictionary
If you wanna write a letter,
Write a letter
If you'd rather make a phone call
Pick the phone up -- call me
But if you had to say it all with a pop song
Couldn't you at least written me a good one
[Chorus]
She's brainwashed you, brainwashed you, brainwascht you too.
She's brainwashed you, brainwashed you, brainwascht you too.
Was it just a simple rewind and erase
Was your mind squeaky clean in the first place
If you gotta write an essay
Do your research -- if you've got to
Stick your nose in a boy and girl fight
Hear both sides first
There's something wrong being copied on a memo
In the form of a bad country demo
[Chorus]
Is there a funnel from her mind to your mouth now
Because you don't edit anything
It just comes out
I gotta say it's pretty gay
Trading jabs in a pop song
So maybe next time
E should just have a dance off
A dance off
Isn't there something in the bible
About forgiveness and love
And more importantly about throwing
Stones and what your house is made of
You might reflect upon your own arrangement
94' getting blown in your basement
She's brainwashed you, brainwashed you, brainwascht you too
She's brainwashed you, brainwashed you, brainwascht you too.
She's brainwascht you - integrity
She's brainwascht you - family
She's brainwascht you - all night rhyming dictionary
Lyrics submitted by StuffLikeHearts
Brainwashed Lyrics as written by Benjamin Scott Folds Ben Folds
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Holiday
Bee Gees
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
No Surprises
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Radiohead
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.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
I could've sworn the last line was "online rhyming dictionary."
at his concert he was talking about how the songs about someone who wrote a not very nice pop song about him so he wrote one back. and when a guy in the crowd screamed "TELL US WHO!" ben made up a song on the spot: "im never going to fucking tell ya" then he goes on to sing "its not r.e.m., its not u2, its not.... michael jackson, its not miley cyrus" and there were some more people i just cant rememer them
but yeah he actually said its not u2 so idk
There's certainly more than just one person to consider in this song. You've got the musician who actually wrote the "pop song", and then the "girl" who "brainwashed" that person as well as some other unknown victim(s) of brainwashing ("she's brainwashed you too"). Then there's the songwriter's wife and another intimate companion -- I hear the last verse as "in '94 getting blown in your basement (while your wife slept)." So a whole cast of characters in this musical soap opera.
BTW, going by the track listings on Way to Normal and Stems and Seeds, the official title of this song is "Brainwascht", while the "fake" version kept the spelling "Brainwashed", rather than the other way around.
You raise some interesting questions, but I think the cast of characters is not as vast as it at first seems. The comment by AHoyBobby really sums up the backstory of this song, which puts the entire song into context. <br /> <br /> The woman who brainwashed John & Flemming is of course, Frally, Ben's now ex wife. <br /> <br /> I believe the correct lyrics would be "She's brainwashed you two," (instead of "you too") -- thus meaning that she (Frally) has brainwashed the pair of them (John & Flemming). <br /> <br /> Even if I'm wrong, and the lyrics are "she's brainwashed you too," , he could still be referring to John & Flemming. (ie: she's brainwashed you, John, and you too, Flemming.) <br /> <br /> <br /> The jab about "getting blown in your basement while your wife slept", is referring to John cheating on his (then) wife in '94, while Flemming was his mistress. John & Flemming released their first album together in '95 and became an official couple right around the time John's marriage was falling apart. Ben is accusing John & Flemming of hypocrisy by essentially calling John a cheater and Flemming a homewrecker.
John Mark Painter and Fleming McWilliams (Fleming & John) were good friends of Ben and Frally, recording Fear Of Pop Volume 1 together in 1998 before Ben and Frally got married and continuing to collaborate in the years to follow. When they split in 2006, John & Fleming apparently got "brainwashed" by Frally and took her side, penning the song "Wrong" in 2007.
"Wrong" qualifies as a lame pop song and a "bad country demo" that rhymes "integrity" with "family" (things Ben mocks specifically in "Brainwascht"). In regards to the "glass houses" verse, John & Fleming released their first album in 1995, so presumably John was getting blown by Fleming in his basement in '94 while his (soon to be ex) wife slept. So what they blasted Ben for in "Wrong" is exactly what they had done 10 years earlier.
some one wrote a song jabbing at ben. this is his reply.
I WANT TO KNOW WHO WROTE THE SONG
See Fleming & John's song called "Wrong"...
Integrity... Family...
youtube.com/watch
Google "fleming+brainwascht" and you'll find what you need.
yeah, it would seem that this song is his reply to a song written negatively about him.
possibly a country artist? the line says "in the form of a bad country demo," but at the same time, he also mentions pop songs twice , so...
anybody hear about any drama that this song might be about?
well country and pop can be intertwined, such as Taylor Swift or Carrie Underwood. Not that they would have written a song about Ben Folds, but you get my point.
Amanda Palmer has an explanation in one of her blog entries: tinyurl.com/3wcf34
so that link didn't get me anywhere. Wanna paraphrase?
really sorry, that particular link was incredibly long.<br /> <br /> dresdendollsdiary.blogspot.com/2008/08/bringing-charges-against-ben-folds.html