"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.
Little months little smokes
And oblivion in a wool dress
In a door opens tenderly
Near a wall where the wind is born
Near the jolly garden
Where saints and angels
Are afraid of the seasons
The alleys have no names
They are the hours or the years
I stroll leisurely
Dressed in a cement overcoat
And a hat of black straw
I don't remember
If it's nice out
I walk smoking
And I smoke walking
Easily
Every once in a while I tell myself
It's time to stop
And I continue walking
I tell myself
I have to get some air
I have to look at the clouds
And breathe in a lung full
I have to see the flies fly
And take a little exercise
I shouldn't smoke so much
I tell myself also
Calculate
I tell myself again
I have a headache
My life is a drop of water on my eyelid
And I'm no longer twenty
Continue
The songs are songs
And the days days
I no longer have one shred of respect for myself
But I see no hoodlums
Who smoke the same cigarettes as me
And who are just as stupid as me
I'm pretty content
Without really knowing why
It doesn't suffice to speak of the sun
The stars
The sea and rivers
Blood eyes hands
It is necessary quite often
To speak of other things
We know that there are very beautiful countries
With very handsome men
With no less charming women,
But all that isn't really sufficient
But dizzying void
Which rings and bays
Makes the head bow
We look and we see
Again many other things
Which are always the same
Innumerable
Identical
And over there simply
Someone goes by
Simple as hello
And everything starts all over once again
I read in the stars the good will of my friends
In a river I love one hand
I listen the flowers sing
There are the goodbyes of birds
A cry falls like a fruit
My God my god
I will be accordingly always the same
My head in my hands
And my hands in my head
And oblivion in a wool dress
In a door opens tenderly
Near a wall where the wind is born
Near the jolly garden
Where saints and angels
Are afraid of the seasons
The alleys have no names
They are the hours or the years
I stroll leisurely
Dressed in a cement overcoat
And a hat of black straw
I don't remember
If it's nice out
I walk smoking
And I smoke walking
Easily
Every once in a while I tell myself
It's time to stop
And I continue walking
I tell myself
I have to get some air
I have to look at the clouds
And breathe in a lung full
I have to see the flies fly
And take a little exercise
I shouldn't smoke so much
I tell myself also
Calculate
I tell myself again
I have a headache
My life is a drop of water on my eyelid
And I'm no longer twenty
Continue
The songs are songs
And the days days
I no longer have one shred of respect for myself
But I see no hoodlums
Who smoke the same cigarettes as me
And who are just as stupid as me
I'm pretty content
Without really knowing why
It doesn't suffice to speak of the sun
The stars
The sea and rivers
Blood eyes hands
It is necessary quite often
To speak of other things
We know that there are very beautiful countries
With very handsome men
With no less charming women,
But all that isn't really sufficient
But dizzying void
Which rings and bays
Makes the head bow
We look and we see
Again many other things
Which are always the same
Innumerable
Identical
And over there simply
Someone goes by
Simple as hello
And everything starts all over once again
I read in the stars the good will of my friends
In a river I love one hand
I listen the flowers sing
There are the goodbyes of birds
A cry falls like a fruit
My God my god
I will be accordingly always the same
My head in my hands
And my hands in my head
Lyrics submitted by ecorchee1
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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”
No Surprises
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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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
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How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
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.